Morristown West's Chestnut Tree Invitation

This year marks the 34th Annual Chestnut Tree Invitational. Our Forensics Team cordially invites you to join us in this virtual world of competition on November 13, 2021. We hope you will join Morristown West for a grand day of competition.

This tournament will be held virtually. See the chart below for the performance and judging styles that will be used, as they may vary by event AND/OR round. If applicable, pre-recorded performances must have a link submitted by the Video Deadline (see Important Deadlines section). Live video performances will occur in a video conference with judges and other competitors. Judging may be asynchronous, at the judge's leisure, after the Video Deadline but prior to a Round Judging Deadline, which will be communicated to individual judges when the tournament has been scheduled. Synchronous judging will take place during the assigned round times, with contestants and judges viewing either pre-recorded videos in near real-time with each other in a video conference, viewing pre-recorded videos during the assigned rounds times outside of a video conference, or watching live video conference performances.

This will be a 3-round (1 judge per round) tournament with a final round with a panel of 3 judges. All rounds will be prerecorded with the exception of Public Forum Debate which will be live on the 13th.

Limited Preparation Events
In an attempt to provide an equitable experience, Extemp and Impromptu will be asynchronous. Questions and quotations will be released to coaches on Monday, November 8 at 8:00 a.m. All videos, including Extemp and Impromptu will be due at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Students will only choose one question or one quotation to speak on. This video will be the one judged for each prelim round and final round(s). Students will only give 1 speech opposed to the 3 or more they are accustomed to.

PFD
All PFD rounds will be conducted synchronously on Saturday, November 13th.

Now, a point of concern. Please have a talk with your students about integrity. Some concerns have been raised after a year of virtual competition. Some students have copied performances from videos available online. Also, it appears that perhaps students have judged in place of their parents. A heart-to-heart conversation could solve both of these concerns.

Our ultimate goal is to provide students with a fair and educational experience.

Schools are allowed to bring as many entries in each event as they would like. Each contestant is allowed 9 entries in total.

Please note that registration is a TWO-STEP process. Please pre-register on SpeechEase.com before the Pre-Registration Deadline noted in this invitation. This will help us determine the total number of schools attending. Your final registration must be received by the Registration Deadline.

Please make checks payable to Morristown West High School.

One judge for every 6 entries or a fraction thereof. One judge for every two debate teams will be required. Judges cannot be hired from the host school.

Drops can be submitted online at SpeechEase.com after you have submitted your final registration.

I hope you have something delicious at home!

We will give Sweepstakes awards for the top 3 schools. There will also be individual awards for the top 6 speakers. Once again we will be awarding the beautiful plaques we used last year.

Semi Finals 12:30 (if needed)

Finals 2:00 (2:30 if no semis)

Awards Online ASAP

If you have any questions, please contact Suzanne Terry at 4237363660. You may also email [email protected].

Sincerely,
Suzanne Terry