Here’s something cool! An outline to my quick 15-minute parli debate orientation. Make use of it to ensure that judges are aware of their role in a parli debate round.

1) Your Purpose – Judging Two Competitions
> Hold up ballot / get ballot in their hands.
> Explain format: 2 teams of 2, speech times you don’t have to worry about, the speaker has the floor and judge is adjudicator, rez changes every round and no printed quotations are allowed
> Top half = speaking competition which has its own awards. Talk criteria.
> Bottom half/Reverse = the arguments, which has ITS own awards. So there’s such a thing as a low point win.
> Tools: Notetaking, listening – it’s their job to communicate to you

2) Deciding – Show Empathy: What would you need to see if you were the losing team going “butttttt I said X!!”
> Bad ballot: “They convinced me.” “The WMDs issue did it for me.”
> Good ballots use the words of one team to make the decision vs. the words of the other, not judge opinion, which has its own spot
> Good ballot: “They convinced me their plan would work, overcoming the corruption argument from opp for the following reason from the second aff speech…” “The WMDs issue clearly outweighed the minimal cost savings, and AFF never was able to show their case a bigger idea despite saving money.”

3) “Debate rules” and stuff.
> Teams learn the logic of decision frameworks, with names like stock issues and values. It’s not your job to know the jargon, it’s their job to translate it.
> Only rules are the definition of debate: two sides on a given topic for a given period of time. Everything else is up for argument, so judge their reasons supplied and remember to go with reasons supplied in the round, not ones you think up.

4) Giving verbal feedback.
> You must make your decision before speaking to them. If you change your mind, it’s too late b/c it was based on communication that didn’t happen within the time limits. Too late to get clear.
> Free to disclose. Suggest you give critiques to both and then disclose b/c winners tune out after “oh I won!!!!!!!!”
> Free to discuss with teams afterwards
> Help us run on time!!! You can ask kids for an rules or tournament stuff. They know.