Evergreen Valley Speech and Debate Policies

These terms and conditions outline the rules and regulations for the use of Evergreen Valley Speech and Debate's Website.

Evergreen Valley Speech and Debate is located at: 
3300 QUIMBY ROAD , San JoseCA - 95148, United States

By registering for this website we assume you accept these policies in full. They will be reiterated in the registration packet you are required to sign. Do not continue to use Evergreen Valley Speech and Debate's website if you do not accept all of the policies stated on this page.
The following terminology applies to these policies, and any or all Agreements: “Parent”, "Child", “You” and “Your” refers to you, the person accessing this website and accepting the club’s policies. “EVSD”, “administration”, “We”, “Our” and “Us”, refers to our club officer team. Any use of the above terminology or other words in the singular, plural, capitalisation and/or he/she or they, are taken as interchangeable and therefore as referring to same.

Please remember that, while we are in leadership positions, this club is mainly run by students just like you or like your children. We have our own classes, our own tests, our own stresses. Treat us as such when you speak to us, do not yell at us, do not be rude because we are just students who love EVSD.  We try to accomodate every parent and student to the best of our abilities but we cannot do so when we are treated like adults who can take slander and disrespect rather than kids trying to figure our lives out, same as your children. We expect the same respect and treatment you would give with anyone else, no matter the situation.

 

No use of Evergreen Valley Speech and Debate’s logo or other artwork will be allowed for linking absent a trademark license
agreement.

Reservation of Rights

We reserve the right to make any decision about EVSD and its members if the situation calls for that. All decisions made by the administration are final and must be treated as such.

Whilst we endeavour to ensure that the information on this website is correct, we do not warrant its completeness or accuracy; nor do we commit to ensuring that the website remains available or that the material on the website is kept up to date.

All student officers have the right to enforce consequences that they believe will better the club. However, all of these consequences must be discussed with the president and vice presidents, as well as the teacher advisor before their enforcement. 

We reserve the right to take any action we see fit if it will better our club.

We reserve the right to decide who goes to tournaments and who does not. 

We reserve the right to choose our officers and any rude disputes over who we choose will not be tolerated. 

Judging Policies

Every tournament EVSD attends requires us to provide a number of judges proportional to the number of students we enter in that tournament. Our judges then judge students from other schools while judges provided by other schools judge our students.

Tournaments with student-provided judges

At most tournaments we attend, providing judges is the responsibility of each individual entry attending the tournament. An 'entry' is defined as an IE (non-Duo speech) or LD competitor or as a Duo or Parli or PF partnership. Each entry must list the name of a judge covering their obligation. Putting down the judge's name means committing that the judge would be available for the entire duration of the tournament.

Your judge can be anyone who is over 18, has a high school diploma, and understands English. This can be a parent, an older sibling, a friend, or someone you personally hired to judge for you.

Competitors are REQUIRED to provide judges per these conditions:

1-day tournaments:

Parli, PF, and Duo teams are responsible for providing a full-day judge

LD and IE competitors are responsible for providing a half-day judge

Multi-day tournaments:

Parli, PF, and Duo teams are responsible for providing a judge for all days that their events

have rounds (including elimination rounds).

LD and IE competitors are responsible for providing a one-day judge.

State Qualifying Tournaments: Each competitor must provide their own judge.

Exceptions to these rules may be announced on a tournament-by-tournament basis.

If you enter in more than one event, you will get a separate judge obligation for each event.

If your judge is not committed for the entire tournament, you will be informed prior to the tournament which shift (morning or afternoon for one-day tournaments and Friday or Saturday or Sunday for multi-day tournaments) your judge is assigned. Your judge is responsible for covering the shift that they are assigned. If they prefer a different shift, it is their responsibility to find an EVSD judge who has that shift and agrees to swap with them. All judge swaps must be reported to the club leadership.

Judge buy-out

You can request to pay a judge buy-out fee instead of providing a judge. To make the request, type 'I will pay' instead of entering a judge name. It is not guaranteed that the request is granted. 

Judge drop

Once you enter a judge name when registering for a tournament, that judge is obligated to attend. Tournaments our entire team if our judges do not attend. Your judge obligation is finalized at the time of the EVSD tournament registration deadline. If the member drops after that deadline, your judge is still obligated to attend.

If you request to buy out a judge when registering for a tournament and your request is granted, you may attend the tournament. But if you put down a judge name, and then that judge drops after the tournament registration deadline, you are recommend to donate the judge buy-our fee and the drop fee.

If your judge comes to the tournament, but misses a round, EVSD will be charged a nuissance fee for every round missed. It is recommended for the member and their parent who missed the round to donate the money to pay off the judge fee, as the fee is your responsibility.

Tournaments with club-provided judges

Some tournaments do not allow parent judges. For these tournaments, EVSD will hire professional judges to cover our judging obligation, and will split the costs of these judges equally among all competitors attending the tournament. Competitors will thus be asked to donate both the entry fees and the judge costs. The exact judge costs may not be known ahead of time.

Code of Misconduct

No case of bullying or cyber bullying will be tolerated to any extent by EVSD. 

No inappropriate language, including racial or ableist slurs, will be tolerated by EVSD.

No case of assault in any form will be tolerated by EVSD. 

At tournaments, students are to treat their competitors and judge with utmost respect. 

In the case of misconduct of a student, all consequences will be up the decision of the administration.

If any conflict with a team member arises, they will be expected to carry themselves well. The student understands that all actions they commit will be blamed on them and them alone. Therefore, the excuse of "they started it!" will not be tolerated. Anyone who commits an act of misconduct shall be held accountable. 

In any case of conflict, the student is to go straight to the EVSD officer team. They are not to make the conflict worsen nor do they have a plausible excuse when held accountable if they did not ask the officer team for help at the start.

This misconduct applies to EVSD situations only. However, if a student's behavior at school and in public begins to reflect badly on our club or inflict harm on others, we have the right to enforce consequences as we see fit.

These policies apply to all members of EVSD, including officers.

The child and parents understand that all decisions are under the discretion of the students officers, specifically the president and vice presidents, as well as the teacher advisor.

They also understand that, by agreeing to the policies, they agree to the access of all information inputted - outside of credit card information - will be readily accessible by the student EVSD administration.