January 7, 2018 FROM: SPEECH AND DRAMA COACHES JOANNE AUSTIN, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ENCLOSURES Attached please find the January NFHS Extemporaneous Speaking topics. Also included are copies of the Forensic and Drama Tournament Schedule and a list of current participating schools. Note for Tournament Hosts Tournament hosts are asked to send used Impromptu topics from the meets to Dee Hallock. Contact information is: Dee Hallock Hamilton Email: hallockd@hsd3.org Fax: 406-375-6076 Mail: 327 Fairgrounds Rd, Hamilton MT 59840 If you need additional information as we close out the tournament season, please feel free to contact the Thank you for all your work and for your input this year. If you have questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at the above phone number or at jpaustin@mhsa.org. Attachments: Tournament Schedule List of Participating Schools January Extemp Topics
December 2017 MATERIALS FOR DECEMBER Enclosed please find these materials: The Tournament Schedule is enclosed. Please review the schedule closely. A list of participating schools has been provided. Schools not appearing on the list are not eligible to compete in events. The December extemp topics are included. The final ballot for the 2018-2019 Debate Topic is attached. Please return your ballot at your earliest convenience. If you prefer, email your choice to jpaustin@mhsa.org. Note for Coaches: The MHSA Handbook includes established sportsmanship guidelines for all MHSA activities. Coaches representing member schools have responsibilities to serve as role models for students and to meet expectations of good sportsmanship within the interscholastic program. Adherence to the Speech/Debate/Drama rules and regulations is an integral part of meeting sportsmanship expectations, and coaches must work cooperatively to achieve compliance. Accepted tournament protocol is as follows: All MHSA rules must apply. Tournament procedure accepted by MHSA must be followed. Rules questions should be addressed to first, a fellow coach, then, a tournament director, and finally, the rules committee. Rules protests should be raised with the rules committee. Note for Regular Season Tournament Hosts: Tournament hosts are asked to send used Impromptu topics from the meets to Dee Hallock. Contact information is: Dee Hallock Hamilton Email: hallockd@hsd3.org Fax: 406-375-6076 Mail: 327 Fairgrounds Rd, Hamilton MT 59840 If you have any questions or concerns about the information in this mailing, please feel free to contact the Enclosures: Tournament Schedule/List of Schools December Extemp Topics Final Debate Topic Ballot
November 2017 MATERIALS FOR NOVEMBER Enclosed please find these materials: The Tournament Schedule is enclosed. Please review the schedule closely for changes. If your meet was not confirmed by your school it has been dropped from the list. The list of participating schools is copied on the back of the schedule. Please be sure that any schools attending your meet(s) are eligible for participation. The November extemp topics are enclosed. If you have any questions or concerns about the information in this packet, please feel free to contact the Enclosures: Tournament Schedule/List of Schools November Extemp Topics
October 2017 MATERIALS FOR OCTOBER The MHSA office recently sent the initial 2017-18 speech, debate and drama materials. If you have still not received the September mailing (which includes your booklet), please notify me. If you have ordered additional handbooks, you should receive them in the next few days. Attached please find these materials: The Tournament Schedule is attached. There have been a few changes since the September mailing. Please review the schedule closely and notify me with any corrections. Keep in mind that changes occur in the list of schools that participate. As a result, you should review the updated list of schools with this mailing. There might be changes that do not appear in the booklet. For Class A, please review the recent corrections. If you are hosting a meet, only the schools that appear on the attached list are eligible for participation. Watch for changes in next month s mailing also. The October extemp topics are enclosed. Your ballots for the 2018-2019 Debate Topic Selection are due on or before October 13, 2017. If you have not responded, please use the attached ballot to do so. If you have any questions or concerns about this information, please feel free to contact the Attachments: Tournament Schedule List of Participating Schools October Extemp Topics 2018-2019 Debate Topic Selection Ballot and Materials
September 2017 MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES FOR THE 2017-2018 SEASON Welcome to another year of MHSA Speech and Drama. I am the MHSA liaison to your speech, drama and debate programs. My email address is jpaustin@mhsa.org. Important! This is the ONLY mailing of this year that you will receive in hard copy. Some of you have already sent us your email addresses. If your email has not changed since last year, you will continue to receive the emails. If you have corrections/updates for your previous email address(es), please send a message with your current data to jpaustin@mhsa.org requesting to be added to the electronic mailing list. You may add as many emails as necessary to be sure you receive the information in a timely fashion. Enclosed please find materials to assist you in the speech and drama season. The tentative Tournament Schedule is enclosed. If the tournament does NOT appear in BOLD, the MHSA office has not received written confirmation of the event. The events which are NOT confirmed will be removed from the schedule prior to the October mailing if we do not receive notice from the host school. A Member School Participation List is included on the back of the schedule. This list reflects the division alignments and includes those programs for which the MHSA office has received dues for the CURRENT school year. Schools that have not paid dues for an activity are not eligible for sanctioned MHSA competition (including regular season invitational tournaments). The current year s MHSA Forensics Booklet in enclosed. Please take the time to review the 2018-2019 Proposed Topics and Resolutions. A ballot is enclosed for your use in voting. The ballot deadline is Friday, October 13, 2017. To assist the MFEA with their membership data, we are including the MFEA registration letter for 2017-2018. Inquiries should be directed to Kari Blaylock, MFEA Treasurer, at Park High School [Kari.Blaylock@livingston.k12.mt.us]. Topic information is available by viewing the Speech and Drama webpage at our website www.mhsa.org. The Legislative debate topics will be posted at www.mhsa.org once they have been received by the
Speech & Drama September 2017 Page Two The Lincoln Douglas and Public Forum debate topics will be available on the NFL site which is linked through the MHSA website. The Extemp topics will be available electronically by emailing jpaustin@mhsa.org. The NFHS has asked us not to post the topics on our website because some states release the topics weekly. The Policy debate topic is: The United States federal government should substantially increase its funding and/or regulation of elementary and/or secondary education in the United States. Please be advised of the following: The NFHS has numerous resources available National Federation website. The website is www.nfhs.org. Use the link to Activities and Sports on the top banner of the page to navigate to Speech, Debate and Theatre Resources. Ballots are posted on the MHSA website at www.mhsa.org. If you have any questions or concerns about the information in this packet, please feel free to contact the Enclosures: Tournament Schedule/List of Participating Schools 2017-2018 Forensics Booklet 2018-2019 Debate Topic Selection Ballot and Materials MFEA registration letter