Cupertino High School Judging Guidelines

1. All students must provide a judge at the time of tournament signup - the judge must have a tabroom account and be available to judge on all tournament days as per assignment.
2. The Judging Coordination team will send a judging assignment sheet a few weeks before the tournament. For single-day CFL tournaments, you may receive this 1-2 weeks before, and for large invitationals with high fees/fines, you may receive this 1-2 months before the tournament. 
3. Once you receive the assignment, please mark your calendar for the entire day. Tournaments do not always run on schedule and can sometimes end late into the night, especially invitational tournaments. If you are assigned on a Friday, the start time may be in the afternoon. Please refer to the schedule in the judge assignment email.
4. If you are assigned on a day with elimination rounds, you are obliged to judge until the tournament clears the school’s judging commitment even if your student did not advance to elimination.
5. If you cannot judge on your assigned day, please provide an alternate judge (can be another family member or friend). You must reply to your original judging assignment copying the new judge, and we should also receive a confirmation from the new judge that they are available to judge.
6. Dropping out of your assigned judging may result in your child being dropped from the tournament, and you will also have to pay back the fines charged by the tournament. Repeat offenses can affect the child’s standing in the club and ability to go to future tournaments. 
7. A few days before the tournament, you will receive an email from the CHS tournament coach for the specific tournament day with instructions specific to the tournament. CHS tournament coaches can be event coaches or parent chaperones who are FUHSD employees. All judges must follow the tournament coach’s instructions and check in with them on tournament days.

Tournament Day Do's and Don'ts for Judges:

Do’s

1. Please confirm your assignment via the IM group created the night before the tournament.
2. Familiarize yourself with the map of the location of the tournament
3. Be on time. Eg, if the first round begins at 8 am, arrive at the location by 7.30 am. 
4. Always bring a laptop along with a charger to all in-person tournaments. Please also carry your phone charger.
5. Make yourself aware of how tabroom works.
6. Read through the judging document and be confident about the type of event you will be judging. By not reading through the judging instructions, you are doing a huge disservice to the contestants.
7. Bring a paper and pen to write notes/ comments about the teams.
8. Give constructive feedback.
9. If you have an audience, please ask debaters or speech contestants if they feel comfortable with the members being in attendance.
10. Be polite

Don’t

1. Please do not cancel assignments at the last minute.
2. Don’t get lost on campus or step away from campus without notice.
3. Do not go home to bring your devices and/or charger
4. Do not watch videos while the debate/speech is ongoing. 
5. Don’t interrupt a debate unless necessary.
   1. Only interrupt if there is some rules violation occurring. Do not interrupt if you don’t understand an argument- it is up to the debaters to ensure you understand what they are saying.
6. Don't interrupt a speech unless they are significantly overtime 
7. Refrain from contacting the tournament organizers about any delays/conflicts - always contact the CHS chaperone first.

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Judging Information Document 

This information is all covered here on our website, but the document is here in case you want to reference it