Happy New Year.
Your team is cordially invited to the 2016 Class A eastern divisional tournament, hosted by Havre High School on the Montana State University-Northern campus.
All Montana High School Association Forensics and Drama rules will be used and enforced.
Forensicstournament.net will be used for preliminary registration with the deadline for registration midnight Saturday, Jan. 14. Drops will be taken at no charge through 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan 18. Registration will be $5 per entry -- IE, $5 per oratory entry, $5 per humorous duo entry, $5 per policy debate entry -- with a $5 charge per drop after Jan. 18. To use the online registration, go to forensicstournament.net and click on Montana 2017 eastern divisional tournament or use this link: http://www.forensicstournament.net/montanaeasterndivisionals/17 .
Speech competitors and drama competitors may double-enter in their category, but as per the MHSA rules cannot cross over and double-enter in both categories. 
The elimination rounds for speech and drama events will be paired using forensicstournament.net, as will the first round of debate events. The initial pairings will be provided to the teams prior to the tournament so they can be double-checked.
Please send me the list of coaches attending and what events they would prefer to tab.
Registration will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at Northern’s Student Union Building Ballroom, and Saturday from 7 to 8 a.m., again in the ballroom.
Rounds will be 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and noon, with semis at 2 p.m. and finals at 3:30 p.m. Extemporaneous speaking draw will be one-half hour before the rounds start. Extemp will use MHSA cross-examination rules in outrounds.
As some events, due to the number of entries, will need semifinals and others will not, we will run finals for smaller events at 2 p.m. at the same time as semis in larger events. This will ensure students won’t have to wait an extra two hours and will allow them to watch finals in other events.
As per MHSA rules, semifinals will comprise the top 12 competitors in an event in sections of six competitors, with finals the top six competitors in each event. The assigned tabbers will set the speaker order for semis and finals as per MHSA rules.
We plan to start the awards assembly at 5:30 p.m. in the SUB ballroom.
Rounds will be in Cowan Hall for speech, Hagener Science Center for debate and Brockman Center for drama, possibly some in the Electronics Building if we need more space for drama. The buildings and rooms will be marked and maps of the campus will be provided.
A tabulation room will be set up in each building for each category. Finals rounds will move to Cowan Hall.
This tournament will give the opportunity for students to see Northern’s campus and for the university to show itself off to students. As per standard procedure, students cannot enter rooms until a judge is present. Please make certain your students know they should treat the campus with respect.
There have been some problems in recent years, at invitational tournaments at least, with judges in outrounds starting the round without all three judges present. Judges will be told they need to have the full panel before the round starts, but please make sure your students know they need to be certain all three judges are present before the round starts, and if a judge wants to start without all three on the panel present, the students need to contact you or the tournament administration.
We are planning on having the university provide the food through its food service. It uses both a cafeteria-style food line and a la carte. Students and coaches can pay as they go or we will provide a code that can be used to pay after the tournament ends.
Thank you, and we are looking forward to seeing you all Jan. 21.
Tim Leeds
Lucas Minnick
Kevin Shellenberger