THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR: JUDGING NCFCA CONTESTS!

Official Logo of the NCFCA (National Christian Forensics and Communications Association

I can start this blog by saying I'm excited today. Of course, does "today" refer to when this blog is posted (Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023), or to the day I'm writing the blog (the previous Saturday, five days in advance)? Well, yes, I'm excited to write this blog, but I am referring to the date this is published.

Why am I excited? Tonight and tomorrow I will be judging speeches for the Online East Regions Mixer of the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association (NCFCA). On March 2nd and 3rd I'll be judging debate rounds for the Online Central Regions Mixer. And in May, I'll be judging speeches and debates in person at the Region 6 Championship here in Indianapolis! 

Maybe sometime I'll do an interview abourt the NCFCA and give the history. Please forgive me for not talking about how it formed and rather focus on why I enjoy doing it and hopefully encourage you to do the same.

My first exposure was when a friend of ours who was homeschooling her children invited us to judge. I don't remember what Becky did, but when I was looking at the topics, I was excited to see contest types was Apologetics. Some may know I wrote a novel with that as a theme. In the NCFCA contests, Apologetics is one of three limited preparation speeches (along with "Impromptu" and "Extemporaneous Speaking." For Apologetics, the student picks from 2 or 3 topics, and spends 4 minutes preparing for a 6 minute speech on the selected topic. 

By the way, what qualifications did Becky and I have to judge the speeches? You might say my Toastmasters experience was a factor, but not really. The speeches/debates are judged by three groups of judges: 1) Parents of NCFCA competitors, 2) Alumni (students that partipated before they graduated High School), and 3) Community Judges. The best way to describe a Community Judge is a none of the above. The organization desires to have people from different backgrounds and experiences judging the speeches so the students have exposure to various perspectives. To judge the Apologetics contests, you have to agree with the Nicene Creed, but that's the only qualification.

A couple of years later, I was at a Toastmasters event, and one of the people encouraged us to judge NCFCA contests. I signed up and was pleasantly surprised to find it was the same organization. This time, I judged a Team Policy debate. There are two forms of Debate competitions: Lincoln Douglas Values one on one debates where it deals with a value (e.g. national security takes precedence over freedom of the press), and Team Policy two on two debates, which focuses on proposing legislation to solve the topic of the year (e.g. Election Law needs to be reformed). A third type of debate, Moot Court (resembling arguing an appellate case) has their own events.

To judge either a speech or debate round, one needs to make a three hour commitment, which includes training. They are thankful for anybody willing to serve as a Community Judge for one round. But I enjoy the speeches and debates enough that I take a day off work and judge several contests. The longest day was when I judged every event for a day once. 

Of course, I didn't judge in 2020, because COVID struck during that time. In 2021, they had on-line events, and I judged some including a couple of moot court competitions. My honest opinion - that was the most work! In other events, I don't have to do any prep; not true in this case.

Last year, I goofed up. I signed up for a live event thinking it was on-line. Nope. 😭

I mentioned the types of debates. There are usually 11 varieties of speech contests, falling into three categories. Above I told you about the limited prep such as Apologetics and Exptemporaneous Speaking, which deals with current events. They also have platform speeches (e.g. Persuasive and Informative) and interpretation, where one or two speakers recite(s) a work of literature (or sometimes their own). 

One non-NCFCA story from a NCFCA event. One time, after judging a tournament, I saw a gentleman sitting at a table who I thought looked familiar. I was correct- It was Gary Varvel, then cartoonist for the Indianapolis Star! I had a nice conversation with him.

Yes, I'm excited about judging NCFCA contests! Did I get you excited enough to check out when speeches are in your area and volunteering and judging? I didn't? Well, I suggest you find a tournament to judge anyway, because the great speeches and debates by these home school students will do a better job of getting you as hooked as I am!

How do I find it? You can go to their webpage (click here) or their Facebook page (click here).

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