How to Become the Best Presiding Officer!

1. How to Become the Best Presiding Officer! By Julian Sarabia (2015-2017)

2. Hi, I’m Julian. You may know me as the greatest Presiding Officer in Golden Desert history. Okay, you probably don’t. But I’d like to think I’m at least a little better than the rest of the district, right? I joined Northwest Speech and Debate my junior year and continued until I graduated in 2017. As a debater, I primarily focused in Congressional Debate (psst, that’s what you’re in right now!) and Domestic Extemp, but I also dabbled in Foreign Extemp, Oratory, Public Forum, and Lincoln Douglas. And finally, I won’t be using tacky gifs in this slideshow like the rest of our team. Don’t be fooled, kiddos.

3. Here’s how to be a Presiding Officer! Don’t. For real. Are you really, really, sure?

4. Okay, you want to be a PO. Suit yourself. The hard truth is that presiding officers in the Golden Desert district are hard to come by. Most who are legitimately concerned by how they place don’t bother with it, and those who do become a PO are usually….the opposite of good. Chances are, your PO will be someone who has never done so before. So yes, it can be tempting. But you’re taking a risk. In Golden Desert, presiding officers are seldom ranked. Becoming a PO is fun, but it can be exhausting, vilifying, and can often make you feel underappreciated.

5. On to Nominations. In Golden Desert, becoming a presiding officer can be pretty easy. Usually, most congressional debaters aren’t clamoring to hold the chair, and you will sort yourselfs through rounds pretty easy. In other districts, things are not quite so simple. For example, if you attend the Arizona State University tournament, you’ll find yourself in a different situation. Before the round starts, talk to a fellow debater and make sure he or she nominates you as a presiding officer. Then, when it’s your turn, you’ll give a nomination speech. You’ll list your experience, your willingness to run a fast, fair, and friendly round, and add in a little bit of humor. Usually, the line: “I speak two languages: English, and Robert’s Rules of Oath and Orders” works pretty well. Then, the chamber will participate in a secret vote.

6. Wowza, you’re a Presiding Officer! I’m so proud of you, friend! Even though I have no idea who you are. Now, YOU are the leader of the round. Responsibility is awesome, right? As presiding officer, you will be in charge of docket nominations if you are a first round PO. Then, you’ll want to explain your parliamentary procedure. (I’ll explain that shortly.) Finally, once it looks like you’re all settled in like the beautiful debaters you are, ask the chamber if there are any motions. You hear, “I move to open the chamber”, along with a resounding “Second!”, and boom: it’s time to lead.

7. Oh dang. You have responsibilities now. It’s time I explain to you your parliamentary procedures. This is where the stress kicks in. Once the chamber is open, it’s time for some speeches. First, someone will need to read the legislation agreed upon by the chamber. You can either call on a representative to read it, but if you want to speed up the round and ensure the debate isn’t a beauty pageant, you can choose what Mike Lamb calls “Sarabia-style”. You read the legislation yourself.

8. But Julian. What about Speeches? Relax, I’m getting there. After reading the legislation, it’s time to call on an affirmative speech. (In districts like Arizona, the first speech will be the authorship or sponsorship speech.) From here, you have two options:

9. But don’t forget the recency-oli! Once we get to priority number two and so on, those two options are thrown out the window. Instead, you’ll utilize your yellow presiding officer packet to keep recency. When someone speaks, write their name on the first column of your packet and the t-chart located on the board. In the Golden Desert district, you’ll always call on who has the lowest available priority card. But if multiple people do, utilize recency and choose the speaker who spoke the earliest. Cross their name on the first column and write it on the next. In out-of-state districts like Arizona, priority cards DON’T EXIST. Recency resets every single round!

10. Quiet, fool. It’s time to listen. Actually, you really don’t have to, but a good presiding officer should. The Congressman you just selected will rise to the center of the room to give their speech, and ask everyone in their room if they’re ready. That includes YOU. They might even address you as the Speaker (House) or the President (Senate!) They’re not just addressing you because it’s cute. They’re addressing you because you need to be on your game, scout. Have your timer ready (your smartphone is perfectly fine) and start the timer when they utter their first words. Now, it’s time to use your gavel, or, whatever, to give time signals. From here, you have two options:

11. Remember your responsibility! You may have noticed that both tables used the phrase “knock until inaudible”. That’s pretty important stuff. As the presiding officer, it’s your responsibility to ensure the round is kept friendly and fair. That means, when a speaker is allotted their grace period of 10 seconds, it is YOUR responsibility to ensure they know they need to shut up already. In turn, make sure the remainder of the chamber is kept at ease. If something is funny, it’s okay to laugh, but it shouldn’t hinder the round. Likewise, if two debaters look like they’re about to go at it, it shouldn’t hinder the round either. Call on those responsible to maintain decorum or tell them they are out of order.

12. The Debate You Mandate This is literally my least favorite about being a presiding officer. And that is CROSS-EXAMINATION. I could spend literally all day talking about it. Whew, the speaker just stopped speaking. Stand up (because it looks cooler) and tell the judges the time of the speech, and finally, announce, “all cross-examiners, please rise.” And rise, they will. Just make sure they don’t rise before you tell them to. The first affirmative speech and the first negation speech on a piece of legislation will both feature two minute cross-examination questions. All other periods will be just one minute. Also, don’t start your timer until the first cross-examiner has asked their question. Try to discourage long questions that take too much time. Stay standing throughout the period.

13. The Congressmen Have EYES I’m serious. They will all look at you. They will all hate you. They all expect you to call on them. Even Golden Desert and Hawk Debate Legend Lance Ledet was guilty of this. Even I am guilty of this. Don’t let them pressure you into choosing them. For real. Lance and I say we base our cross-ex on “reverse randomness” where we randomly choose the people who have given less questions, but that’s just a buzzword to make people feel better. It really doesn’t matter that much. Choose randomly, but try to be fair and give some preference to those who haven’t gotten as many questions. Finally, clash. You’ll notice sometimes, Congressmen will hold a C signal in their hand. It basically means that because they’re mentioned in a speech, they should get preference. Despite their menacing glares, clash is technically against NSDA policy. You can choose to do it if you really want to, but I honestly don’t really like to.

14. Congrats, youngling! You just broke into Superduperloopercongress! And you just accepted that you won’t be Top 6 because you’re a presiding officer. But not so fast, friend. Things are sort of different this year. The NSDA just introduced something called Direct Questioning into break rounds (including Golden Desert and even Nationals!) which features a back-and-forth dialogue between the cross-examiner and the speaker for 30 seconds. This only happens in break rounds. Lance and I are the only Congressmen who have ever conducted direct questioning in our district (as of April 2017). Will you be the next? Choose cross-examiners as you normally would. In a two minute cross ex period, choose four debaters and in a one minute, choose two. Start the timer immediately when the first word is asked. When 20 seconds has passed, lightly tap the back of your gavel three times. When 30 seconds has passed, the period is ended. Instantly, give a hard, resounding knock and state the next cross-examiner’s name. Then, repeat. Do NOT let cross-examiners speak over their 30 second cross ex periods.

15. What’s the Opposite of Progress? Voting! It matters so little but means so much that I forgot about it the last time I presided. When you become a presiding officer, count the number of present Congressmen. Look at your packet and correlate that number to the numbers of a simple majority, a one-third vote, and a two-thirds vote. When a motion is passed to previous question and it seconded, the congressmen must vote on previous question. Call on those who wish to move to previous question to rise. If they reach ⅔ majority, you’ll move on to the next piece of legislation. Pieces of legislation themselves pass on a simple majority. Ask for those who wish to pass, those who wish to fail, and those who abstain. (Congressmen who are not present automatically abstain, and will not factor into the simple majority.)

16. Other important stuffs I guess That’s mostly everything. The PO does other little things here and there. For example, keep the start time and end time visible on the board. Look for congressmen who raise their placards. If they want to divide the chamber, you can grant that motion and ask all those with aff speeches and neg speeches to rise. Or, you can consider it dilatory and ignore it. You can do that. However, don’t do that when they ask for personal privilege. That’s just cruel, man. Also, you will give your two middle priority cards to the judges as a PO. If you are still on first priority, this means you give 3 and 4. At the end of the first hour, give them the first priority card of two.)

17. are you kidding me someone just proposed an amendment is this a joke nope When someone actually wants to propose an amendment to the piece of the legislation, direct the proposer to the parliamentarian. While they consider if the amendment is germane (good), keep the round running with another speech. Then, as presiding officer, ask those who wish to debate the amendment to rise. If they do not reach a one-third majority, it automatically fails. If it does, you’ll conduct one aff speech and one neg speech with two minute cross-ex periods on the amendment before conducting a simple majority vote on the amendment and reverting back to the topic.

18. Honestly, I didn’t think it’d be this long. But it’s a lot of info you will almost certainly need. I really hope this helps you on your journey as a presiding officer!