Capitol Forensics Club is open to homeschooling families who are eligible to compete in NCFCA. Club member families must affiliate with NCFCA. All senior students who are members of CFC (ages 12 and up) are required to compete in at least two NCFCA qualifying tournaments, either in-person or online. There is no substitute for the learning and growth that takes place during competition at tournaments, so we require participation in two NCFCA tournaments in order to ensure that students reap the full benefits of participation in our club and in speech and debate. At in-person tournaments, the students and parents are required to stay for the entire tournament; from the first debate to the awards ceremony (even if the student is only doing speech and/or didn't advance). Parents are needed to help judge at tournaments, and will be asked in advance to consider and sign up for staff positions at tournaments and/or to judge. For speech-only students, watching debate or helping to time is a great way for them to learn about debate. For online tournaments, parents will be required by the leagues to judge a certain number of events, so they should be prepared to do so. For more information on how to get involved in NCFCA, see https://ncfca.org/join-the-league/.
Parental Involvement
Parents play a critical role in the running of the club and the success of the students. Because we depend on parental feedback for students' speeches and debates, at least one parent from each family is required to attend club meetings each week with his or her student. However, exceptions may be made for extenuating circumstances on a case-by-case basis. Please see club leaders to discuss special circumstances, but understand that this is not a drop-off activity. We would like each parent to consider what events they would be interested in helping to coach in club.
