Wisconsin Forensic Coaches' Association

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The WFCA's mission is "to instill and develop in students communication skills vital for a lifetime of effective participation in a democratic society." To that end, the WFCA promotes the interests of Wisconsin interscholastic forensics by assisting in the regulation and improvement of forensic practices and by serving as a forum for the airing of opinions concerning forensic activities. Member schools receive notices of invitational tournaments through an official mailing list. The season culminates with the State Tournament, open to every member school. Read more ...

 

See the video of coaches reflecting on the impact of forensics and scenes from the State Tournament.

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Students - Get involved with a leadership role in the WFCA

Including student voices in the decision-making processes of WFCA will bring new energy, innovative ideas, and a firsthand understanding of the needs of high school students to the WFCA. Forensics already provides an amazing avenue for students to amplify their voices, creating an ideal opportunity for those students to further strengthen their voices by being a student advisor in the WFCA. With students involved in the WFCA’s decisions, they can ensure that the WFCA is working to best further the interests of its students.

In September 2024, the WFCA created the Student Advisory Committee.

To apply to be a Student Officer and serve on the committee for the April 2025 through April 2026 term, applications will be due February 15, 2025.

Meet your committee members in this video

Click here for more details on the committee

The Wisconsin Forensic Coaches' Association Handbook has been updated for 2024-25. It contains bylaws, history, competition rules, evaluation sheets, coaching awards, student congress guides, and tournament documents. It has been updated from last year's edition to include these changes that were implemented at the spring and fall meetings.

WFCA Handbook 2024-25.pdf

WFCA Category Rules 2024-25.pdf

  • The Category Rules document has the same rule sheets that are found in the main handbook. They have been copied into this separate document to make it easy to share the rules with students and judges.

What's new in the 2024-25 Handbook:

2025 Topics and other changes:

  • Moments in History – This season has two time periods; each student has the choice of
    1940-1949 and/or 1840-1900.
  • Special Occasion Speaking – This season’s occasions are:

    A.     A welcome speech to a summer camp
    B.     A motivational speech from a coach/advisor
    C.     A villain monologue
    D.     A scholarship speech
  • Storytelling– This season’s topics are:

    A.       A story about unlikely heroes
    B.       A pourquoi tale (an origin story or story of why something is)
    C.       A story involving a clothing accessory (shoes, hat, cape, etc.)
  • Informative Speaking, Moments in History, and Special Occasion Speaking have revised rules regarding
    permitted visual aids.
  • Artistic Plagiarism guidelines have been added to the Operating Bylaws in II.G.4. (Recommended
    Tournament Practices and Procedures / Material) and IV.C.9. (State Tournament / State Tournament Practices
    and Procedures)
  • State Tournament sectioning standards now have the default number of contestants per section equal
    regardless of length of speaking time in the events (page 28, State Tournament Director #5).
  • Student Advisory Committee and Student Officers:
    The Student Advisory Committee received a first approval vote at the Fall 2024 meeting to be a standing
    committee. A successive vote is needed at the Spring 2025 meeting. In the interim, the Student Advisory
    Committee has been formed as an ad-hoc committee. The role of Student Officers was added in the operating
    bylaws, VI Awards section A6.
  • New mailing address:
    For membership forms, dues, and other payments and correspondence, the new address is
    PO Box 3105
    Oshkosh WI 54903

As we get ready to return for a new school year, the WFCA Fall Meeting will get us set for the upcoming forensics season.

The fall meeting was on Saturday, September 21 at Eau Claire North High School with a virtual option

Meeting Minutes

Agenda:

Officer reports, committee reports, state tournament reports, and proposals noted below.

Full agenda link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PdWfXrDaxh1AtjG25SnqQ0wwOabnqj5M9a4sICwu05Q/edit?usp=sharing

Proposals voted on:

Adoption of 2024-25 calendar passed

Proposed 2024-25 topics passed

Moments in History
1940’s and/or 1840-1900

Special Occasion
a welcome speech to a summer camp
a motivational speech from a coach/advisor
a villain monologue
a scholarship speech

Storytelling
a story about unlikely heroes
a pourquoi tale (an origin story or story of why something is)
a story involving a clothing accessory (shoes, hat, cape, etc)

Affiliate Membership Clarification  first passage approved (because it is a constituional bylaws amendment, must be passed again at spring meeting)

Artistic Plagiarism Proposal  passed

Student Advisory Committee Proposal  passed as related to operating bylaws; second vote needed at spring meeting for amending constituional bylaws with new standing committee; ad-hoc committee retained for the interim

The upcoming forensics season will soon be here. The competitive season starts in January, but getting ready starts now!

The year started with the WFCA Fall Meeting on Saturday September 21 at Eau Claire North High School or by joining via Zoom. See the separate article for details.

This year we have the exciting opportunity to involve students in an advisory role to our state organization. Including student voices in the decision-making processes of WFCA would bring new energy, innovative ideas, and a firsthand understanding of the needs of high school students to the WFCA. At the spring meeting an ad-hoc committee was created which worked over the summer to put forth a proposal which would establish the Student Advisory Standing Committee and establish the framework for the Student  Officer positions.

The WFCA has many veteran coaches willing to assist and mentor any new or even experienced coaches with their programs. See the Coaching Assistance page for more. Don't wait for January to get your program rolling!

To be a part of WFCA and to have your school eligible for the WFCA State Tournament, get your membership form and dues submitted. New coaches can also join our membership mailing list by sending a message (any subject / content) to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The WFCA calendar of invitational tournaments was finalized at the fall meeting. The regular season runs from January 11 through March 29, and this year there are 28 tournaments being hosted in all corners of the state, providing several options each weekend. Thanks in advance for all the coaches and schools that provide ongoing tournament opportunities throughout the regular season. There are also 7 student congress competitions scheduled.

The season ends with the State Tournament in Madison on Saturday April 5, with the State Student Congress the day before on Friday April 4. A big thanks to Vel Phillips Memorial High School for being the State site.

Beyond the competition in Wisconsin, you may be interested in seeing what opportunities are available for national competition. The two national speech & debate organizations are hosting their national tournaments close to Wisconsin this year. NCFL will be in Chicago May 23-24 and NSDA will be in Des Moines Jun 15-20.

WFCA
PO Box 3105
Oshkosh WI 54903 webmaster@wfcaforensics.org