The Texas Forensic Association (TFA) is an organization that provides and regulates competition in speech and debate (forensics) for Texas high school students. The association authorizes forensics competitions nearly every weekend in Texas for the duration of the forensics season, which lasts from early August until the end of February, with the State competition typically in the first or second week of March. Goals The Texas Forensic Association states that its goals are: to foster cooperation between the worlds of speech and theatre to show the importance of speech and theatre education to the public to create a forum to collaborate and solve common problems in the speech and theatre fields to forward the standards of the speech and theatre activities to promote cooperation and friendship among students and teachers in the organization Regions TFA divides Texas into five regions for administrative purposes; there are no regional championship tournaments or limit on number of schools or students to qualify to the state tournament from each region. The regions are divided by area code, and there is a region representative from each region to coordinate the region's activities with the state association. Region 1 covers the Texas panhandle, area code 806. The Region 1 representative is Ryan Lovell of Tascosa High School. Region 2 covers Northeast Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. The area codes included are 214, 254, 469, 682, 817, 903, 940, and 972. The Region 2 representative is Rhonda Smith of Plano West Senior High School. Region 3 covers South Texas, including the San Antonio and Austin metro areas. The area codes included are 210, 361, 512, 830, and 956. The Region 3 representative is Davy Holmes of Dripping Springs High School. Region 4 covers East Texas. It is the smallest region and mainly encompasses the Houston metro area. The area codes included are 281, 409, 713, 832, 936, and 979. The Region 4 representative is Ryan Hennessey of Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. Region 5 covers West Texas, area code 915, 432, and part of 325. It is the largest geographical region, spanning close to 550 miles across. The Region 5 representative is Yolanda Silva of Franklin High School. Events offered State qualifying events Policy Debate (Cross-Examination, CX, Policy): Debate between two teams of two students on a question of policy, which remains the same for the competitive season Lincoln-Douglas Debate (LD, Value Debate): Debate between two students on