Setting the Congress Parliamentarian Ranking Round

In Congress prelims, the parliamentarian doesn't rank the chamber after every session. Each competitor gets one parliamentarian rank (and speaker points, if your event uses them) for the whole prelim phase. The Congress Ranking Round tool lets you choose which prelim round the parliamentarian enters those ranks in, for each congress event, or turn parliamentarian prelim ranking off. It's one of the advanced pair/section tools.

What the ranking round does

The ranking round is the prelim session the parliamentarian ranks after. Usually that's the last prelim session, once the parliamentarian has heard every speech. It changes what the parliamentarian sees on their eBallot:

In the ranking round, the eBallot says Ranking Guidance: Enter prelim ranks after this round. The rank and points boxes are open, and the parliamentarian fills them in before submitting.
In every other prelim round, the eBallot says No ranking is required for this round. Focus on feedback and submit prelim ranking in the designated ranking block round. The rank and points boxes are grayed out, so the parliamentarian only writes feedback.
Elimination rounds aren't affected. The parliamentarian ranks every elim session, whatever this setting says.
Judges aren't affected. Judges rank every prelim round as usual.

How the ranks are used in results

The parliamentarian's prelim ranks and points count toward the prelim tie breakers that include the parliamentarian, such as Rank Points, Parliamentarian Rank Points, Speaker Points and Firsts. Judge Rank Points leaves them out. See Congress Prelim Tie Breakers for the full list.

The ranking round doesn't change how the tie breakers are calculated. It only decides which round's eBallot asks the parliamentarian for the ranks.

If no ranking round is set

There's no ranking round until someone picks one. If no round is ever picked:

Every prelim parliamentarian eBallot says No ranking is required for this round. and the rank and points boxes stay grayed out.
No parliamentarian prelim ranks come in through eBallots, so the parliamentarian adds nothing to the prelim tie breakers. Parliamentarian Rank Points is 0 for every competitor unless you enter the ranks yourself.

That's fine if you don't want parliamentarian ranks in prelims. If you do, set the ranking round before the parliamentarian submits that session's eBallot.

How the ranking round is normally set

When you pair a congress round under Admin > Pair/Section > Pair/Section, each congress event has a Ranking Block checkbox. Tick it when you pair the session the parliamentarian should rank after. The checkbox only shows when Parliamentarian Ballot is turned on under Setup > Tab Settings > Congress Settings > Parliamentarian.

Each event has only one ranking round. Ticking the box for a later session moves the ranking round there.
If you pair (or re-pair) the current ranking round's session with the box unticked, the ranking round is cleared.

The Congress Ranking Round tool lets you fix the setting without re-pairing anything.

When to use it

You forgot to tick Ranking Block when you paired the last prelim session, and the parliamentarian's eBallot says no ranking is required.
You ticked it on the wrong session.
The schedule changed. For example, you cut the last prelim session and want the parliamentarian to rank after the session before it.
You don't want the parliamentarian to rank prelims at all.

The tool works with congress events only.

Where to find it

Go to Admin > Pair/Section > Advanced and click Set Ranking Round.

Pair/Section Advanced page with the Congress Ranking Round tool highlighted

Step 1: Choose the ranking round

The page lists every congress event in your tournament, each in its own box. Current ranking round shows the schedule block that's set now, or None selected. If your tournament has no congress events, you'll see No congress events were found for this tournament.

In the event's Ranking Round list, pick the schedule block for the session the parliamentarian should rank after.

Pick No ranking round to turn off parliamentarian prelim ranking for the event.
The list shows every schedule block in the tournament, including IE blocks and elim sessions. Pick a block where this event has a prelim session. If you pick any other block, no prelim round asks the parliamentarian for ranks.

Congress Prelim Ranking Round page with Congress Session 3 chosen as the ranking round for Open Student Congress and the Save button highlighted

Step 2: Click Save

Click Save in the same box. Each event saves on its own, so the other events don't change.

FTN reloads the page with a green message, for example Congress prelim ranking round updated for C. Open Student Congress. If you picked No ranking round, the message says the ranking round was cleared instead. Current ranking round now shows the new block.

Green message confirming the ranking round was updated for Open Student Congress, with Current ranking round now showing Congress Session 3

The change takes effect right away. If a parliamentarian already has the eBallot open, ask them to reload it before they submit.

What FTN changes (and what it doesn't)

It changes only which prelim round asks the parliamentarian for ranks and points.
Pairings, chambers, judges, parliamentarian assignments, rooms and results don't change. No emails are sent, and the change isn't added to the audit log.
Ranks already entered are kept. FTN keeps one set of prelim parliamentarian ranks per competitor. If the parliamentarian ranked in the old round and then ranks again in the new one, the new ranks replace the old ones.
Submitted eBallots aren't reopened. If the parliamentarian already submitted the eBallot for the round you pick, they won't be asked again. Enter the ranks yourself: go to Admin > Tab > Record Ballots, click Tab Parli Ballot, and load that chamber's ballot code.

Undoing it

Pick the old block in the Ranking Round list and click Save again. To turn ranking off, pick No ranking round.