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Dear Colleague: Samford University Debate
cordially invites you and your students to this year's Bishop Guild Debates, Samford
University’s High School Debate Tournament, to be held on Friday and Saturday, 23
& 24th September, 2011. The
tournament is hosted in downtown Birmingham, home to numerous historic
sites. We are excited about the
prospect of bringing qualified and talented students to the Birmingham Area to
compete in debate, interpretation, and speech. This year we will be offering
competition in Policy Debate (varsity and novice), Public Forum Debate (one
division this year), Lincoln-Douglas Debate (varsity and novice), Prose/Poetry,
Duo Interpretation, Impromptu Speaking, and Extemporaneous Speaking. Specific rules and limitations are found on
the following pages. Appropriate awards will be
presented to those teams and individuals that reach elimination rounds. The
number of elimination rounds and speakers will be determined by the size of the
divisions. In addition, we will be
awarding the Michael J. Janas cup, our sweepstakes trophy for the school with
the best overall showing for the weekend.
Finally, the Tournament of Champions has recognized our tournament as a
qualifier for teams reaching the finals in policy debate. Following on last year’s
success, we will continue to make extra efforts to provide superior
judging. Our goal is that you leave our
tournament thinking that you enjoyed the best judging you have had all year. Please let me know if I can
be of assistance to you. I would love to talk with you about Sincerely, Ryan Galloway Tournament Director (205) 726-2695 (office) (205) 726-2525 (phone) (205) 726-4280 (fax) rwgallow@samford.edu Tournament Information
Varsity Lincoln-Douglas: Lincoln-Douglas will adhere to traditional Lincoln-Douglas rules. To help with our judging and room deficits, Lincoln-Douglas debates will be scheduled in flights. We have enough space for each school to bring up to ten debaters. The topic will be the topic that is appropriate to the dates of the tournament. Novice Lincoln-Douglas: Debaters who have not debated in a tournament before August of 2011 and do not feel comfortable debating in the varsity division are designated novices. They will enjoy all of the same rules as varsity Lincoln-Douglas. We have enough rooms for each school to bring up to ten debaters. The topic will be the topic that is appropriate to the dates of the tournament. Public Forum Debate: Public Forum will adhere to traditional Public Forum rules. We have enough space for each school to bring up to five teams. The topic will be the topic that is appropriate to the dates of the tournament. Varsity Policy Debate: The varsity division is open to any two-person debate team. The format will be 8-3-5 with 8 minutes of preparation time. There will be six preliminary rounds with elimination rounds to follow. We have enough space to have each school bring up to five teams. Novice Policy Debate: Novice policy debaters are those who are competing on their first debate topic. They enjoy all of the same rules as varsity policy debate. If this division is small, we may have to hold it in a round-robin format. We have enough space for each school to bring up to five teams. Extemporaneous Speaking: Extemporaneous Speaking topics will cover a variety of current events. Each speaker will be given 30 minutes of prep time and 7 minutes total speech time. Interpretation Events: Prose/Poetry and Duo
Interpretation will follow NFL rules. Judging: A judge must be provided for every two policy teams, four LD debaters, two Public Forum teams, or four individual events entries. Each judge will be assigned to one school. Any judge with additional conflicts should note said conflicts on the entry form. Judges who “NO SHOW” will cost the school that hired them a penalty fine of $50.00 per round. In addition, please take care to provide judges qualified to judge the divisions your school is entered in. This is the only way to guarantee that the judging is of the highest standards. All judges are expected to remain available for all rounds until one beyond the time that their team is eliminated. Amenities
We will try our best to provide all of the Southern hospitality and fellowship that our tight schedule will allow. We will maintain a well-stocked coaches’ and judges’ lounge. Fees Policy Debate Teams $40.00 per team Public Forum Debate Teams $40.00 per team Lincoln/Douglas Entries $30.00 per debater Individual Events $20.00 per entry Hired Judges $150.00 per hired judge Late Drop Fee $50.00 per drop PLEASE MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: RYAN GALLOWAY. Deadlines
Entries will be taken on a first come, first served basis. When the buildings are full, we can take no more entries. All entries must arrive by Monday, 19 September 2011. After that point we will start assessing fees. The bill for changes after that date is $5.00 per change until Wednesday, 21 September 2011 at 5:00 pm. Changes made after that time will be assessed a $50.00 fee. A lot of work goes into planning a tournament, and space limitations guarantee the space that you take up is denied to someone else. We realize that situations may arise--but we do not want to accept any changes on the day of the tournament. Judging
Responsibilities
Each school is expected to supply one judge for every four debaters or speakers entered. We prefer not to hire "half-judges" although in special conditions we will try to hire a round or two to coaches who wish to see one of their teams. If you ask us to hire a judge for you and then end up finding one of your own, we will not subtract that judge's payment from the amount that you owe us. Instead, we will be happy to hire that person on a per round basis--and you can make arrangements for that person to rebate you out of the money that they receive. UNDER NO CONDITIONS CAN JUDGES BE HIRED OUT AT REGISTRATION. Additionally, we expect that every judge will fill out a complete ballot for every round. Ballots are for the coaches. The fact that you disclosed a decision and explained it is not an excuse for not filling out a ballot. Judges cannot be replaced without the direct permission of the tab room. Tab
Room
The tab room will be run with the Tab Room on the PC computer program. We will be using mutually preferred judging in varsity policy and random judge placement in other divisions. Pairings will be done according to the schedule designations. The program is a simple one that only requires that information be loaded.
Schedule
Registration will occur in the Auditorium Lobby of Brooks Hall Friday, 23 September 2011 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. We will begin competition at 2:30 p.m. We will have three rounds on Friday, and rounds will begin again at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday. Directions
Samford is very easy to find. If you are coming from the
South into Coming from the North is just as simple. Take I-65 through
the city until you come to the Parking is always a problem on the Samford campus. Fortunately, once you find a legal parking space, it is unlikely that you will have to move during the day. Please park legally—there is nothing I can do to get you out of a ticket. Housing
There are many hotels close to the Samford campus. Let us suggest a few. The Holiday Inn, Shoney’s Inn, Comfort Inn (Probably the cheapest in the list—W. Oxmoor Road) (205) 823-4300 La Quinta, Friday Night Food Given the paucity of on campus food options Friday night, we will again be offering pizza for sale in the main building. If you wish to take advantage of that option instead of going off campus for food, I would recommend that you encourage your debaters to bring some cash with which to purchase pizza and sodas. To Enter the Tournament This year we are taking entries only at www.joyoftournaments.com. Please go to the website and enter your teams
on-line. If you are having difficulties
with this process, please contact rwgallow@samford.edu
and we will make sure you get registered for the tournament! IMPORTANT: Please Make Checks
Payable to: Ryan Galloway, Tournament Director.
Tentative Schedule Friday, 23 September
2011
1-2 PM Registration,
Brooks Hall 2:30 PM Pairings
released & Extemporaneous Draw 4:00 PM Round
1 of all Events 5:00 PM Flight
B 5:30 PM Extemporaneous
Draw, Round 2 6:00 PM Round
2 of all Events 7:00 PM Flight
B 7-7:45 PM Dinner
Break 8 PM Extemporaneous
Draw, Round 3 8 PM Round 3 of
all Events 8:45 PM Flight
B Saturday,
24 September 2011
8:00 AM Extemporaneous
Draw, Finals 8:00 AM Round
4 of all Debate Events/IE Finals 9:30 AM Flight
B 10:00 AM Round
5 of all Debate Events 11:30 AM Flight
B 12:30PM Round
6 of all Debate Events 1PM IE Awards
Assembly, Brooks Hall 2:30 PM Elimination
rounds begin 5:30 PM Awards
Assembly, Brooks Auditorium | ||||
