Voices Lincoln Douglas Debate Invitational & Round Robin

October 5-8, 2012

Presentation High School – San Jose, CA

You are cordially invited to participate in the first ever Voices Lincoln Douglas Debate Tournament on Columbus Day Weekend, October 5-8, 2012. We will provide competition in Varsity and Novice Lincoln Douglas debate. The tournament will use the NFL September/October topic and has been designated a TOC qualifying tournament for all students reaching the Semifinals.

VOICES FOUNDATION:

 The Voices Foundation was established to help make high school debate accessible to all students, regardless of financial circumstance. The Foundation strives to address shortfalls of resources and support that impede participation by financially disadvantaged individuals and teams through educational programs, outreach efforts to high schools and middle schools trying to start teams, and scholarships for summer camp, tournaments, and coaching.

The goal of the tournaments is to generate more than $5,000 for the Voices Foundation. That money will go to help the record number of aid applicants attend summer debate institutes and tournaments during the year.   By paying entry fees and purchasing food at the tournament, all participants and attendees will be directly supporting these scholarships.   We hope that you can join us for this tremendous event for the entire community.

THE TOURNAMENT:

The tournament will be able to accommodate up to 100 Varsity, and 50 Novice competitors in Lincoln Douglas debate. Once we reach the cap in either event we will start a waitlist that will prioritize new school admission and then smaller school entries. There will be an initial cap of 7 entries in Varsity and 5 in Novice. Those caps will be lifted mid-September.

All entries must be submitted through Joy of Tournaments. No exceptions.

Both divisions will feature six preliminary rounds of debate and will clear all winning records to the elimination rounds up to a full double-octafinal. Mutual preference judging will be available to all schools whose judges have entered their paradigms at http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/.

ROUND ROBIN:

The Voices Round Robin will be open to all observers. Historically the Round Robin experiments with changes in format and forum with a focus on moving the activity forward while asking competitors to stretch the boundaries of what Lincoln Douglas debate should look like. We invite everyone in the area of all competitive levels to observe and participate in the discussions. Information about the Round Robin schedule and format is located under "Voices Round Robin" Link at the top of this page.

VOICES FORUM:

As in years past, Voices will also host an Educational Forum before the Final Round of the Round Robin designed to promote a competitor oriented discussion on the direction of the activity and the details of the topic moderated by a panel of debate educators with questions from the Round Robin and Tournament competitors.  Both the forum and the Round Robin Final Round will be held at the Campbell Community Center to promote these events as a truly public experience.  They will occur after the start of the formal Tournament on Saturday with the design that all in attendance at the Tournament will be able to watch these events. This year, Panelists for the Educational Forum will be selected by nomination at the time of registration for the Voices Tournament.  Coaches and competitors are suggested to nominate individuals they feel have a strong intellectual interest in the direction of the LD Debate.  All contestants at the Round Robin and Tournament are eligible for nomination.  

LOCATION:

Presentation High School is located in south San Jose near the Willow Glen neighborhood. We ask that you park on campus during your time on campus. We also ask that students remain on campus for the duration of competition. Ample food will be available for purchase on campus that will help raise money for the Voices Foundation.