Minnesota Debate Institute Holiday Invitational

MDI offers an affordable, equity-oriented summer camp for Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, and (NEW for Summer 2019) Congressional debate. We also offer programming to support debaters during the year.

To fundraise for our camp and other programming, and to offer Minnesota varsity debaters an affordable opportunity to debate in December before sections and state, we're hosting a tournament open to all. Out tournament will offer LD, PF, Congress and — for fun! — impromptu.

Tournament date: December 15, 2018.

Formats:

Open/varsity Lincoln-Douglas.

Open/varsity Public Forum.

Open/varsity Congressional debate. We understand that, since it's after Congress sections, the pool may be very small. We figured we'd offer Congress anyway so that there's an option for students looking to practice before state. 

NOTE: Public Forum will follow MDTA rules — sides are set by tab (a coin flip is NOT used).

Location: University of Minnesota—Twin Cities. Blegen Hall.

Tab, judges lounge, and student commons at Blegen Hall (269 19th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55455).

Topics:

Lincoln-Douglas — Resolved: The United States ought not provide military aid to authoritarian regimes.

Public Forum — Resolved: The United States federal government should prioritize reducing the federal debt over promoting economic growth.

Congress — Eight pieces of legislation compose the tournament packet. We picked this slate because it's too close to the tournament day to ask schools to write and submit their own legislation.

Impromptu speaking

Topic three can be a stressful time, so we'll be offering three fun rounds of impromptu! Speech length plus prep time will be five minutes. We ask that schools provide one judge for every 4 impromptu students (this person can of course also judge a debate category in addition to impromptu). Open to folks competing in LD or PF.

Judges:

You must provide one judge for every two entries in LD or PF.

You must provide one judge for every 5 entries in Congress (we understand that schools don't have five Congress debaters still competing at this point, so we may be able to split the judging cost between schools; email us if you are coordinating with another school to meet your obligation).

Please ensure your judges arrive on time so that we can keep the tournament on schedule. It'll be a cold day in mid-December; we all want to debate and then go home. Teams that arrive without their full complement of judges may be charged for hiring of additional judges or asked to drop entries. Please email us with any questions about your judge commitment! :)

Registering students:

We will accept registrations on tabroom.com. Our site is mdi.tabroom.com.

Registration is due by 10:00 PM on Wednesday, December 12th. Drops can continue on tabroom.com until 7:15 AM Saturday morning.

Fees:

$12.50 per LD competitor.

$12.50 per PF team.

$5 per Congressional debater

$1 per impromptu competitor. 

Please send checks, made out to the Debate Access Initiative, to:

Andrew Urevig

2741 Pillsbury Ave S #202

Minneapolis, MN, 55408

Schedule: 

Round 1 starts at 8:30 AM. We will have 5 rounds of debate for LD and PF, aiming to wrap up with awards by 4:00 PM at the very latest.

REGISTRATION OCCURS FROM 7:30 AM TO 8:15 AM.

Food: We will not be able to sell concessions. We will ask schools for their pizza orders if you would like to get pizza for your students.