Friends,

It is my pleasure to invite you to the 17th annual Kansas City Kansas Community College TOC/DCI Qualifier to be held November 4^th - 6^th, 2022

The tournament is a qualifier at the Final Round level, in team policy debate, to the magnificent TOC in Lexington, KY. Additionally, the tournament has been deemed a qualifying tournament for KS teams interested in competing at the prestigious DCI tournament. The DCI bid level has commenced at the Octo-Final round in the past. The TOC bid and the designation as a DCI qualifier ensures that the tournament will be one of the most competitive experiences your students can hope for. In recent years we have had up to 95 teams from 7 states. Enter early to not be left out!

We are excited to host this event in wonderful Kansas City in the future. The invitation includes important information regarding schedule and procedures. We look forward to welcoming all of you to our Campus again

Awards: We will once again present an award to honor the memory of Aaron Thomas. Aaron was a national title winning debater at Kansas City KS Community College, and a successful coach for Lincoln Prep HS, a mentor and advocate for the KC UDL, Debate Kansas City, and a giant advocate for HS debate. We lost Aaron on January 1^st 2015, and we plan to honor his memory during the tournament.

Procedures: We will have 6 preliminary rounds of debate. Teams should come prepared to debate both sides of the 2022-2023High School resolution. Preliminary debates will be followed by an appropriate number of elimination debates determined by the number of teams entered. Time limits will be 8-minute constructive speeches, 3 minute cross-examination periods, 5 minute rebuttals, and 8 minutes of prep time per team. Last year we cleared all teams with a winning record to a partial Double-Octa Final bracket. We expect to clear all teams with a winning record again, up to a full double-octa finals in the TOC/DCI Division, and quarterfinals in Novice.

Novice Division: This year, each school entered in the TOC/DCI Division is allowed to enter up to 2 teams in the Novice Division. Entry fee will be the same, as will be the requirement to provide judging to cover the team. We expect Novice to clear to Quarter Finals.

Entry Fees: We want to be accessible and to that end will keep our entry fees low in comparison to other TOC events. For the competition you can expect, the judging pool we will have, and the hospitality offered, you will be hard pressed to find such quality at such a low cost. Team entry fees will be assessed at $30.00 per team. All entries will be initially waitlisted until names and judges are entered. I understand that times are tough economically on programs. While I know $30.00 is cheap for what you will get, I want to be accessible to all programs. If the fees make it difficult for you to attend, please let me know so we can work something out. We expect to have a substantial draw from throughout the Midwest. Please register early. Please enter, even if it's just numbers of teams and you need to figure out names later.

Fee Payment: All paid fees will result in you receiving a receipt for payment. The preferred method of payment is either cash (so we can pay our judges and vendors over the weekend), or a check made out to KCKCC Debate.Anyone paying the judge fee will not be able to pay this fee through a purchase order since those judges will need to be paid by the tournament while they are there.Please make sure to plan ahead if you are going to be paying a judge fee. Anyone who must pay entry fees by purchase order, please complete this paperwork early so your schools can cut a check. We are still waiting on payments from some schools that entered last year and arrived with a purchase order. This creates a financial burden on the ability to host.

Registration: All entries and judge prefs will be done via tabroom.com. If you do not have a tabroom.com account, please begin the process now signing up for it, getting your students entered, and your judges. All ballots will be electronic this year. This makes it imperative ALL judges have a tabroom.com account, are linked to your program, and have a smart phone or tablet/laptop device they can enter their ballot on at the conclusion of the debate. Please do not overlook this step. If you need help navigating tabroom.com please send me an email. There are also many KS high school coaches well versed in it now who would probably be willing to help.

An updated team list will always be visible on tabroom.com under KCKCC DCI TOC Qualifier. Any teams without names for the entries and/or missing judging will be the first teams removed on the Monday prior to the tournament in order to let other teams in from the wait list. Please make sure your judging is covered or you have communicated with me your hiring needs.

Judging: Each school needs to provide 1 qualified judge for every 2 teams entered. This person will be expected to judge each debate (6 prelims) and the first elimination round and 1 round past your final teams elimination. If you have 3 teams you need to provide 9 rounds of prelim judging, with both judges being available for the first elim round. You are welcome to bring more than 1 judge and have them split the commitment. Please indicate those requirements when entering. There will be a limited number of judges available for hire. They are on a first come basis. The fee for uncovered teams will be assessed at $80 per team in addition to the $30.00 entry fee. The ability to hire judges is not guaranteed and schools who believe they may have trouble covering their judging should make arrangements as early as possible to secure hired judging. We will use a judge preference system. I am requesting that each judge entered in the tournament complete a judge philosophy statement on tabroom.com as well that teams can access prior to filling out judge preference forms. NO registration is complete without the judge philosophy form. A sample form can be found at the bottom of this invitation. You can have your judges use this form OR they can create their own, as long as the basic information below is included. The philosophy forms need to be uploaded to tabroom.com.

Please go to tabroom.com and make sure your judges have a philosophy posted. The deadline to get philosophies in will be 1 week prior to the tournament. Any changes after that time must be approved. Anyone not submitting a philosophy statement will not be considered as a judge meeting the entry requirements, and teams may be dropped to make room for teams on the waiting list, or charged a hired judge fee. Please do not overlook this part of the entry. Coaches who may want to pick-up ballots but are not the full-time judge are asked to fill out a philosophy as well. Just let me know what rounds and when you would like to judge.

Judges should also accompany their teams if their teams are in elimination rounds on Sunday. In the past we have had some trouble with judges committed for Sunday no-showing. It creates quite a strain on the tournament if not enough judges are present. If you have teams debating, please make sure your judges will be there.

Finally, judges must fulfill the prelim commitment based on the requirements above. For example, if you have a judge who is covering 6 rounds of your obligation but is only available Friday, then you are still 3 rounds short. Likewise, everyone is committed to elim rounds, but those rounds do not count towards your overall prelim commitment. A judge available all day Sunday, does not count towards a three round commitment during prelims. Make sure to have 3 rounds of prelim debates covered for every team you enter.

Laptops and Internet: All new KSHSAA guidelines for virtual competitions will be respected and abided by. Please email Mike Harris with any questions or if you need a copy of the Kansas regulations. Mharris4@usd259.net.

On behalf of Kansas City Kansas Community College Debate, the Division of Arts, Communication and Humanities, the offices of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Student and Financial Services, the College President and Board of Trustees, we look forward to seeing you in November for excellent competition.

Sincerely,

Darren Elliott

Director of Debate and Forensics

KCKCC

7250 State Avenue

Kansas City, KS 66112

(913)288-7295 (office)

(316)214-9502 (cell)

(913)288-7638 (fax)