Independent Entries

INDEPENDENT ENTRIES

Independent Entries

(With thanks and credit to Tim Aldrete of the Meadows School.)

In an effort to balance opportunities for competition with the need to run a safe, fair, and efficient tournament, we will ask students who wish to enter as “Independent Entries” to adhere strictly to all of the following procedures:

PROCESS and DEADLINE: Students wishing to attend the Golden Desert tournament as an independent entry or as an entry from a home school must complete the process below no later than January 1, 2023

TABROOM.COM – Entries must be made by coaches, school administrators, or chaperones. Entries may not be made by student accounts. All entries from a single school wishing to enter as an independent must be on the same entry.

SUBMITTING LETTERS: Please scan and submit completed letters to craig.hennigan@unlv.edu with “INDEPENDENT ENTRY” in the subject line. All students from one school must enter as One Independent Squad and submit all of their documents in a single PDF email attachment. All students from a given school must be entered from the same account.We will not accept multiple independent entries from the same school submitted from multiple "independent" accounts.

CHAPERONES: Even though an entry is "independent," the attending students must still be accompanied by a parent or designated ADULT chaperone who is legally responsible for the students and who will stay on campus throughout the duration of the tournament. Failure to meet this requirement will result in having all independent entries from a specific school removed from the tournament without a refund.

FEES: Independent entry fees are higher than non-Independent entry fees. Independent Entry fee payment MUST be received no later than January 1, 2024. Judge Fees for a Hired Judge must be included by January 1.

Varsity Policy Team-$260/team

Novice Policy Team-$260/team

Varsity LD -$180/debater

Novice LD-$180/debater

Varsity Public Forum-$250/team

Congressional Debate-$120/debater

TEAM NAME: The students must use a variant of the school or city name if the students attend a "school," but must use the addition "Independent" as a portion of the name. If you have difficulty with registering an account with Tabroom.com, please contact the website.

LETTERS/PERMISSION: To be accepted as an independent entry the attending group must include an authorization letter from the school and each set of parents or guardians no later than January 1, 2024.

BIDS: We will indicate in our tournament results to the TOC which entries are independent, as independent entries are precluded from receiving bids.

A letter signed by a school administrator (principal or vice-principal) on school letterhead, with the text as in the template below. This letter must list the names of all students competing, and must also list the name of the chaperone. THE TEXT OF THE LETTERS CANNOT BE CHANGED OR ADDED TO IN ANY SUBSTANTIVE WAY; FOR EXAMPLE, WE CANNOT AND DO NOT “INDEMNIFY SCHOOLS AGAINST LIABILITY” - that is an issue between the family of the attending student and their school.

A letter from a parent of each participant, with the text as in the template below.

THE TEXT OF THE LETTERS MUST READ AS FOLLOWS:

Parent Letter (template--copy/paste the text and fill in the blanks as appropriate):

Date

Dear Golden Desert Debate Tournament:

This letter is to inform you that we would like our child, ___________________, to attend the 2024 Golden Desert Debate Tournament from February 3-Februrary 4, 2024 as an independent entry, and that she/he does so with our full consent and permission. We have arranged for our child to be fully chaperoned and for transportation to our satisfaction, and accept full responsibility and liability for our child during the entire course of the event. We understand and agree that the Golden Desert Debate Tournament, the UNLV Debate Team, The Greenspun College of Urban Affairs, The University of Nevada Las Vegas, and the Nevada System of Higher Education, the state of Nevada, their employees, and their agents provide no chaperones for the event, and further agree that all of the aforementioned parties, and their agents are hereby relieved of any responsibility or liability of any sort for the supervision, safety, or wellbeing of our child.

The following person will be chaperoning our child:

Name: __________________________________

Cell phone: ________________________________

Relationship to child: __________________________________

By signing this we are certifying that we are in fact the legal guardians of the listed child, and have full legal authority to act on the listed child's behalf.

Signature: __________________________________

Date: __________________________________

e-mail: __________________________________

phone: __________________________________

School Letter-Must be submitted on school letterhead (template--copy/paste the text and fill in the blanks as appropriate):

Date

Dear Golden Desert Debate Tournament:

This letter is to inform you that we have no objection to children from our school attending the 2024 Golden Desert Debate Tournament from February 3-Februrary 5, 2024 as independent entries. We understand that the parents of the children have arranged for their children to be transported and fully chaperoned to their satisfaction, and they have agreed to accept full responsibility and liability for their children during the entire course of the event. We further understand and agree that the Golden Desert Debate Tournament, the UNLV Debate Team, The Greenspun College of Urban Affairs, The University of Nevada Las Vegas, and the Nevada System of Higher Education, the state of Nevada, their employees, and their agents provide no chaperones for the event, and have explained this to the parents of the children listed in this letter. These are the names of the children who attend our school for whom we are certifying that we do not object to their participation in the above described event:

[list of students, with full names, goes here]

By signing this I am certifying that I am an official of the school and that I have full authority to act on the school's behalf in matters of this kind.

School name/district: : __________________________________

Name (print) : __________________________________

Title: __________________________________

Signature: __________________________________

Date: __________________________________

e-mail: __________________________________

phone: __________________________________