Logistics

This post contains many very important bits of information about the tournament. Please read it all carefully, and send it to any adults who are traveling with your team, to ensure a smooth start on Friday!

1. Locations: There are two different buildings at Pennsbury High School and three cafeterias, and we are using all of them! Please pay careful attention to who needs to go where. CX and Congress will base from the Orange Cafeteria at PHS West. Speech will base from the Falcon Cafeteria at PHS West. LD and PF prelims will be contested at PHS East, moving to the Orange Cafeteria at PHS West for lunch and elims on Saturday.These buildings are on the same campus and would be walkable in better weather. We will have shuttle buses available to move LD and PF competitors and judges over to PHS West on Saturday. If you are driving, please see directions between PHS buildings. Please see the map of best parking lots/entrances; the map of PHS West with important sites labeled; and the map of PHS East with important sites labeled.
   
   PHS East: 705 Hood Blvd, Fairless Hills, PA
   PHS West: 608 S. Olds Blvd, Fairless Hills, PA
     
2. Registration: Please do not arrive before 2:30 or after 3:30. Any changes not reported by 3:30pm on Friday will be assessed a $10 chaos fee. This year, we will utilize online registration, allowing you to confirm that your team is all accounted for with no changes. When you leave your school, please confirm your entries on tabroom.com. If you have any changes, please email pennsburyfalcon@gmail.com.All schools competing in Speech and Congress must check in on the Falcon Cafeteria side of PHS West. There are important materials that we need schools to pick up. Please note that Congress will be held on the other side of PHS West! You may wish to drive around after registration. Speech will stay on that side of the building for the duration of the tournament, including awards.
     
   

   Debate schools do not need to physically check in except to pay. You may register and report changes at tab in PHS East or at debate tab in PHS West for Policy only. However, debate tab will only be equipped to receive registration checks, not to make change or sign invoices. For those things, you must report to the Speech side.

   Please inform any of your judges traveling separately that they should check in with YOU, not with us. The full Tournament Schedule: https://pennsburyfalcon.wordpress.com/policies/schedules/

   Again, please see the maps to know where to go!

3. Payment: Checks are payable to Pennsbury School District (W-9 available on tabroom). Your tabroom invoice is your official invoice as of the close of registration. If you have any questions about the amount displayed, please contact me ASAP. Pay in either building as above.
     
4. Changes: Tabroom.com will allow name changes and drops until Friday at 8am. Tabroom will also be locked at this time, so any further changes must be reported to me at pennsburyfalcon@gmail.com. Entry fees and judge obligations are locked as of last Friday. Please check that your registrations are correct and that the contact information listed for your school is the actual adult attending the tournament.Please help us start on time by reporting any drops when you leave your school rather than when you arrive at ours. And once again, you must report any changes by Friday at 3:30; changes we discover after 3:30 will cost you a $10 chaos fee.
     
5. Topics: We will use the national Policy resolution (education), the Jan-Feb NSDA LD topic (plea bargaining), and the February NSDA PF topic (capital gains tax). Please see http://www.speechanddebate.org/topics for full wording. Congress legislation is available at https://pennsburyfalcon.wordpress.com/congress/. Remember that the agenda is set in the legislation packet.
     
6. Rules: Please see https://pennsburyfalcon.wordpress.com/policies/ and the rest of the website for many of our tournament rules. Please play close attention to the rules about JV LD and Policy eligibility and let us know immediately if you need a division switch.
     
7. Judges
   1. E-ballots: All CX, LD, and PF judges and students should be linked for electronic balloting. Please see instructions at http://docs.tabroom.com/Sign_Up. This will activate blast text/email pairings and enable use of eballots for judges, reading eballots for students. We will also send blasts for Speech rounds but it is less essential. You can find pairings (when the tournament starts) at pfi.tabroom.com, and can go there now to set up Live Updates if you'd like to receive blasts for someone other than yourself.
   2. Strikes: Policy and LD entries may enter judge strikes any time between 5pm tonight and 3:00pm Friday. You must enter your strikes via tabroom – log in to your registration and you will see the Prefs tab now available. Strikes are open to schools who don’t change judges after strikes open, so if you must make a change please do so immediately. Please be a good citizen and ensure that your debate judges have paradigms posted at either tabroom or http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/.
   3. Obligation lengths: All debate judges are obligated through Quarters OR two rounds past their school's furthest advancing competitor, whichever is later. All speech judges are obligated through Finals and we've already started assigning excellent elim panels.
   4. We intend to fine judges who miss round assignments, including attempts to use you as a replacement. Do not rely on the texts - check a schematic or hang near tab. The wifi worked very well for us last year but PHS is not known for cell reception. It is the affirmative duty of all judges to be certain that they are not assigned. "I missed the text" will not get you out of a fine.
8. Supplementals: We offer FREE Supplemental Events of Radio Announcing and Improvisational Duo. These events are intended for students who do not earn awards in their main events. Please see https://pennsburyfalcon.wordpress.com/policies/events/supplemental-events/ for more information. Encourage your students to sign themselves up on Saturday!
9. Food: Both buildings will serve dinner on Friday. Lunch will only be at PHS West on Saturday. Students can purchase lunch a la carte in the cafeterias; judges' meals (including Saturday breakfast) will be available in the judges' lounges in each building. Snacks will be available for purchase throughout in both buildings.
10. Double-entry: Many competitors are double- or triple-entered in Speech events, and many for the first time. Check out https://pennsburyfalcon.wordpress.com/policies/how-to-double-enter/ for more on how that works.

If you have any questions about this information, or anything else about the tournament, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to seeing you on Friday!

Jeff Kahn
Tournament Director