2013 California Invitational 
Hosted by the University of California, Berkeley 
February 16-18, 2013

Greetings,

We look forward to your attendance at the 40th annual Cal High School Forensics Tournament!

Please visit our website: calinvitational.com.  On the website you should find all of the information you need to enter and attend the tournament. Please read through the entire website thoroughly before entry, since it will answer the overwhelming majority of questions you may have.

THERE IS A THREE STEP REGISTRATION PROCESS.  YOU MUST COMPLETE ALL THREE STEPS TO REGISTER BEFORE JANUARY 10^TH OR INCUR LATE FEES::

1) Go to tabroom.com, find “The Cal Invitational – UC Berkeley” on the list of upcoming tournaments, and then enter your teams and judges.

2) Use the fee calculator on the website to input your contact and entry information (http://calinvitational.com/registration/fee-calculator/). Hit the print button to print out the resulting fee form.

3) Mail the “Contact information and Fees” form along with a check made out to UC Regents to the following address:

Jonah Feldman
102 Hearst Gym MC4500
Berkeley, CA 94720

Every year we have a waitlist in all events. You will not be guaranteed a spot until you complete all three of the registration steps and receive a confirmation e-mail saying we have received your check and information sheet.

All entries, accompanied by fees, must be received by January 10th, 2013. Please allow additional time for your entry to navigate the Berkeley mail system.

Any entries received after the January 10th deadline will be accessed a $25 late fee. Any entries received after February 1 will be assessed a $50 late fee. It is also VERY possible that we will have to turn away late entries due to space limitations.

We will be making 2 improvements to increase the quality of judging

1) All judges in Varsity Policy and Varsity LD will be required to post a judge philosophy at judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com

2) We will be taking your judging commitments VERY SERIOUSLY and cracking down on missed ballots.  The number of missed ballots has skyrocketed in recent years which has resulted in some students not receiving the high quality of judging that they deserve.  It is the responsibility of each school to ensure that their judges show up when they are supposed to.  The missed ballot fee is $40 per ballot which MUST BE PAID before students are allowed to compete in elims and before awards and ballots are distributed.  We will be tracking judging very closely and sending out notifications when ballots are missed.

LD, Policy Debate, and Individual Events will occur on the Cal campus for all three days. Public Forum and  Congressional Debate preliminary rounds on Saturday and Sunday will occur at Skyline High School, which is in Oakland about 10 miles from the Cal campus. Elimination rounds for Public Forum and Congressional Debate, on Monday, will occur on the Cal campus.

Moving PF and Congressional Debate to Skyline for Saturday and Sunday will reduce some of the congestion and delays we have experienced when all events have been held on campus. We will make all possible allowances to ensure that having these events at Skyline will be as easy for you as possible. Food options will be available on the Skyline campus. We will provide detailed maps and directions to anyone who will be driving their students to Skyline.A bus will be leaving on Saturday and Sunday mornings from the Berkeley campus to Skyline high school, and returning on Saturday and Sunday evenings from Skyline to the Berkeley campus. Bus shuttle service will cost $25 per person.

All inquiries should be directed to jonahfeldman@berkeley.edu

Every school must register on Friday night at the Marriott Courtyard Emeryville, no exceptions.

We look forward to seeing you in February!

Sincerely,

Jonah Feldman                                                    Jason Peterson
Cal Director of Forensics                                 Assistant Director of Forensics