Dear Coaches,

It is our pleasure to welcome you to the 2021 Taiwan NSDA Qualifying Tournament on April 3^rd and 4th!

While most of the world is still struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are lucky enough here in Taiwan to be able to gather together and celebrate the life-changing activity that is speech and debate by competing at the ONLY in-person NSDA qualifying tournament in the world this season!

In this invitation, you will find all important for the upcoming tournament. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me (williamsc@tas.edu.tw) or message me on Line (ID: jchasewilliams).

Thank you for all that you do to make Speech and Debate possible in Taiwan!

Chase Williams

Chair, Taiwan Speech and Debate Association

Teacher and Director of Debate 6-12, Taipei American School

Tournament Schedule

The most up-to-date schedule can be found on this Google Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q-ZSuLHoXaSqqLZdgFjQeXSbm-3LkWU38sNt4o0QbNA/edit?usp=sharing

All events will conclude on Saturday, April 3^rd except for Policy Debate, which will conclude on Sunday, April 4^th. This schedule is TENTATIVE and may change depending on entries. If we don’t need a quarters round, we’ll cut it. If we don’t need 4 prelims, we will decrease to 3.

Our goal is to run an efficient tournament that provides students with a quality experience. If there are edits to the schedule you would like use to consider, please let me know! We still have some flexibility at this point.

Tournament Registration

Registration is now open on Tabroom.com. You can sign-up your entries here:

http://tsda.tabroom.com

All entries, judges, and judge hire requests must be submitted by Monday, March 29^th at 5pm.

Tournament Venue

We are so thankful for the opportunity to host you on TAS’ campus in Tianmu.

TAS Address: 800 Zhongshan North Road, Section 6, Taipei Taiwan, ROC 11152

COVID-19 Regulations

Due to restrictions from the Taiwanese government and TAS’ administration, there will be COVID-19 regulations, including issuing of campus IDs, limits on classroom capacity, mask requirements, etc. More information will be released about this next week.

Debate Topics

In Policy Debate, the 2020-2021 resolution will be used: Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing.

In Public Forum Debate, the April 2021 NSDA resolution will be used: Resolved: The benefits of the International Monetary Fund outweigh the harms.

In Lincoln-Douglas Debate, the March/April 2021 NSDA resolution will be used: Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee universal child care.

Judging

·      For every 2 debate entries, schools will be asked to provide one qualified judge.

·      For every 6 speech entries, schools will be asked to provide one qualified judge

·      Every school participating in Congressional Debate must provide one qualified judge.

If you are unable to provide a required judge, you may purchase one for $3,000NT. These funds allow us to hire qualified judges for the tournament.

Entry Fees

Thanks to generous support from the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, we are able to offer very affordable entry fee rates.

·      For all individual events (Lincoln-Douglas, Speech, Congressional Debate) - $300NT/Entry

·      For all partner events (Policy Debate and Public Forum Debate) - $600NT/Entry

Payment information is as follows:

Bank Name: Mega International Commercial Bank , Lan Ya Branch

兆豐國際商業銀行 蘭雅分行

#126, Chung Shan North Road, Section 6, Taipei, Taiwan    R.O.C.

Bank Account Number: 010-10-40180-8

Bank Account Name: Taipei American School 台北美國學校

Swift Address: ICBCTWTP010

Please send us a confirmation after you wire transfer. If paid via ATM, please make sure to provide the last 5 digits of the account number for reference.

Chia-Wei Ting/Finance Department

FAX#:886-2-2873-1641

TEL: 886-2-2873-9900 Ext.302

E-mail:billing@tas.edu.tw

Food

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we are limited in our ability to provide food on-campus for the tournament.

We have two primary options:

·      Pre-ordering bento boxes or some other type of boxed lunch to serve students

·      Allow students and coaches to eat off-campus. There are a number of food options very close to campus. There are also a number of options on both Uber Eats and Food Panda, and the drivers are very used to delivering to the school.

Please let me know if you have a preference. If I don’t hear from coaches, I will go with the off-campus option.