September 24, 2021

Dear Forensic Coaches, Judges and Participants:

On behalf of the Timberline Debate Team, it is our pleasure to invite you to the Novice Debate Season Opener Tournament at Timberline High School on Friday , October 22nd, 2021. The tournament will consist of competition in a variety of events. 

In debate events, we will offer Congressional Debate, Policy Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Public Forum Debate. In LD and PF, we will be offering four rounds of debate. In Congressional Debate, we will hold three preliminary sessions.  LD and PF will use the NSDA November/December Topics.  Policy Debate will adhere to the Idaho Novice Policy Debate Packet. 

This is a novice only tournament.  As such only novice debaters may compete.  For this tournament a “novice” is defined as a first-year debate student who has never competed in a forensics tournament (speech or debate) and has not attended any debate instructional camps.  If you have questions about eligibility, please email Kara.smith@boiseschools.org

This tournament utilized experienced varsity debaters as judges.  We believe this gives varsity debaters the ability to see rounds from the judge’s perspective as well as fostering compassion for the role of judges. Varsity students are expected to give valuable, encouraging feedback to the students they judge.

Teams should bring at least the following number of qualified judges:

Policy Debate: 1 Judge for every 2 teams

Public Forum: 1 Judge for every 4 teams

Lincoln-Douglas: 1 Judge for every 4 entries

Congressional Debate: 1 Judge covers 5 entries

The invitation packet should answer any questions you may have about the tournament. If you need any additional information, please email us at Kara.smith@boiseschools.org

Best,

Tournament Management