Dexter Delight Debate ONLINE Tournament

December 3, 2022

You and your team are invited to attend the Dexter Debate ONLINE Tournament on December 3. We are offering two debate options—pick the one that fits your team best!

CONGRESSIONAL: Saturday-only tournament for Novice and Varsity. We will offer 2 preliminary sessions and a Super Session. One judge is required for every 5 debaters. Bills are due to marshd@dexterschools.org no later than WEDNESDAY, November 22, at 5:00 PM so that I can get the packets back to registered schools by Monday, November 28, at the latest. Each school attending the tournament MUST submit one bill. ALL Students must be entered on tabroom.com. If you have trouble, please ask! We will give speaker awards in each division.

PUBLIC FORUM: Saturday-only tournament for Varsity, Novice, and MIDDLE LEVEL using MIFA rules. The topic for VARSITY and NOVICE will be the MIFA November/December topic. Resolved: The United States’ strategy of Great Power Competition produces more benefits than harms. The topic for

MIDDLE LEVEL will be the September/October topic. Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase its investment in high-speed rail.

We will offer 4 preliminary rounds with appropriate elimination rounds based on entries. Judges One judge is required for every 4 debaters—lay judges are preferred. All judges are required to judge one round beyond the team's elimination. ALL STUDENTS and JUDGES must be entered on tabroom.com. We will give elimination and speaker awards based on entries.

Judges: We will have some judges available for hire if necessary, but please ask early so that I can accommodate you. One day hired judges will cost $100.

Food: We hope that you eat a healthy breakfast, a solid lunch, and that we’ll get finished in time for you to have a wonderful dinner with your family and friends.

Fees: Public Forum units will be $25 per 2 person team

Congressional entries will be $10 per student

MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO Dexter Speech Activities and mail them to Deb Marsh/Dexter Speech Activities, 2200 N. Parker Road, Dexter, MI 48130. If you prefer to pay with a credit card, you may do so using this link: https://dexterschools.ce.eleyo.com/course/580/dcs-22-23/dexter-debate-tournament-registration-22-23

Entry: The deadline for entry is Tuesday, November 29, at 5:00 pm. All fees and judge commitments will be frozen at this time. The best way to enter is through tabroom.com.

This LIVE DOC will be updated with all links and schedule changes.

Email me at marshd@dexterschools.org, or contact me by my cell at (810) 623-0791—leave a message or text me.

ONLINE BALLOTING: We will be using online balloting for ALL Divisions of Debate, both Public Forum Debate and Congress. Your debaters and judges will need to create an account on TABROOM.COM. Here is a link to a video explaining how to create an account: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyTqMwhRJpo&t=4s

We will be using the online Coin Flip for Public Forum. You may want to let your students know how to use it if they haven't already. Here is a doc that will help.

Forfeit: We hope to run on time, so we'll be using a version of the 15 minute forfeit rule in that if your students and/or your judges are not in their rounds by 15 minutes past the scheduled time for the round to begin, the students of the offending judge or team will be forfeited. We will build a reasonable amount of time into the schedule.

Technical Difficulties: We will be using a 10 minute tech grace period. If a student loses their connection, the judge should contact tab right away, and note the time the problem began. Students have 10 minutes to fix their problem, if they can’t fix it, then they will have to forfeit the round. If the judge loses their connection the debaters should contact tab right away.

Saturday CONGRESSIONAL:

8:00 Registration Tournament Zoom

8:15 General Meeting for Judges and Students in Congress Gathering Zoom Room

8:45 Round 1 in Zoom rooms

10:45 Round 2 in Zoom rooms

12:45 Lunch Break

1:15 Elim Round Announcements in Congress Gathering Zoom Room

1:45 Super Sessions in Zoom rooms

3:15 Awards in Congress Gathering Zoom Room

Saturday Public Forum:

8:00 Registration Tournament Zoom

8:15 General Meeting for Judges and Students in PF Gathering Zoom Room

9:00 Round 1--Random NSDA Campus

10:15 Round 2—Random NSDA Campus

11:30 Round 3-Paired NSDA Campus

12:45 Lunch Break

1:30 Round 4—Paired NSDA Campus

2:45 Announcements/Awards in PF Gathering Zoom Room

3:15 Semis in Varsity and Novice, Middle Level Finals

4:30 Finals in Varsity and Novice

Resources for PF Judges

Judge Cheat Sheet–2 page document explaing what to do before, during, and after the round.

Easy Speaker Point Rubric— 1 page guide giving criteria for awardng speaker points.

Troubleshooting Connection Issues–1 page document with suggestions for tech trouble.

Useful video for learning how to judge–17 minutes, it was made by Massachusetts Speech and Debate League, but we run our rounds very similarly.

How to Flow a Debate Round (take notes)--9 minutes, also made by MSDL.

How to use Online Coin Flips--1 page document with directions