Dexter Delight Debate Tournament

December 2, 2023

UPDATES for Saturday

Order of bills for Congress will be:

Round 1--Bills 1, 5, 7, and 12 Round 2--Bills 2, 4, 8, and 9 Round 3--Bills 3, 6, 10, and 11

Tournament Invitation

You and your team are invited to attend the Dexter Debate Tournament –IN PERSON on December 2. We are offering two debate options Public Forum and Congressional.

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 21, at 5:00 PM so that I can get the packets back to registered schools by Monday, November 27, 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 ALL 3 Divisions will be the NSDA and MIFA November/December topic. It will be posted as soon as it is announced. Resolved:

We will offer 4 preliminary (possibly 5) rounds with appropriate elimination rounds based on entries. One judge is required for every 4 debaters or fraction thereof. 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 I can accommodate you. One day hired judges will cost $100.

Food: We will offer breakfast items in the morning at registration and a variety of options for a healthy, or a not-so-healthy (your choice ????) lunch. There aren’t any nearby fast food options that would be quick enough for you to eat during the tournament lunchtime. Please support our team by purchasing lunch during the tournament.

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 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 or if it doesn’t work, please type in the url below. https://dexterschools.ce.eleyo.com/course/778/dcs-23-24/dcs-debate-and-forensics-2023-24 You can also search DCS Debate and Forensics 2023-24 in the search bar on this page

Entry: The deadline for entry is Tuesday, November 28, 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 if necessary.

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

Forfeit: We hope to run on time, so we'll be using a 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.

****Please tell your students and judges that oral critiques in Public Forum are allowed, and disclosure is based on the judge’s discretion; HOWEVER, oral critiques MAY NOT LAST MORE THAN 15 MINUTES and the judge’s ballot MUST BE SUBMITTED AND CONFIRMED BEFORE they can offer their comments. Judges SHOULD NOT keep students from their lunch break or from prepping for their next round.

Saturday CONGRESSIONAL:

7:30-8:00 Registration in the Media Center–students to the Commons

8:30 General Meeting for Judges and Students in Commons

9:00 Round 1

10:45 Round 2

12:30 Lunch Break for students in the Commons, for judges in room 144

1:30 Super Sessions

3:30 Awards in Congress in the Commons

Saturday PUBLIC FORUM:

7:30-8:00 Registration Tournament Zoom

8:30 General Meeting for Judges and Students in Commons

9:00 Round 1--Random

10:15 Round 2—Random

11:30 Round 3-Paired High Low Brackets

12:30 Lunch Break

1:15 Round 4—Paired Hig Low Brackets

2:45 Round 5 and/or Quarter Finals

4:00 Awards in Public Forum in the Commons

4:30 Elim Round–Please announce in round

5:45 Elim Round if necessary–Please announce in round

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 awarding 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 via Tabroom—1 page document.