Dear Debate Coach and Squad:

We invite you to enter the annual Shawnee Mission West Novice Invitational Debate Tournament to be held Saturday, November 9. We will host two novice divisions. Limited Experience Novice is ONLY for debaters with 1 or 0 tournaments under their belt and will be Saturday only; they may not stray from the Novice Packet with arguments or research. Open Novice is for any novice debaters and will be five rounds, Saturday only. This division is not bound by the Novice Packet on either side.

You are guaranteed entry for four teams; you may request extras, and they will be awarded as follows: schools that give us extras, SMSD schools, EKNSDA schools, all others. We can host 120 teams, so when that number is reached with initial entries, entry to the tournament will close.

We will award medals to the top eight teams in each division. The first two rounds will be pre-set, and the rest will be power-matched. Sweepstakes awards will go to first, second, and third place schools and will be based on preliminary records of the top four teams per school with at least one entry in each division.

We will have a concession stand and will offer a $5 meal deal.

We look forward to seeing you on November 9!

Sincerely,

Rose Lawler Andrea Corona

Director of Debate and Forensics Debate Captain and Tournament Director

Saturday November 9

Rd 1 8:00

Rd 2 9:30

Rd 3 11:15

Lunch 12:45-1:15

Rd 4 1:15

Rd 5 2:45

Awards ASAP

Rules and Regulations

1. Prep time will be 8 minutes for all divisions.

2. Entry fees will be $8.00 per team (or whatever we pay you). Invoices will be sent during tournament week.

3. The registration deadline is November 1 at 5:00pm.

4. Your bill will reflect the number of entries you have on file at the deadline, or the number who actually compete, whichever is greater. Please keep your numbers up to date!

5. All coaches/sponsors are on standby to judge. While we try to fill judging positions with adults, we sometimes use trustworthy advanced debaters to judge. You will not be asked to provide any judges beyond your sponsor being on standby unless you are granted more than four teams. We pride ourselves in covering our judge burden when we host, so we will only do this if your entries impact our judging abilities.

6. Any team more than 10 minutes late to a round through no fault of the tournament will forfeit the round.

7. Extras will be distributed fairly the week and day of the tournament.

8. Students and judges may utilize the building’s wireless network during rounds to exchange speech docs using an email chain or similar or conduct research. Anyone using the network to communicate with someone outside the round will lose the round and be disqualified from medaling. While we will provide a password for our guest wifi, we do NOT guarantee connection, so debaters should be prepared to flash evidence.

9. Limited Experience is limited to debaters with 0 or 1 tournament of experience. We reserve the right to disqualify any students found in violation of this rule. LE is also limited to the Novice Packet as used by the Washburn Rural tournament.

10. Tabroom.com will be utilized for all tournament functions. Balloting will be on paper ballots.

11. Any grievances will be resolved by a committee of my choosing.