Dear Forensics Director:

It is our pleasure to welcome the member schools of the Barkley Forum for High Schools to the 61st Annual Barkley Forum for High Schools at Emory University in Atlanta, which will be held January 29, 30, and 31, 2016. It is an equal pleasure to invite applications from other schools to be with us in January. Emory University has a historic commitment to forensics, both high school and college. We look forward to seeing the member schools, and we anticipate invitations (which follow applications) for the interested schools of the United States with superior debate and forensic students.

Melissa Wade Retirement: As you may be aware, Melissa Wade is retiring from Emory University to work pro bono as the president of the Glenn Pelham Foundation for Debate Education.  In honor of her lifetime of dedication to forensics and her commitment to striving to bring debate opportunities to all students, we will be renaming the Social Justice Award the Melissa Maxcy Wade Social Justice Award.  We will be celebrating Melissa at the opening assembly at the Marriott Century Center on Friday, January 29th from 11:30-1:00, and we hope you and your students can be there.  

2017 Dates:  Based on your feedback, we have decided not to move the 2017 tournament to MLK weekend.  The 2017 BFHS will be held January 27-29, 2017. 

Changes: Based on your feedback from 2015, here are important changes and information for 2016:

• We will again have all events on the Emory campus.  Please note that Emory is a tobacco-free campus.  For more information, please visit www.tobaccofree.emory.edu.
• We will be using tabroom.com to tab all divisions.  We require that all judges have an established, functional tabroom account prior to being registered as a judge.  If there are any questions about this requirement, please feel free to let us know.
• If students qualify to participate in the tutorials (i.e., clear), they are expected to be available through the final exhibition round to respect their opponents and the participants who will learn from their performance.  If a student must leave the tournament and cannot participate in a tutorial or exhibition round for which s/he has qualified, s/he will forfeit his/her award and all rounds after preliminary rounds.  Special circumstances may lead to rare exceptions to this rule at the tournament director’s discretion.  We are providing this information so you may make your travel plans accordingly. 
• We ask that students competing in Pelham, LD, or Public Forum debate students have their parents complete a permission form allowing them to be audio taped. This is necessary to implement our clipping guidelines, which can be found by clicking here.  Please review these guidelines with your students. The audio permission form is available here.  Please send your permission forms to Tim Mahoney, pacedebate@gmail.com, or fax them to Tim at 425-740-9130. He keeps a running list of students who have submitted forms on file. If your students have previously submitted forms in 2015 to Tim, they do not need to submit another form.
• Speech:  We will again be offering five preliminary rounds in speech this year.  Extemporaneous Speaking is moving back to Pattern A.
• Public Forum:  Participants will again get three judge strikes.
• LD and Pelham:  We will again return to the tradition of Blue Ribbon Panels in Pelham and Lincoln Douglas divisions.  In these divisions, judges will be assigned by mutual preference in all preliminary rounds and in the tutorials up to and including the Richard B. Sodikow Tutorial in Pelham and the Patricia Bailey Tutorial in LD.  The exhibition rounds in all divisions will be evaluated by a panel of judges from the Key Coaches of the Barkley Forum.  The judges for the Sandra Worthington Silvers Tutorial in Pelham and the Marilee Dukes Tutorial in LD will be drawn from a pool of Blue Ribbon panelists that will be announced at registration.  The Blue Ribbon panelists will be drawn from coaches and dignitaries attending the tournament including, but not limited to, those in the mutual preference pool.  Blue Ribbon panelists will be selected for their contributions to forensics education with the confidence that they will honor the intelligent and responsible commitment of the tutorial participants.
• We are renaming the Social Justice Award the Melissa Maxcy Wade Social Justice Award.  Remember, in addition to a $400 award to the charitable organization of the recipient’s choosing, $100 is awarded to the student’s/nominator’s debate program.  Nominate a student using the form found here and email the form to emorybfhs@gmail.com

Applications to attend from non-member schools must be entered on the BFHS website no later than December 7, 2015.  Indications of attendance from member schools must be entered on the website by the same date. Shortly thereafter, an email will be sent to all the schools that have been selected to attend.

In order to launch the tournament appropriately, congratulate Melissa Wade on her retirement, and celebrate the 61st anniversary of the tournament, we will have an Opening Awards Assembly for all students, coaches, and judges from 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on Friday, January 29th in the ballroom of the Marriott Century Center during which participants will hear a keynote speaker, recognize the new KEY coaches, and honor the winner of the Melissa Maxcy Wade Social Justice Award. We are honored that Mr. David Baker, Director of Admissions & Financial Aid and Former Debate Coach at St. Mark’s School of Texas and Key Coach, will be our keynote speaker this year. We also anticipate that pairings will be available at the end of the Opening Awards Assembly. 

For guests wishing to use the electronic registration alternative, please note that your entry fees must be received by the Barkley Forum prior to registration. (See FAQ section for more information on how e-registration works.)

Please note that students’ participation in the Barkley Forum for High Schools constitutes consent to use their image in promotional materials for the tournament/Barkley Forum.

In Public Forum Debate, we are accepting two entries from Member Schools and will accept a third if the third team has cleared at a minimum of three open division high school tournaments this year and we have the room capacity to do so.  We will consider the 3rd team the team with the least competitive success this year. We will accept three applications from non-member schools, and admission will be granted based upon space available.

In Congressional Debate, we are accepting eight entries from Member Schools.  We will accept eight applications from non-member schools, and admission will be granted based upon the space available. 

The Pelham Debates feature two-person, switch-sides debating using the cross-examination format. Member schools will send their most experienced teams since the FORUM IS NOT A PRACTICE-TYPE TOURNAMENT.  This year we are accepting two entries from Member Schools and will accept a third if the third team has cleared at a minimum of three open division high school tournaments this year and we have the room capacity to do so.  We will consider the 3rd team the team with the least competitive success this year. We will accept three applications from non-member schools, and admission will be granted based upon space available. There will be six preliminary rounds of debate. The top 32 teams will be asked to participate in five exhibition rounds.  We will have a mutual judge preference system for the Pelham Debates, so it is especially important that your judges are entered accurately in a timely fashion.  If your judges are not entered by the time prefs go up, you will be required to pay the full judge hire fee.  Please have all judges post his or her judge philosophy at http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com.  More details about prefs will follow via email closer to the tournament date. Please note that the judge preferences do not apply to The Thomas Glenn Pelham Silver Key Debate. 

In Lincoln-Douglas, we are accepting two entries from Member schools. Applications for one Lincoln-Douglas entry will be reviewed from non-member schools.  After the first round of admittance decisions, a second entry will be considered based on space availability and the student's record. There will be six preliminary rounds of Lincoln-Douglas debate. Up to the top 32 individuals (with a 4-2 record or better) will be asked to participate in the exhibition rounds.  We will have a mutual judge preference system for the Lincoln-Douglas Debates again this year, so it is especially important that your judges are entered accurately in a timely fashion. If your judges are not entered by the time prefs go up, you will be required to pay the full judge hire fee.  Please have all judges post his or her judge philosophy at http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com.  More details about prefs will follow via email closer to the tournament date. Please note that the judge preferences do not apply to The Dale Lauder McCall Exhibition. 

In Speech Events, four entries per school are permitted in any one event. No triple entries will be allowed. 

The Final Awards Ceremony will be held in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Administration Building (WHSCAB).  You will not want to miss the Presentation of the Silver Keys and supportive awards, as it is nationally unique. 

If there are any last minute changes, please notify us in writing at EmoryBFHS@gmail.com. During the course of the tournament, we will be posting updates on the website, so please check the website frequently during the tournament.

We hope to bring you the best possible forensics experience we can offer.  May we hear from each of you soon.

Sincerely, 

Ed Lee, Tournament Director                                               

Kara Grant, Tournament Administrator