William DeMougeot Debates

Dear Community:

The University of North Texas Debate Forum and the Department of Communication Studies at UNT are pleased to invite you and your debate teams to attend the annual William R. DeMougeot Debates on January 6-8, 2017. The tournament this year will include three divisions of debate on the 2016-2017 CEDA/NDT topic, have quality preliminary rounds in Open, Junior, and Novice divisions, and clear to an appropriate number of elimination rounds for each division.  However, we will collapse the Novice division into the Junior Varsity division if necessary.

As our colleagues at the University of Texas at Dallas mentioned, this tournament is held in conjunction with the “Fear and Loathing in Dallas” tournament in order to provide two opportunities for quality competition in Texas’ lovely January weather. Participation in both debate tournaments is a prerequisite to winning the coveted “Texas Two-Step Award” given to the team with the best prelim record at the two tournaments. 

Preliminary rounds will be held on the University of Texas-Dallas campus and elimination rounds will be at The Wyndham Plaza Suites (tournament hotel).   

Please complete all elements of the entries by 7:00pm on Sunday, January 1, 2017. We will submit final orders for all food purchases that afternoon so correct information by the entry deadline is necessary. Please use the Tabroom.com for entering the teams, judges, and food preferences.

Sincerely,

Brian Lain, Director of Debate

Louie Petit, Associate Director of Debate

Danny Abraha, Assistant Coach

The North Texas Debate Forum

Hotel Accommodations –

Both the UTD and UNT Tournaments will be using the same hotel for the duration of the tournaments, thus we strongly encourage all tournament participants to stay at the host hotel. Tournament registration, tournament receptions, and all elimination round on January 8^th will occur at the hotel. The tournament will once again be at the Wyndham Plaza Suite which is located just north of the Westin Park Central and the LBJ freeway.  It is a quick drive between the hotel and the UT Dallas campus. Every room in the hotel is a suite. The rooms are quite large and can sleep 5 people. The block rates are $79 for a king or DBL/DBL. This rate will include internet access at no additional charge. The hotel offers ample free parking. Overall this is an exceptional value for such an amazing facility.

The group is listed as “UTD Debate Tournament 2017” and the group booking code is “01016822DT”.  Please make sure if they are calling in a reservation that they refer to either the group name or the booking code. Your attendees have several ways in which they can make reservations.

1.)    Direct to Wyndham Dallas Suites – Park Central – 972-233-7600 option 2, please reference group code “01016822DT”.

2.)    Wyndham Worldwide Reservations - 1-800-996-3426. Your attendees must identify themselves as part of the UTD Debate Tournament 2017 to receive the Group rate

3.)    Hotel Website – www.wyndham.com/hotels/46502, enter arrival and departure information. In Group Code field, enter “01016822DT” and click “Check Availability”.

The group cutoff date for reservations is Monday, December 19, 2016. While rooms may be available at the last minute, the hotel will only guarantee the block of rooms and the tournament rate for those reservations made before December 19, 2016. We suggest that your reserve your rooms as soon as possible.

Hotel Details:

Wyndham Plaza Suites – Dallas Park Central

7800 Alpha Road

Dallas, TX 75240

Front Desk: 972-233-7600

Our contact at the hotel if you encounter any trouble securing a reservation:

Rachael Carney

972-246-1078

REGISTRATION:

We will accept entries for the tournament through, January 2^nd, at 6:00 pm. If there are any problems, email me at louiepetit@gmail.com. Registration will be held in conjunction with the UTD registration on January 2^nd.

DIVISIONS:

We will have three divisions of debate at the tournament this year. Open division is open to any undergraduate student with eligibility. The junior division and Novice divisions are open to anyone who meets the CEDA eligibility standards for junior or novice participation.

JUDGING:

Each team seeking to enter should provide a qualified judge who will be available to judge at least three (3) preliminary rounds and who will comply with tournament rules. A judge covering the requirements for two teams should prepare to judge six (6) preliminary debates. A qualified judge is a currently active coach, graduate student, or former college debater. EVERY judge will be committed through the octafinal debates in the Open division.

We will have very few hired judges available this year. Please inform the UNT staff (Louie Petit) at least two weeks in advance if your team will need to pay the fee for uncovered teams. Funds gained by such fees will go towards to the hiring of qualified judges. Judges will be assigned on the basis of mutual preference with an emphasis on promoting diversity in the judging pool.

Please indicate to the tournament administration if a judge cannot judge all three divisions. Please repeat any such limitation in person at registration. Judges assigned to a debate by the tab room will be responsible for submitting a correctly completed ballot at the end of that debate. Judges should not leave the tournament unless their commitment has been fulfilled.

FORMAT AND RULES:

We will use the 9-3-6 format, with ten minutes preparation time per team in open and junior divisions. Rounds 1-2 will be preset. The rest will be powered.  Debate teams consist of TWO persons from the same school. Hybrid teams are acceptable, if entered prior to the beginning of round 1, and may advance to elimination rounds. In the event of illness, a single debater may debate 2 rounds alone but may not be allowed to clear based on the tournament director’s discretion.  We will NOT break brackets in elimination rounds. We will enforce a 2:45 limit on decision times for judges beginning with the posted start time of the round. The tournament will defer to the Council of Tournament Directors guide to resolving other matters.

All coin flips should be transparent.  Please do not pick-up the coin prior to your opponent having a chance to verify the result of the flip.  Failure to allow transparency in the process will result in tab administrating a new flip.

FEES:

The entry fees will be $70 per person in attendance regardless of division. One team requires three (3) rounds of judging. Two teams require six (6) rounds of judging. Uncovered teams will be assessed an additional fee of $40 per uncovered round & such judging fees will be used to secure the services of additional judging. We believe that our tournament will provide both high quality hospitality and strong competition relative to total costs of attendance. Please make checks payable to “North Texas Debate.” 

Schools that elect to hire judges that are not affiliated with a participating school or judges that schools elect to forgo covering their fees, the hiring school will be responsible for the judges per person fee. The judge being hired and the school hiring should work out an agreement prior to the tournament.   

All registrations will be considered final January 2^nd at 6:00pm.  Any drops after January 2^nd at 6:00pm will be non-refundable due to the tournaments contract with the carious catering companies. 

Hospitality

As usual the Texas Swings like to offer an amazing hospitality spread. 

Breakfast will be provided daily at the hotel

2 lunch

1 dinner

Awards

Coaches Reception on January 5^th at the Hotel  

Coaches Lounge during registration

Tab

Matthew Vega will be running the tab software. We plan to have a policy on MPJ to reflect current discussions in the community and in line with our colleagues at UT-D. Rounds one and two preset.

Student/Coach/Participant Conduct

All participants debate at the invitation of the University of Texas-Dallas and the University of North Texas according to its tournament rules as well as any rules of their sponsoring institutions. We abide by all rules and norms of CEDA and the AFA, including but not limited to CEDA's sexual harassment policy.

Structural Ableism

Please notify us directly and not just on Tabroom if you have an attendee who needs limited room movement.

Moreover, do not hesitate to let us know what else the tournament can do to make the experience better for debaters and coaches. 

And, we will post information about the location of our quiet room and availability of gender neutral restrooms as the tournament approaches. 

Schedule