Dear Coaches and Competitors,

Berkeley High Speech and Debate is delighted to invite you to our First Annual High School Parliamentary Debate Tournament on Saturday, March 18, 2017.  

Location

Berkeley High School is conveniently located at 1980 Allston Way, Berkeley, one block from the Downtown Berkeley BART station and many bus lines.  As a token gesture in the face of a federal government that denies climate change,  we offer a $5 discount on entry fees for any team that arrives via public transit.

Parking is very challenging: please leave extra time to find parking.

Please use the entrance at Allston, near Milvia.

Format

This one-day parli tournament will offer 4 single-flighted rounds of debate, breaking to finals, in both Open and Novice Divisions.  (Novice is defined as the first year competing in any debate event.)  

Internet prep is allowed (but not guaranteed: wifi may be spotty, so be prepared to research without it). Debaters may receive assistance only from their partners, and not from other debaters or coaches.  During rounds, debaters may use only handwritten materials prepared during prep, and may use anything as a timer.

Awards will be given to all teams with winning records, and the top two speakers in each division.

Judges

Please bring one judge per two teams (rounded up).  Judging fees are $75 per uncovered entry.  Most Berkeley High parent judges will have completed a two-hour judge training.  

Registration

Register on Tabroom.  No school fee.  The entry fee is $45/team for Novice and $55/team for Varsity.  Adds and drops should be made by March 10, 2017 at 5 pm; after that, drops are non-refundable. Nuisance fee of $15 for adds after March 10.  Checks should be payable to Berkeley High Speech and Debate.

Note that due to space constraints, we are initially limiting each school to 5 Open and 4 Novice teams; additional entries will be waitlisted until we have a more precise sense of our capacity.  We hope to lift the per-school caps on March 1.

Food

We will provide breakfast and lunch to judges and coaches.  There are many food options within a block or two as well.

Ballots

Paper ballots will be distributed for all rounds to ensure all rounds are covered.  Judges may use e-ballots if they wish, but will still need to pick up a paper ballot for tracking purposes.

Information

Information will be available on http://berkeleyhs.tabroom.com.  Feel free to email the tournament director, Joel Jacobs, at pbnjoelly@gmail.com.

Equity

We are committed to running a fair tournament, and to taking steps to address bias based on gender, race, sexual orientation, school affiliation, or membership in any other group.  We will have a designated equity officer at the tournament who will field complaints about bias.  There will also be a box for raising concerns anonymously.   Any concerns about any aspect of the tournament can also be directed to the tournament director, before, during, or after the tournament.

Finals

The two finalists in each division will be determined by win/loss, then total speaker points, then adjusted points, with the following caveats.  First, if we use panels for bubble rounds during Round 4, ballot count will precede points in determining the final break.  Second, in Open, if the number of 4-0 teams is not 2, and the preceding would result in two teams from the same school hitting in finals, the highest ranked team from a different school will advance to finals, provided that team is not in a lower win/loss bracket than the second-ranked team.