COVID GUIDELINES (AS OF 9-8-21)

COVID-19 Prevention

Our tournament is only accepting guests who can demonstrate affirmative proof of vaccination. No exceptions, compromises, allowances, etc. Each team will be asked to perform and submit a COVID-19 symptom screener for their participants prior to their allowance on the Damien campus. Simply put, we will not allow any individual on to the Damien campus without record of their current COVID-19 status. Likewise, this will assist us with contact tracing on the off-chance that any participant begins to experience COVID-19 symptoms.

It is our expectation that all individuals on-campus will wear a cloth and/or disposable mask (individuals only wearing masks with vents or only wearing face shields will not be seen as meeting these masking guidelines) at all times. This guidance includes when individuals are outside in their team prep areas.

The only time when individuals will be allowed to wear masks will be when they are giving a speech; for example, a student who is about to give the 1AC is allowed to take their mask off once they are about to begin speaking. The student should then put the mask back in place for cross-examination. Judges should keep their masks on at all times, including when giving a decision. Any individual in the assigned space who is not comfortable taking their mask off or being in an enclosed space with anyone with a mask off even for the short duration of speaking may request those accommodations and they will be honored upon request. Guests are allowed to consume drinks and snacks during rounds as long as individuals are re-masking after sips/bites.

Each competition space will be laid out in a manner that will allow for as much social distancing as is feasible given each unique space. We will have hand sanitizer in each room as well. All participants will have assigned spaces to sit (these will be marked on certain desks). We will ensure that all desks are near outlets and that the outlets made available to our competitors and judges have extension cords. Damien Debate staff and/or team volunteers will be sanitizing each room after all individuals have cleared out of the space.

No judges, competitors, or guests should touch, shake hands, or otherwise physically interact with individuals that are not part of their program (i.e. please don’t go and give your buddy from another school a big hug when you see them—we know that folks miss each other, but this distance is what we need to do to get back to being able to high-five, fist-bump, etc. next year (hopefully!)).

! PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE/ALTER ANY TOURNAMENT SIGNAGE !

! PLEASE DO NOT ALTER THE SPACE OR MOVE DESKS/ITEMS !

In our effort to ensure that the sanitation process does not disrupt our tournament schedule, we will be unable to allow teams to use any of our classrooms as team prep rooms. After in-person registration is completed, each team will be assigned an outside area on-campus for team prep—please know, though, that we will adapt if weather requires us to modify this aspect of our planning.

This is our provisional plan and will be adapted and updated in alignment with any future CDC guidances.

Food

We will be sourcing pre-packaged foods from local restaurant vendors. All schools are expected to produce an envelope containing $20 for each individual (students, coaches, and judges) registered as being in attendance (i.e. if you are a team with a coach, one judge, and two students, then your envelope should have $80 in it). This $20 will cover the individual’s entire food needs for both days of the tournament: 2 snacks (a few small food items and a beverage), 1 water bottle, and at least 1 full meal. Teams that fail to produce this envelope will be assessed a minimum fee of $500+ (scalable at the discretion of the tournament director).

All individuals are welcome and encouraged to bring their own food as well.  You can also have food delivered to the campus; however, we must ensure that all participants have food and beverage options, which is why this registration fee is non-negotiable. Our suggestion to directors is to have students turn-in the $20 (cash) with their permission slip and/or provide the $20 (cash) to their respective director during the morning commute to the Damien campus. It is our hope that by differentiating this fee from your tournament fees, you will not be forced to use team/school funds as these monies should come from students who would anyways be bringing money to purchase food from our snack bar.

We will work with team directors on a case-by-case basis if there are issues involved in meeting this expectation. Directors/chaperones will be sent a dietary restrictions form (it will also be posted on the tournament tabroom.com page) for them to complete and turn in prior to the tournament.

Information regarding coffee for our judges is forthcoming. Hopefully, we are able to do something very cool this year! Stay tuned!

It is our hope that the 2022 Chuck Ballingall Memorial Invitational will be able to bring back our ability to provide complimentary food and beverages for our coaches and judges. If so, we’ll go the extra five miles next year and make sure that our hospitality is special, of an even higher quality, and almost obnoxiously good as our way of expressing our thanks to you for your patience with our protocols this year.

Supervision, Respect, & Responsibilities

In an effort to ensure that our COVID-19 safety guidelines are being followed by our guests, we will be having our staff and volunteers monitoring areas at consistent intervals.

Our provisional procedure for individuals found to be out of compliance with our guidelines is as follows:

1. A verbal warning will be given where the individual out of compliance will be asked to provide their name and school affiliation to our volunteer. This information will be catalogued and provided to the individual’s appropriate director/supervisor/coach/etc.

2. Individuals found out of compliance on more than one instance in the same day will be asked to report to the tab room with their respective director/supervisor/coach/etc. in order to discuss the viability of that individual’s continued presence on the Damien campus.

3. Individuals who (after two documented instances of non-compliance are still allowed to maintain their presence on-campus) are found out of compliance three times on a given day will be asked to leave the campus immediately. We reserve the right to ask individuals to leave at any point depending on the degree of flagrancy of their non-compliance—there are no “roll-overs” and this is not a “three-strikes, you’re out” rule.

Some easy ways to maintain compliance:

1. Keep your mask on at all times unless eating, drinking, or giving a speech.

2. Get a mask that fits. If you do not have one, we can provide a mask that fits for a fee.

3. Wear two masks if one of your masks does not fit.

4. Do not leave/manipulate/alter the areas where you are assigned to sit in any given room.

Two important notes:

A. Individuals who immediately fail to comply with the verbal instruction will be asked to leave their current space and communicate with the tournament director. Individuals who verbally abuse, are unfriendly towards, or otherwise make our volunteers’ lives unpleasant in this area will be asked to communicate with the tournament director. We reserve the right to dismiss any individual who expresses any inclination of disrespect to our volunteers. We wish we did not have to have volunteers monitoring for compliance, we wish that we did not have to establish this firm procedure, and we wish that “normalcy” could return; however, consistent non-compliance is the reason the pandemic continues to worsen and we will not allow our gracious volunteers to be treated with unkindness.

B. Our volunteers ARE NOT a COVID-19 compliance reporting service. Their task is to monitor compliance and ensure those out of compliance return to a compliant state. Individuals who wish to report non-compliance outside the purview/presence of our monitors can come to the tab room and speak with the tournament director. The tournament director reserves the right to ask any individual and/or program to remove their presence from the Damien campus given reports of thorough non-compliance.