Invite

Dear Coaches:

It is with great pleasure that the Poly Prep Speech and Debate Team invites you and any female and or LGBT-QIA* members of your team to attend the Celebration Tournament on May  21^st, and 22^nd, 2016. Registration for the tournament will be on Tabroom.com.

The tournament will run Saturday and Sunday. We hope to provide high quality competition and efficient administration.

There will be 5 or 6 preliminary rounds (depending on entry level). Elimination rounds and breakout levels will be based on entry numbers. Although we are only hosting Varsity divisions, we will have breakout elims for those who are in their first year of competition.

EVENTS:

Public Forum Debate Format: NCFL Topic

Lincoln Douglass Debate Format: NCFL Topic

Policy Debate Format: Policy will use the NSDA 2015-2016 Topic

Extemporaneous Speaking: Topics will be released 5/7

Congressional Debate:  Legislation should be submitted to us by 5/7. The legislation packet will be released 5/8. 

Entries/Eligibility:  Enter as many eligible teams as you like.  Because this tournament was created to emphasize making steps toward broader inclusivity, in no way do we want to exclude because of strict guidelines of identity. With that in mind, all people who identify as female or as anywhere on the LGBT-QIA spectrum are eligible to compete and judge at this tournament. Hybrid partnerships (where eligible debaters are from two different schools) are encouraged and welcome for teams that only have one debater who identifies as such. These Hybrid partnerships will be eligible to compete and clear into elimination rounds.

Judges:  Due to this tournament’s focus, we ask that all entered judges also meet the participation eligibility for debaters in identifying as female or as on the LGBT-QIA* spectrum. We will be able to find judges for hire or (hopefully) donation to cover any needs, just let us know. We don’t want finding judging to be barrier to participation, we will work with you to find a solution.

Food: Food will be provided by the tournament. On Saturday, breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided. On Sunday, breakfast will be served and there will be a final banquet at the conclusion of the tournament. We will strive to accommodate any and all food allergies, just let us know. We will also have options for those who choose to be meatless, but would like those individuals to let us know so we can make sure we have proper amounts of all food options.

Registration: Please register in advance via Tabroom. Registration is from 8-8:45am on Saturday morning.

Questions? Please feel free to email celebrationtournament@gmail.com

We look forward to welcoming you to Brooklyn and Poly Prep Country Day School.

Sincerely,

Juliana Zepf - Tournament Director

Janna White – Directory of Forensics and Debate at Poly Prep

*We have had a many inquiries as to what qualifies as for entry into our tournament. Our position is that as a tournament we do not have the right to tell anyone how they identify. Being a gender minority in high school is hard enough; identifying enough to say they would like to participate in an event such as ours is enough of a threshold and we will accept all who enter.