Full Invitation
Schedule of Events
DANEIS Parliamentary Debate documents – 2017-18
Dear Fellow Debaters,
The Roxbury Latin School Debate Society cordially invites you to participate in our Parliamentary Debate Tournament on Sunday, September 17, 2017. There will be both Novice and Advanced divisions. With all DANEIS parliamentary debates now using extemporaneous straight resolutions and allowing only Points of Information (no Points of Order, no Points of Personal Privilege, no heckling), we hope that you will be able to join us for this league opener. Attached is a file that contains the complete package of DANEIS Parliamentary materials for prepping judges and debaters. It takes time to read through these materials, so please be sure to give new judges this material well in advance. As always, there will be new resolutions for each of the three rounds. While no redefinition will be necessary, there will be a two minute definition-of-terms period, where all debaters must stay in the room with the judge and speaker to agree to terms before the 10-minute preparation time begins. During the 10-minute preparation period, the Government should repair to the hallway to prepare separately from the Opposition. As with all DANEIS tournaments, it is strictly understood that teams may not consult any reference materials of any kind (electronic or otherwise) during their preparation time or during the actual debate. Teams that violate these rules will be disqualified from the tournament. The format will be as follows:
Member of the Opposition – 8 minute speech
Minister of the Crown – 8 minute speech
Leader of the Opposition – 8 minute speech
Prime Minister – 3 minute rebuttal
Each school may enter no more than one four-person team in each division, and must also provide one judge for each four-person team. In accordance with DANEIS league rules, student judges will not be permitted to judge advanced debates, and students judging in the novice division must be experienced debaters who have competed in DANEIS tournaments at the advanced level. Parents of students debating in the advanced division should judge ONLY in the NOVICE division.
All schools are expected to brief their judges thoroughly on the rules, format, and the scoring techniques of debating. The top teams in the Advanced division will conduct a public exhibition debate after the three rounds have been completed. Last year’s winners of our two traveling trophies (Best School & Best Advanced Speaker), please be sure to bring these trophies with you to the competition or mail them to Stewart Thomsen in time for them to be awarded the day of this year’s debate. Many thanks!
Registration on the day of the debate will be held from 10:30 to 11:15 A.M. Teams arriving after the close of registration will not be allowed to compete. A single briefing for both judges and debaters will follow the registration in Rousmaniere Hall. Dinner for DANEIS coaches will be served in the Farnham Room after the 3rd round as part of their fall DANEIS coaches meeting. Dinner for everyone else will be served in the Refectory after the third round to avoid lost time while the scoring room tallies the results of Round III to determine the participants in the Exhibition Round. We will start the Exhibition Round as soon as possible. The scoring of the debate and the standings in each division will be announced immediately following the Exhibition Round. There is a $60 entry fee for each four-person team, and an additional $15 entry fee for each observer in order to offset food costs. Please make checks payable to “The Roxbury Latin School.”
Please fill out the enclosed entry form and e-mail it to us by Tuesday, September 12. We would greatly appreciate it if you could provide the names of your debaters by that date as well. Because our space is limited, we encourage schools to contact us ahead of this deadline as we may run out of space before September 12. If you have any questions, please e-mail Stewart Thomsen at stewart.thomsen@roxburylatin.org.
Sincerely,
Joseph Nero – RL Debate President
Stewart Thomsen – RL Debate Advisor