Deerfield Debate/TOC Schedule & Directions to Deerfield

DANEIS Parliamentary Debate Docs
Cross-Ex: Rules & Ballot
Impromptu Speaking: Rules & Ballot

Dear DANEIS coaches,

On Sunday, April 30, Deerfield Academy is hosting the 3rd Annual Robert H. Gile Tournament of Champions (TOC) in conjunction with its usual Deerfield Parliamentary Debate. To keep the overall event manageable, we are limiting schools to a maximum of three 4-person teams, only one of which may be registered for the TOC. Think of registration as having three silos: one for the Tournament of Champions (DANEIS member schools only), one for the Advanced Division of the Deerfield Parliamentary Debate, and one for the Novice Division of the Deerfield Parliamentary Debate. There will be one registration process for all teams to facilitate scheduling, scoring, school packets, and so forth.

Each DANEIS member school is invited to enter one 4-person team chosen by the sending school’s coach for the TOC portion of the event. Entering a team in the TOC is optional, but if you do, we ask that you assign your head coach (preferably), or a very experienced adult coach, as the judge for your one and only TOC team. We expect each school’s coach to serve as a judge for all three events. The TOC will consist of three different events. Round one will be Parliamentary Extemporaneous Debate, debating straight resolutions (unrelated to the prepared topic) and using only points of information (no points of order, personal privilege, or heckling). Round two will be Cross-Examination Prepared Debate. The Cross-Examination Prepared topic will be the following: Resolved, that the United States should abolish the Electoral College. Cross-Examination format will be 7 minutes constructive, 3 minutes cross, and 4 minutes rebuttal for each speaker. Please note that debaters should prepare both sides of this Cross-Examination resolution; a coin flip will decide sides on the day of the debate. Round three will consist of one round of Impromptu Speaking. Rules and ballots for all three events are attached.

You may register teams in the Advanced and Novice Divisions of the Deerfield Parliamentary Debate as well, remembering that the total number of 4-person teams per school is limited to three (which would include your TOC team if you were to opt to enter a team in the TOC). For the Deerfield Parliamentary Debate portion of the event, you may choose advanced and/or novice division as you see fit. Please remember that any student judge in the novice division must be an experienced advanced debater per DANEIS policy. Parliamentary rules and ballot for the Deerfield Parliamentary Debate are the same as the rules and ballot used for the parliamentary portion of the TOC.

Scoring for all three rounds of the TOC will be based on speaker points, with rank in room as the tiebreaker. There will be no records kept of win-loss in the debate rounds. Each of the three rounds will be out of 100 points for each competitor. Thus each competitor’s total score for all three rounds of the TOC will be out of 300 possible points overall. Scoring for the Advanced and Novice Divisions of the usual Deerfield Parliamentary Debate will be like any other DANEIS parliamentary debate.

We ask that you register by our deadline of Friday, April 21, so that the scheduler has a full week to create the three different schedules that will be needed for this joint event. Please be sure to indicate the silo in which each of your teams belongs when you register! You can email your registration to Lily Horowitch at lhorowitch@deerfield.edu There will be a fee of $70.00 per team (no additional fee for observers). Checks should be made payable to Deerfield Academy. We also request that you call us at (617-803-6482 – my cell) on the morning of the tournament, between the hours of 9:00 and 10:00, to confirm your registration. This pre-registration is required and essential, and will allow us to begin on time. It is imperative that you arrive by the end of the registration period. Finally, we ask that your debaters and judges be thoroughly familiar with all of the information contained in the attachments prior to the tournament, as we will have just a short time for the judges’ and debaters’ briefings on the day of the tournament.

We are grateful to Curt Robison of the Loomis-Chaffee School for being the scheduler and head tabulator for the day. Thank you all for your kind attention to this email, and we hope to see you on April 30.
Sincerely,
Michael O’Donnell