Download Invitation as a PDF

Dear Members of DANEIS,

We cordially invite you to the Nineteenth Annual Parliamentary Debate Tournament hosted online by the Hotchkiss School on Sunday, October 18, 2020.

Each school may register up to two four-person teams. Space will be given on a first-come, first-served basis with preference given to DANEIS member schools.

Each school should provide one judge for each four-person team. In accordance with DANEIS league rules, student judges will not be permitted to judge advanced debates. Parents judges should not judge the division in which their children are debating. We also ask that any students judging in the novice division be experienced debaters who have participated in DANEIS tournaments at the advanced level. Please be sure to brief your judges thoroughly prior to the tournament.

There will be two rounds of parliamentary debate. Resolutions will be straight. We will follow the standard DANEIS rules. These rules and scoresheets can be found on the DANEIS website. In addition to these two rounds of parliamentary debate, there will be two rounds of impromptu speaking. The rules for this portion of the tournament will be the same rules used at the Public Speaking Tournament at the Stoneleigh Burnham School and other public speaking tournaments in our league. These rules are available on the league website. Sample topics can be found on the IISPSC website (iispsc.com). If you have questions about the impromptu speaking event, please contact me.

Briefings for judges and debaters will begin promptly at 9:30AM and Round 1 will start at
10AM.

Please RSVP no later than October 9 via email to dconti@hotchkiss.org with the number of teams you would like to enter. Early RSVPs are greatly appreciated.

We look forward to seeing you.

Yours,

David Conti and Thomas Fisher
Coaches, Hotchkiss Speech & Debate

Download Invitation as PDF

Dear Fellow Debaters:

The St. Sebastian’s Debate Team cordially invites you to participate in our fifteenth NOVICE Parliamentary Extemporaneous Debate Tournament on Sunday, October 11, 2020. The tournament will consist of three rounds of Parliamentary debate conducted entirely on Zoom. We will be debating straight resolutions and using only points of information (no points of order, personal privilege or heckling). Each school may register one or two four-person novice teams (teams should include a judge as well; St. Sebastian’s will not provide judges). Schools may register by e-mail to: michael_nerbonne@stsebs.org. Please respond by Friday, October 2. There will not be any fee for this debate, but we will be sending out awards (plaques and/or certificates). If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me at (617) 462-3651.

The schedule for the day is as follows:

10:00 – 11:00 am	Confirmation of Registration
11:30 – 12 noon	Judges’ and Debaters’ Meeting
12:00 – 1:00 pm	Round One
1:00 – 2:00 pm	Round Two
2:00 – 3:00 pm	Round Three

The maximum length and order of speeches are as follows:

Prime Minister	5 minutes
First Opposition Speaker	8 minutes
Minister of the Crown	8 minutes
Leader of the Opposition	8 minutes
Prime Minister’s Rebuttal	3 minutes

A 30-second grace period will be allowed for each debater, after which the speech will be terminated. The Government will be given 2 minutes to define the terms in the room with the Opposition and the judge, followed by a 10-minute preparation time for both teams. The Government Team should repair to the hallway for the preparation period. Debaters are strictly forbidden from consulting any reference materials during the preparation period or during the debate. Violation of this rule will warrant disqualification from the tournament.

Information on rules, scoring, points of information, etc. can be found in the rules section of our league website at www.daneis.org. Please see the five PDFs under the heading “DANEIS Parliamentary Debate with POIs.” We ask that your debaters and judges be thoroughly familiar with all of this information prior to the tournament as we will have just a short time for the judges’ and debaters’ briefing on the day of the debate. There are also a couple of helpful videos in the members’ section of the website.

The purpose of this letter is to invite schools to indicate their preliminary registration for the Tournament. We will be providing more information with all of the Zoom details in the coming weeks.

We look forward to “seeing” you on October 11, and express our appreciation for your participation.

Michael P. Nerbonne
Debate Coach

THE STONELEIGH-BURNHAM SCHOOL
DEBATE AND PUBLIC SPEAKING SOCIETY

Invitation as a PDF

Schedule

Event Guidelines

Dear esteemed Colleagues and Members of DANEIS,

“You are cordially invited by the DANEIS League and the Stoneleigh-Burnham School to a Virtual Public Speaking Tournament, to be held on Sunday, October 4 . [Please note: this is a change from the tentative date of Sept. 27 listed on the schedule.] This World’s qualifying tournament will focus on three public speaking genres. Each school may bring from one to up to six speakers, and each speaker should be prepared to speak in all of the following categories, in this order:

1. Interpretive Reading (all, mandatory)
2. Impromptu (all, mandatory)
3. After-Dinner or Persuasive Speaking (each competitor chooses one) . . . ”

Thus begins the official invitation attached, along with an event schedule, Event Guidelines with Technical Guidelines for the SBS Public Speaking Tournament.

Please read through the material and write to me if you have further questions. (ksuchenski@sbschool.org)

We hope you can join us for this opening virtual speaking event!

Best regards,
Karen Suchenski

Dearest Colleagues,

I want to ensure that our SBS tournament invitation reflects agenda items discussed at our DANEIS fall coaches’ meeting yesterday.

While the date of Oct. 4 is secure for the SBS tournament, the time frame has shifted to an earlier ET starting time –9:30 a.m.–so that the proceedings of our tournament are accessible to any students who are Zooming in from parts of Asia.

We will begin the tournament promptly at 9:30 a.m.ET and ask that everyone does a connectivity check well before that.

Also, no student competition material delivered earlier in 2020 (or earlier) is eligible for reuse in this competition.

Please know that I will send an updated and enhanced technical guide along, once I liberally cull the invaluable hosting material fashioned by Stewart Thomsen for his recent successful debate tournament.

Thank you and may wind be at your backs as we launch this new school year.

Best regards,
Karen

Full Invitation as PDF

Dear DANEIS coaches,

PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY. Sorry for the delay in getting this invitation to you, but we are doing our very best to retool for this first-ever virtual RL Debate, where we look forward to hosting you remotely on Sunday, September 13. The format and schedule will be a bit different, but much will remain the same. We will be running two separate Zoom rooms (one for Novice and one for Advanced), limiting each school to one team of four in each division (as usual). In the short term, we need to know who is coming and whether you want one team in each division. Once confirmed by me, we will need your pairings and judges, as well as SCHOOL EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR ALL DEBATERS AND ALL JUDGES. Please, NO WolfmanJack@gmail.com. We will need to have names that match school email names easily in case we need to reach someone directly during the tournament. Sorry, but no observers allowed this year. We need to limit the number of moving parts to just the key people this go-round.

Following the approach just taken at Worlds this past week, we will be dispensing with the usual “Beginning of the Round” procedures. In the main Zoom room for each division, we will release the one and only topic at the end of the briefing, take any questions, then move to breakout rooms where individual debates will be run. We will provide an RL speaker (who will read the script to move the debate along), and an RL timekeeper (who will give time signals while muted), but it will be up to the judge to flip a virtual coin to implement a NEW PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINING SIDE. If the person calling the toss calls heads and it is heads, then his/her team is the Government. If the person calling the toss calls heads and it is tails, then the other team will be the Government. There will be 15 minutes prep time instead of 10 minutes during which everyone will be muted, and teams will be allowed to communicate privately using the Chat feature in Zoom or something like Facetime. The Government’s definitions, therefore, will only be revealed for the first time by the Government in the actual debate. Judges will take into account any unfairness in definition of terms (if any) only at the end of the debate.

There will be more to say on all of this down the road, but the usual straight resolutions, points of information, and speaker times remain the same.

Prime Minister – 5 minute constructive
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

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. 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.

No exhibition round, no hardware to give out (only bragging rights and some emailed certificates). I don’t feel as though we should charge you anything this year. We’re not feeding you, and we can afford the paper for printing the certificates. Waiving the fee just gives all of us one less thing to worry about. We will be happy to share our documents and forms with others after the debate. It’s a grind to put this stuff together, and I want to give special thanks to David Conti at Hotchkiss and John Robinson at St. John’s Ravenscourt for being so generous with their time and work product as pioneers in this new virtual debate environment.

Please email me with your team requests by Wednesday, September 9. We would greatly appreciate it if you could provide the names and email addresses of your debaters and judges by that date as well. I encourage schools to contact me ahead of this deadline in case we reach a number that looks like it might be unmanageable. On the day of the debate, we will also need to have you provide a final confirmation of any name changes or dropped teams.
Here’s my email address: stewart.thomsen@roxburylatin.org

The DANEIS Fall Coaches Meeting normally takes place on this day, and if that remains the plan, we will certainly put it on the schedule for the day (which will be forthcoming, along with other documents for the debate). We certainly hope you can join us for the league’s virtual opener!

Sincerely,
Stewart Thomsen, RL Debate Coach
Ethan Phan, RL Debate President

Download Invitation as a PDF

Dear Members of DANEIS,

We cordially invite you to the initial online DANEIS Parliamentary Debate Tournament on Sunday, May 17, 2020.

This tournament will take place using Zoom. All debaters and judges will need to have access to a computer with an internet connection for the duration of the event. There will be separate Advanced and Novice meetings and a joint meeting for the announcement of awards.

Each school may register up to two four-person teams. Space will be given on a first-come, first-served basis, due to the logistics of arranging an online tournament, with preference given to DANEIS member schools.

There will be no registration fee for this event.

We ask that schools arrange to have a judge for each four-person team entered. Unfortunately, we cannot provide judges. In accordance with DANEIS league rules, student judges will not be permitted to judge advanced debates. Parents judges should not judge the division in which their children are debating. We also ask that any students judging in the novice division be experienced debaters who have competed in DANEIS tournaments at the advanced level. Please be sure to brief your judges thoroughly prior to the tournament.

There will be three rounds of parliamentary debate. Resolutions will be straight. We will follow the standard DANEIS rules and will use the standard score sheets. These rules and scoresheets can be found on the DANEIS website.

This event will take place from 9AM until 1PM EST. Registration will take place before the event. Because of the format of this event, you will not be able to make last-minute changes in the names of students competing. For each student and judge, please provide an email address so they can be assigned to the proper rooms for competition.

Please RSVP no later than May 1 via email to dconti@hotchkiss.org with the number of teams you would like to enter. Early RSVPs are greatly appreciated.

Yours,

David Conti and Thomas Fisher
Coaches, Hotchkiss Speech & Debate

Full Invitation as a PDF
Schedule
Technical Guidlines
Guidelines and Scoresheets

Dear Colleagues and Members of DANEIS,

You are cordially invited to the 1st Online Northfield Mount Hermon Public Speaking Tournament, to be held on May 3, 2020. It includes three speaking opportunities in this order:

1. Interpretive Reading (mandatory)
2. After-Dinner or Persuasive Speaking (choose one)
3. Impromptu Speaking (mandatory)

Event guidelines are attached and we hope will answer your other questions. A supplemental technology guide is in preparation and will be ready by April 20th. We are delighted to announce that there is no registration fee. There will be no change in 95-point system or judging categories: we will proceed with conventional DANEIS public speaking categories description/guidelines.

Each school is expected to provide at least one judge. You may register one or more speakers with a maximum of six. If you wish to bring more than 4 speakers, we ask that you provide a second judge. To be eligible for team awards, you must register at least four speakers. First, second, and third place awards will be given in each category. Team trophies will also be awarded to first-, second-, and third-place schools. A “best speaker” will also be named. Please read event guidelines carefully. We would ask that all After-Dinner and Persuasive speeches have been created within this academic year. Impromptu speeches must actually be impromptu…please no canned speeches.

Should you have last minute changes to your team, please contact Peter Weis at (413)-325-3299.

Please respond by April 28. We look forward to hosting you online in May.

Sincerely,
Flo Auerbach, Society President

Peter Weis, ’78, Advisor to the Debate Society
M.K. Brake, Assistant Coach

Officers:
Alex Fan
Ellie Flynn
Isabel May
Daniil Ozernyi
Zach Nachlis

Full Invitation as a PDF
Schedule
Guidelines and Scoresheets

Dear Colleagues and Members of DANEIS,

You are cordially invited to the 4th Annual Northfield Mount Hermon Public Speaking Tournament, to be held on April 5, 2020. It includes three speaking opportunities in this order:

1. Interpretive Reading (mandatory)

2. After-Dinner or Persuasive Speaking (choose one)

3. Impromptu Speaking (mandatory)

Speakers and coaches should arrive between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. We will be providing brunch in the morning, and a light meal after the third round of events. Event guidelines are enclosed and we hope will answer your other questions. The registration fee is $15.00 per speaker.

Each school is expected to bring at least one judge. You may register one or more speakers with a maximum of six. If you wish to bring more than 4 speakers, we ask that you provide a second judge. To be eligible for team awards, you must register at least four speakers. First, second, and third place awards will be given in each category. Team trophies will also be awarded to first-, second-, and third-place schools. A “best speaker” will also be named. Please read event guidelines carefully. We would ask that all After-Dinner and Persuasive speeches have been created within this academic year. Impromptu speeches must actually be impromptu…please no canned speeches!

Should you have last minute changes to your team, please contact Peter Weis on the morning of the tournament at (413)-325-3299.

Please respond by Friday, March 27th. We look forward to hosting you in April.

Sincerely,
Flo Auerbach, Society President

Peter Weis, ’78, Advisor to the Debate Society
M.K. Brake, Assistant Coach

Officers:
Alex Fan
Ellie Flynn
Isabel May
Daniil Ozernyi
Zach Nachlis

Full Invitation as a PDF
Schedule of Events
DANEIS Cross‐ex Debate Ballot
Guidelines for Judging Oregon Style Cross-Examination, Policy Debates (30 pt. scale)
Directions to Groton

February 23, 2020

Dear fellow debaters and coaches:

The Groton School Debating Society is excited to invite you to our inaugural Oregon Style Prepared Debate Tournament on Sunday, April 19, 2020. The tournament will consist of three rounds of cross-ex style debate in both the advanced and the novice divisions. Pairs will debate on the same side of the resolution for all three rounds. The resolution for the tournament will be:

Resolved that the United States Department of Energy should build or subsidize the development of several new nuclear power plants.

Please note that this resolution is intentionally open ended. Affirmative teams are strongly encouraged to develop more specific plans as they research and prepare for the tournament. For a more detailed information on plans and expectations for an Oregon style debate, please review Curt Robison’s excellent discussion of generic debate responsibilities (which is attached to this message).

Schools may enter one 4-person team in each of the advanced and novice divisions (two 4-person teams in total) and must provide a judge for each team entered (Groton will not be able to provide judges). Experienced advanced debaters may judge in the novice division, but per DANEIS rules, advanced teams must be accompanied by an adult judge. Fees for the debate are $75 per team and $15 per observer. Checks should be made payable to Groton School. Schools should register by email to:
mgnozzio@groton.org. Please let us know by April 5th the number of participants (advanced teams, novice teams, and observers) you would like to register. Please also include the names of debaters. Early registrations would be greatly appreciated.

Scoring for this debate will be based on a 30-point scale. A sample ballot is attached. All judges should be briefed on judging criteria in advance of the tournament. We ask that you please pay particular attention to the categories outlined at the end of the attached Guidelines for Judging Oregon Style CrossExamination, Policy Debates. In an effort to encourage consistency across rounds, we will be asking that all judges enter a score between 1 and 5 for each category.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us at 617-650-3236. We also request that you call us at 617-650-3236 on the morning of the tournament, between the hours of 8:00am and 9:30am, to report any changes in your final registration.

We hope that you can join us and look forward to welcoming you to the Circle on April 19th.

Sincerely,
Michael Gnozzio, Andy Reyes, and Stephen Fernandez
Faculty Advisors, Groton School Debating Society

Invitation as a PDF Schedule and Directions

Dear Fellow Debate Teams,

The Hopkins Debate Team cordially invites you to the Hopkins Invitational Debate Tournament on March 1, 2020 in New Haven, CT. The event will feature three rounds of parliamentary extemporaneous debate in Novice and Advanced Divisions.

Please register in four-person teams. Initial registration is limited to 3 four-person teams per school and please provide one judge per four-person team. Hopkins will be unable to supply judges. We will give preference to schools who are DANEIS league members and keep a running list of additional schools who are interested.

Registration fees are $75 per 4 person team and $15 per observer. To register, please RSVP to Julia Tellides and Sophie Sonnenfeld at jtellides20@students.hopkins.edu and ssonnenfeld21@students.hopkins.edu, indicating how many judges, observers, and teams (novice/advanced) you plan to bring by February 17. Spots are limited, so reply as soon as possible. For further inquiries, please email Stephen May at smay@hopkins.edu.

Sincerely,
Julia Tellides, Debate Head
Sophie Sonnenfeld, Debate Head
Mr. May, Faculty Advisor

List of Awards
Tabs-Novice
Tabs-Advanced
Download Invitation as PDF

Dear Fellow Debaters:

The St. Sebastian’s Debate Team cordially invites you to participate in our twenty-first annual Parliamentary Extemporaneous Debate Tournament on Sunday, February 16, 2020. The tournament will consist of three rounds of Parliamentary debate, in both novice and advanced divisions. We will be debating straight resolutions and using only points of information (no points of order, personal privilege or heckling). Each school may register one four-person novice team and one four-person advanced team (teams should include a judge as well; St. Sebastian’s will not provide judges). Schools should register by e-mail to: michael_nerbonne@stsebs.org. Please reply by Friday, February 7. Fees for the debate are $75 per team and $15 per observer. Checks should be made payable to St. Sebastian’s School. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us at 617-462-3651. We also request that you call us at 617-462-3651 on the morning of the tournament, between the hours of 8:00 and 10:00, to report any changes in your final registration.

The schedule for the day is as follows:

10:00 – 11:00 am	Registration in the front foyer of the Birmingham Academic Building
10:00 – 11:30 am	Brunch served in Ward Hall. Dinner will be available after 3:00 pm
11:30 – 12 noon	Judges’ and Debaters’ Meeting in Ward Hall
12:00 – 1:00 pm	Round One
1:00 – 2:00 pm	Round Two
2:00 – 3:00 pm	Round Three
3:00 – 4:30 pm	Dinner in Ward Hall
4:30 – 4:45 pm	Presentation of Awards in Ward Hall

The maximum length and order of speeches are as follows:

Prime Minister – 5 minutes
First Opposition Speaker – 8 minutes
Minister of the Crown – 8 minutes
Leader of the Opposition – 8 minutes
Prime Minister’s Rebuttal – 3 minutes

A 30-second grace period will be allowed for each debater, after which the speech will be terminated. The Government will be given 2 minutes to define the terms in the room with the Opposition and the judge, followed by a 10-minute preparation time for both teams. The Government Team should repair to the hallway for the preparation period. Debaters are strictly forbidden from consulting any reference materials during the preparation period or during the debate. Violation of this rule will warrant disqualification from the Tournament.

Directions to St. Sebastian’s School are available on our website. Please note that registration, meals and all of the debates will take place in the Academic Building.

Information on rules, scoring, points of information, etc. can be found in the rules section of our league website. Please see the five PDFs under the heading “DANEIS Parliamentary Debate with POIs.” We ask that your debaters and judges be thoroughly familiar with all of this information prior to the tournament as we will have just a short time for the judges’ and debaters’ briefing on the day of the debate. There are also a couple of helpful videos in the members’ section of the website.

We look forward to seeing you on February 16, and want to express our appreciation for your participation.

Michael P. Nerbonne
Debate Coach