Dear colleagues,
The St. Paul’s School Debate Team cordially invites you to attend our Fourteenth Annual Invitational Debate Tournament in Honor of Secretary of State John F. Kerry, to be held on Sunday, November 5, 2023.
This tournament is a Worlds Qualifier. It is open to both advanced and novice teams, and you are welcome to enter no more than four teams total (two four-person teams in each division). You must also provide one judge for each four-person team. The fee for this tournament will be $80 per four-person team (including a judge) and $20 per observer.
The tournament will be Oregon-style Prepared with Cross-Ex and will consist of three rounds. Pairs will debate on the same side of the resolution for all three rounds. Each four-person team must have one pair debating affirmative and one pair debating negative. The resolution is:
BIRT municipalities in the United States should, as necessary, designate specific public lands for the settlement of the homeless.
Information on Oregon-style cross-examination debate can be found in the rules section of our league website at www.daneis.org. Although there will be an opening information session, we request that debaters and judges be thoroughly familiar with the rules and expectations of cross-ex debate before the tournament.
Please let us know by Monday, October 23rd how many advanced and novice teams you will bring by emailing this information to David Camden (dcamden@sps.edu). Once we hear from you, and closer to the tournament date, we will send you a request for the names of participating students.
If there are any changes in the number of teams, names of participants, or positions they are debating (affirmative or negative), please contact us as soon as possible prior to the tournament. If the changes are last minute, on the morning of the debate, it is imperative that you call (570-856-4489) so that the schematic can be adjusted in time for a smooth start. If a student drops out at the last minute, we will expect their partner to perform all speeches for that two-person team.
The tentative schedule for the debate is as follows:
10:00 – 11:00 am – Registration
10:00 – 11:00 am – Brunch
11:00 – 11:45 am – Debate Briefing
11:30 – 3:30 pm – Debate Rounds
3:30 – 4:30 pm – Dinner
4:00 – 4:30 pm – Tournament Awards
We hope to see many of you on November 5 and express our appreciation for your participation.
Sincerely,
Jacob Kwon, Cora Partridge, and Kelly Sung, Debate Captains
David Camden, Kevin Duncan, and Bob Gile, Coaches