Dear colleagues,

The St. Paul’s School Debate Team cordially invites you to attend our Fifteenth Annual Invitational Debate Tournament in Honor of Secretary of State John F. Kerry, to be held on Sunday, November 3, 2024.

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:

Resolved, that the United States should considerably reduce its foreign military deployments.

For this resolution, please note that the affirmative is not expected to provide a litany of reductions. A few examples are fine, but the emphasis should be on the general principle.

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 28th how many advanced and novice teams you will bring by emailing this information to David Camden (dcamden@sps.edu). When available, please also provide the names of participating students and judges.

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 3 and express our appreciation for your participation.

Sincerely,
Isabel Kim, Jaylan Shuea, and Kelly Sung, Debate Captains
David Camden, Bob Gile, and Trinette Hunter, Coaches