Queens Tournament

Dear Debate Community Member,

I am very excited to invite you to the 2015 Queen’s International High School Debating Championships held at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario from Friday January 8th, 2016 to Sunday January 10th, 2016. The Queen’s Debating Union is the oldest debate club in Canada and is currently in its 172nd session. Our club has a strong record of competitive success, having national champions in our midst. The Queen’s High School Debate tournament is one of the premier Canadian Parliamentary events of the high school debate circuit and is always well attended. You won’t want to miss it so I encourage you to register early!

Tournament Information

This year’s tournament will consist of six rounds of preliminary debate (two on Friday and four on Saturday) all in Canadian parliamentary style. As introduced over the last couple of years (which we are very excited about again!) the top 16 teams will break to octo-finals on Sunday. Winners will then proceed to quarters, semis and a grand final.

There will also be a U16 final for all competitors under the age of 16 as of September 1st, 2015.

The first four rounds of debate will all have open adjudication, meaning that debaters will be told the outcome of the round and given constructive feedback from their judge(s). All motions will be straight motions with squirreling, or changing the motion, strictly prohibited.

International Competition for Young Debaters (ICYD)

Again, the top 3 U16 teams will be invited to represent Canada at the International Competition for Young Debaters (ICYD) at Cambridge University. Be aware that to qualify for the ICYD, both debaters on a team must be from the same school and under the age of 16 by September 1st, 2015. If you have any specific questions about ICYD, please contact Frankie Cena at frankiecena@gmail.com.

Adjudication

The Chief Adjudicators for the tournament this year will be Mitchell Dorbyk and William Rooney. Mitchell and Rooney have had much competitive success in the debating world from breaking as judges and debaters at many external university debate tournaments. Mitchell, former Tournament Director and Deputy Chief Adjudicator of

Queen’s High School Debating Championships, is a two-time national quarterfinalist, 2015 Yale IV finalist and is attending the World Universities Debating Championships this year in Greece! William is the QDU Treasurer and has also had much competitive success such as being a quarterfinalist at the 2015 Central Canadian National Championships. He was also a Deputy Chief Adjudicator for this tournament last year so he has tons of experience. Our judging pool will also consist of tons of experienced university debaters from a variety of schools such as Queen’s, Western, McGill and Hart House. We promise you adjudication is in good hands and all students will improve exponentially throughout the weekend.

Awards

Awards will recognize the top 10 overall speakers as well as the top three speakers from the U16 category. Awards will be given to all quarterfinalists, semi- finalists and finalists, as well as recognition to teams breaking only to octo-finals.

Tabs Director

We are very excited that once again Chris George will be tabbing the tournament again! Chris has been the tabs director for the tournament for the past three years. He has an immense amount of experience tabbing in the debate community elsewhere as well, such as past national championships. We are so excited to have his help once again!

Mentoring

Over the weekend, the tournament will also offer mentoring sessions as an additional resource for the debaters. Experienced members of the Queen’s Debating Union will be running sessions to answer questions about debating, university life or Queen’s in general. Besides the constructive feedback from open adjudication rounds, mentoring is another way that we hope supplement this.

Tavish Logan, the Critic of the 172nd Queen’s Debating Union and one of the Chief Adjudicators for last year’s tournament, will be running the mentoring sessions this year. Tavish currently runs the training programs for university debaters as well as high school debaters within the Kingston community. Like our adjudicators, Tavish is also an extremely capable debater as he was a two-time Leubke Chip champion, Colgate IV finalist and last year’s Chief Adjudicator for the tournament! Tavish will also be attending the Word Universities Debating Championships this year in Greece, so you can expect some great mentoring sessions!

Accommodation

The QDU has group rates for the Delta Kingston Waterfront Hotel and the Four Points Sheraton this year! The room rates there are $142.00/night (for most rooms), and there are many options as for types of rooms (double/quad occupancy etc.). Each hotel would be happy to provide you with specific information targeted towards your needs. The hotel is fairly close to Queen’s campus (about a 15 minute walk) and Saturday night, our traditional banquet will be held at the Delta as well. They also offer many services such as free wireless Internet and an indoor pool.

To access the deal, call the hotel as soon as possible and tell them you are with the Queen’s Debating Union. Act quickly because rooms are limited and the deal ends December 10th, 2015.

You are not obligated to stay at either of the hotels but it is very expensive to find a place to stay in Kingston. We believe this is a cost-effective and continent option for debaters so we hope you take advantage of it!

Registration

Registration, as in previous years, will be $200.00 per team. This includes six rounds of debate, Saturday banquet, Friday dinner, Saturday/Sunday breakfast and lunch. While we encourage everyone to attend the banquet, as it is an enjoyable social event for debaters as well a nice break from the tournament, you can opt out. The banquet cost is $30.00. That being said, with the opt-out for both debaters, registration is $140.00. With the opt-out for one debater, registration is $170.00. Coaches may also attend the banquet for $30.00.

A non-refundable deposit of $120.00 (per team) is due by December 5th, 2015. The deposit is $90.00 if one debater wants to opt-out of the banquet and $60.00 is both choose to opt-out. You are welcome to pay in full immediately, but you also have the option to pay the remainder of the $200.00 registration in person at the beginning of the tournament in January. Please indicate on your registration form, which you choose to do.

You must pay by cash or cheque. Cheques should be made out to the “Queen’s Debating Union”. Please mail cheques to:

Monisha Ambwani Queen’s Debating Union 67 Lower Union Kingston, Ontario K7L 2N2

Be sure to include the tournament registration form in the envelope. You can reserve spots by submitting the form electronically to

highschools@queensdebatingunion.org. Please note that teams are not registered until the deposit is received.

The team cap for each school is 6 teams for now. However, after the registration deadline, additional spots will be allocated allowing schools to have more teams. Please indicate on your registration form if you are interested in receiving additional teams, and if so, how many.

The Queen’s Debating Union is excited for another weekend of debate with you! You can expect further details from me as the tournament approaches, but we hope to see lots of new and returning faces! Further information, such as a detailed schedule, will be provided closer to the date. Please contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or simply want to introduce yourself!

Best wishes,

Monisha Ambwani

Tournament Director

Queen’s International High School Debating Championships highschools@queensdebatingunion.org

(416) 894-3631

Tournament Registration Form

This form must be returned by December 5th, 2015 at the latest, along with your deposit. Please try to fill out as much information as you can to smooth out the registration process. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Monisha Ambwani, the Tournament Director, at highschools@queensdebatingunion.org. Please enclose payment with this form.

School/Institution name: __________________________________________________ Number of teams: ________________________________________________________

Names of debaters, listed in teams (if known):

If you don’t have this information yet, please send an email to highschools@queensdebatingunion.org when you can provide it. Please send a new email with a subject line of “Further information for [name of school/institution]”.

Team 1 ____________________________ Team 2 ____________________________ Debater 1 __________________________ Debater 1 ___________________________ Debater 2 ___________________________ Debater 2 ___________________________

Team 3 ____________________________ Team 4 ____________________________ Debater 1 __________________________ Debater 1 ___________________________ Debater 2 ___________________________ Debater 2 ___________________________

Team 5 ____________________________ Team 6 _____________________________ Debater 1 __________________________ Debater 1 ___________________________ Debater 2 ___________________________ Debater 2 ___________________________

Number of individuals NOT attending the banquet: ___________________________ Number of potential extra teams: ___________________________________________