Interprovincial Tournament

Dear Debate Coach,

I am writing to invite you to debate tournaments that I am organizing over the next 6 weeks. I thought it would be particularly useful to run events exclusive for Quebec and all Maritime provinces.

These will be one day tournaments in National Debate Format held on Zoom. There will be NO COST to attend any of these events.

Saturday, November 28 - QSDA and Maritime Provinces Senior Tournament Saturday, December 12 - QSDA and Maritime Provinces Junior Tournament

Eligibility:

The intention of these tournaments is to provide accessibility to organized competitive events for those who have not had a significant number of other opportunities. While there are no restrictions on who can attend, if you have students who have over the past 8 to 10 months regularly attended major events, such as McGill / other university debates, or other nationally organized championship tournaments, you might consider giving other students who have had not as many chances an opportunity to debate.

I will initially accept 4 teams from every single school or institution ( and put potential other teams on a wait list ). I am requiring school entries, and no independently student organized and/or hybrid teams. Please have your school representative register with me. Senior events are open to all high school students ( no CEGEP students ). Junior level events are open to students in grade 9 or below, who would be eligible for junior provincial and national championships.

Tournament Format:

Each tournament will run with 2 prepared rounds in the morning, on each side of the motion. Check-in will be at 8:45 a.m. for a 9:00 a.m. start. The prepared topics will be quite accessible with limited research required, and will allow us to run the day more efficiently. Two impromptu, bracketed rounds will start at 1:00 p.m.. The top two teams will debate in a final round. Full standings will be released. Prepared topics will be released ten days before each scheduled event.

We will use CNDF Format. Senior times will be modified to 7-7-7-7-3-3 and junior will be 6-6-6-6-3-3. I will send out a detailed information package to the participants before the tournament with the rules and procedures of online debate, scoring guide, etc.

Judging:

I am taking a different approach to these events. As an organizer, I am not recruiting any judges. Therefore, competing teams must provide the full slate of judges. If you enter one or two teams, you will provide one judge for ALL rounds. If you enter three or four teams, you MUST provide two judges. ( Extras will be welcome! ) There are no exceptions. This will allow me to place essentially one judge per room, but there may be a few extra for the odd panel. We therefore ask you provide judges with suitable experience, and that can stay the whole day. We cannot manage judges coming and going, or you being below your judging requirement for even one round. I will however, allow one judge for the morning to be replaced for the afternoon, but beyond that it is too difficult to manage.

Judging will be closed adjudication, but judges will be provide constructive feedback. Judges will fill out an electronic ballot with a google form. High school students may judge ONLY for junior events, and only if they are in their last year of high school, and then ONLY as a second judge for a school.

Chaperons / Spectators:

All teams will be expected to be accompanied by their school teacher and/or adult judge who will be the point of contact should there be an issue. Teachers / coaches are the only ones allowed access to observe debates ( if they are not otherwise judging ), however, we will allow spectators to arrive for the final round only.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR ALL EVENTS. You may register by emailing me your school

name ( the teacher contact should email me ) and the number of teams you wish to enter. Of course, please specify for which tournament(s).

The registration deadline will be the Sunday before each tournament, by which time any school will be guaranteed entry for four teams. After this time I will start to accept other teams from schools if space is available. Entries will still be accepted the week before, space permitting. However, by the Thursday before each tournament at 5:00 p.m. I need to close registration, and know the exact names of competitors and judges. As a further note I will only communicate with the one teacher / adult representative from each school who will be responsible for distributing necessary information to students and providing me with registration details.

I am hoping that this format will allow your school to get debate opportunities that you might not have had otherwise. Depending on demand, I will plan to repeat this sequence of events in the new year, perhaps late January / early February before various provincial events kick in, and then perhaps early spring as well. I am also open to adding other types of events for different groups, age or experience levels, etc. but I wanted to start with these two events and see how it works.

I look forward to seeing you at these tournaments. Please reach out if you have any questions.

Chris George cgeorge@videotron.ca