Dear Fellow Debaters,

The Roxbury Latin School Debate Society cordially invites you to participate in our Parliamentary Debate Tournament on Sunday, September 28, 2008. There will be both Novice and Advanced divisions. The resolutions will be "traditional" extemporaneous, e.g. "The pen is mightier than the sword", not "straight" resolutions, and there will be new resolutions for each of the three rounds. The top teams in the Advanced division will conduct a public debate for the Championship after the three rounds have been completed. Each school may enter no more than one four-person team in each division, and must also provide one judge for each four-person team (with an adult judge in the advanced division, not a student). All schools are expected to have briefed their judges thoroughly on the rules, format, and the scoring techniques of debating. Schools are invited to bring additional students as observers. Last year’s winners of our two traveling trophies (Best School & Best Advanced Speaker), please be sure to bring these trophies with you to the competition or mail them to Stewart Thomsen in time for them to be awarded the day of this year’s debate.

Registration on the day of the debate will be held from 10:30 to 11:15 A.M. Teams arriving after the close of registration will not be allowed to compete. Judges' and debaters’ briefings will follow the registration. Dinner will be served in the Refectory after the third round to avoid lost time while the scoring room tallies the results of Round III to determine the participants in the Championship Round. We will start the Championship Round as soon as possible. The scoring of the debate and the standings in each division will be announced immediately following the Championship Round.

The format will be as follows (with 5 minutes to define the terms and 10 minutes to prepare arguments):

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

There is a $50 entry fee for each four-person team, and an additional $10 entry fee for each observer in order to offset the food costs. You may either send your entry fee to us with your entry form or bring it with you to the tournament. Please make checks payable to The Roxbury Latin School.

Please fill out the linked entry form and fax or e-mail it to us by September 21. Because our space is limited, we encourage schools to contact us ahead of this deadline as we may run out of space before September 21. If you have any questions, please email Stewart Thomsen. If you prefer to fax your school's entry, the school’s fax number is 617-325-3585.

Sincerely,

Brendan Hanrahan
President, Roxbury Latin Debate Society

Stewart Thomsen
Advisor, Roxbury Latin Debate Society