September 24, 2011

Fellow Debaters:

The St. Paul’s School Debate Team cordially invites you to attend our Third Annual Invitational Debate Tournament in Honor of Senator John Kerry, to be held on Sunday, October 30, 2011.

The tournament is open to both advanced and novice teams, and you are welcome to bring as many teams as you would like. In accordance with DANEIS rules, only those who have participated in no more than six previous interscholastic tournaments, or those who have not debated in the last fifteen calendar months, may compete as novices. We do ask that coaches use their discretion: some unusually apt novices can (and should) be moved up to the advanced division sooner than this.

The tournament will be Oregon-style Prepared, and will consist of three rounds. Pairs will debate on the same side of the resolution for all three rounds. The resolution is:

"BIRT: If residents of Puerto Rico vote for changing their status from territory to statehood, the U.S. Congress should accept it as the 51st state of the United States."

Each team shall consist of four people, accompanied by a judge. While experienced advanced debaters are acceptable as judges in the novice division, advanced teams must have an adult judge. We regret that we are unable to provide judges. ALL student and adult judges should be thoroughly prepared in order to ensure a fair and constructive tournament.

Registration fees are $70 per four-person team (including judge), with a $10 charge per observer to offset meal costs. Please let us know by October 22 how many advanced teams, novice teams and observers you plan to bring, by emailing Laura Rochette.  Once we hear from you and are closer to the tournament date, we will send you a request for the names of participating students to enter into our scoring system.

If there are any changes in the number of teams, names of participants, or positions they are debating (affirmative or negative), please contact me 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 my cell phone (603-491-6236) before you leave your school, so that the schedule of debates, and/or the appropriate information in our scoring database, can be adjusted in time for a smooth start.

Please refer to our directions to St. Paul's as GPS systems can often send buses in the wrong direction! Silk Farm Road is CLOSED to traffic!

We hope that you can join us, and look forward to greeting you on October 30.

Sincerely,

Laura Rochette, Kevin Barry, Coaches
Laura Gullett, Mike Ippolito, and Sophia Jannetty, Debate Captains