Chicago Debate Championship Reminders and Logistics

Every coach from each school should check the T6 Official Registration and advise David of changes as soon as you know of them prior to tomorrow and review the Tournament Schedule of the 2011 Allstate CPS Chicago Debate Championship.

A few logistical reminders:

• Schools should plan to arrive at the DePaul Loop Campus, 1 E. Jackson Blvd, at about 9 am tomorrow (Friday) and at about 7:30 am on Saturday.
• Information on parking and tournament meals can be found on the Chicago Debate Championship main page.
• Please confirm with your debaters and judges tomorrow morning as early as possible and e-mail and call/text David (8 4 7 – 9 5 1 – 9 6 6 2) as soon as you know of any changes. Coaches should plan to notify David of any changes or drops with teams or judges by 9:00 am on Friday at the latest if you haven’t arrived in person to registration and by 7:30 am on Saturday. If you’re running late and we don’t hear from you in a timely fashion, you’ll be left off the first pairing of the morning and assigned a forfeit. We run our tournaments on time and arriving late with unannounced changes is asking for an exception that would delay the most important tournament of the year for everyone else and their students, which we can’t allow. Starting the Chicago Debate Championship with a forfeit is not the way to go.
• Forfeit times will be enforced throughout the tournament for 15 minutes following the start of each scheduled debate and maverick debates are not allowed at the Chicago Debate Championship.
• Coaches should register their teams and judges on the 8th floor, at the Judge Table, upon arrival on Friday and Saturday mornings. Tab room, judge table, and registration will be on the 8th floor.
• Students should proceed directly to the 11th floor assembly space on Friday and Saturday morning. This assembly space is where: meals will be served, the Opening Assembly will be held, the Awards Ceremony will be held, where students should be when they are not debating.
• All debates will be held in the DePaul Center (1 E. Jackson) or Lewis Center (25 E. Jackson), which are connected by hallways on classroom floors as follows:

  11th floor DePaul Center connects to 14th floor Lewis Center
  10th floor DePaul Center connects to 13th floor Lewis Center
  9th floor DePaul Center connects to 12th floor Lewis Center
  9th floor DePaul Center connects to 11th floor Lewis Center
  (Yes- 9th floor of DePaul Center has access to both 11th and 12th floors of Lewis Center)
  8th floor DePaul Center connects to 10th floor Lewis Center

  In the DePaul Center, stairs can be used from 9th floor to 8th floor and 7th floor to 6th floor. There is NO 7th to 8th floor, you’ll have to use the elevator.

  Debates in the DePaul Center Concourse can be reached by escalator on the Lobby level (going down one level), there is a handicapped elevator next to Sbarro’s Pizza that is the furthest to the right in the bank of elevators that goes down to the Concourse – other elevators won’t go down to the Concourse level but will stop only at the Lobby level.

• Pairings will be posted on easel boards on the 8th and 11th Floor. We will have limited access to photocopies, so please make sure you check at these locations.
• Every team will have five preliminary debates — four on Friday, and one on Saturday morning. Preliminary Round V for the Varsity will begin at 8:00 am sharp (forfeits at 8:15 am), while the JV debaters will have a bye. Preliminary Round V for the JV will begin at 9:45 am, while the Varsity debaters will have a bye.

  All schools — all debaters, judges, and coaches– should be on site Saturday morning no later than 7:45 am, even if they do not have Varsity teams competing. We will be using judges in the Varsity and JV interchangeably.

  During their bye on Saturday morning, debaters must be in the Assembly Space on the 11th floor.

• There will be coaches serving as facility supervisors in the 11th Floor Assembly Hall and stationed in both the DePaul Center and Lewis Center to ensure that students are either in debates, observing debates, or in the 11th Floor Assembly Space at all times during the tournament and behaving themselves in a way that is respectful to the importance of this tournament and its location.
• Judges are reminded to turn in their ballots or hand them to student volunteers running ballots before giving an oral critique. All coaches and judges are obligated for the Octofinals.

  Because of the importance of the Awards Ceremony at the Chicago Debate Championship, judges of the Octofinals are reminded that they are NOT to disclose or give an oral critique, but should instead write extensive ballots for Octofinals and leave the decision unannounced until Awards. Judges are free to discuss the debate later in the tournament after Awards have concluded with students or put their e-mail addresses on ballots if they wish to be available for further feedback, but we must start the Awards Ceremony on time, exactly at 3:15 pm. Judges may disclose and give comments for Quarterfinals through Finals, but are asked to make sure elim debates start and end on time.

  Each school in the elimination rounds must provide judging obligated to stay one round past the last round to which their teams advance.

• All schools — all debaters, judges, and coaches — are required to stay through the 14th Annual Chicago Debate Championship Awards Ceremony, 3:15pm – 4:00pm, in the Assembly Space on the 11th floor.