Middle School Judging for 2011-2012 (Training for High School Student Judges Saturday)

We’ve had high school coaches communicate that their students have interest in judging at Middle School tournaments this year.

The CDL is making a few changes in response to feedback from Middle School coaches the last two years, which has been largely negative toward the experience their students have had with high school judges. These are:

1. All high school students judging must be Varsity debaters and have debated at 3 tournaments or more in a previous school year.

2. All high school student judges must attend a judge training PRIOR to the first CMSDL tournament they judge this year. We will schedule two before the first Middle School tournament on Saturday, October 22nd (more info here). ONLY high school students who have attended a judge training this year will be allowed to judge at CMSDL Tournament One.

2. We are no longer limiting high school student judges to schools where there is a mentor coach. Students from any CDL high school are eligible to judge if their coaches register their students with David prior to the tournament (he will respond with whether they are needed and hired for that tournament) and they meet the above 2 criteria.

Pay is $40/day for judging at CMSDL tournaments and only judges who are reliable, on-time, and supportive of younger debaters will be allowed to continue as judges.

Our first high school student judge training for the Chicago Middle School Debate League is this Saturday at Loyola Water Tower Campus:

• When: 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm, Saturday, October 8th
• Where: Corboy Law Center, Loyola University Water Tower Campus, 25 E. Pearson (near Red Line Chicago stop on CTA), Room 1202 (note new room number)
• Who: Coaches should register the names of Varsity high school students who plan to attend with David by e-mail by Friday, 6 pm.

There will be an additional weekday evening training the week of October 17th (date and time TBA) downtown but students who are interested in judging shouldn’t plan to wait until then and should register for this Saturday’s CMSDL judge training.