Reminders and Announcements for Saturday's CMSDL Tournament One

Coaches,

We’re looking forward to our largest and best season opener to the Chicago Middle School Debate League season on Saturday.

A few important reminders that each coach should look at before Saturday morning:

All coaches and support coaches should check with their students and judges and e-mail David any changes through Friday night as soon as you know of them to the latest updated versions of the:
- Official CMSDL T1 Conference “A” Registration
- Official CMSDL T1 Conference “AA” Registration
Morning changes and registration: Saturday morning, breakfast and registration begins at 8:00 am. Please note the time.
Call/text with any changes and check in by 8:15 am at the latest or your team will be left off the pairing and forfeited. Do not plan to arrive at 8:45 am after registration and breakfast are over. Please make sure you call any changes as soon as you know of them on Saturday morning directly to the Tournament Directors at each site:
- Conference “A” at Phillips: Desiree Weber, 3 1 2 – 6 1 8 – 8 1 0 9
- Conference “AA” at CICS Ellison: David Song, 8 4 7 – 9 5 1 – 9 6 6 2

Judging: All judges should plan to arrive on time and all non-coach judges should be available for the judging workshop no later than 8:30 am. Because we are enforcing a requirement for high school Varsity debaters to undergo a full training this year, we will have less high school debaters than at past tournaments, meaning most coaches (including newer ones) will be judging all or almost all debates. We appreciate coaches working with us on this. Judging debates early in the year can give coaches more knowledge about the topic and Core Files, as well as a good idea of what they can do better with their own students and what students are struggling with.

Tardiness policy: Our tournaments run on-time. We respect your time and value the contribution you make to the experience of students from your school and all the others that are a part of the league, it is a professional expectation that coaches ensure their students and judges arrive on time and are ready to debate at scheduled times. Those who are late for debates or have unannounced changes are asking for exceptions that would delay the tournament for everyone else’s students, which we can’t allow. Forfeits will occur 15 minutes after the start of each announced round. Round 1 starts at 9:15 am sharp and forfeits are at 9:30 am. Losing your first debate of the day at the most important tournament of the year due to tardiness is not the way to go.

Student conduct: Quitting during debates isn’t allowed. Novice students must compete and should be encouraged to use their thoughts and the Core Files in order to use as much of their speech time as they can. The most basic rule of the CMSDL is that giving up isn’t allowed – being nervous is natural, but students don’t learn anything if they don’t try.
There is a possibility that some Novice debaters will receive byes during each debate – in the event of a bye, those students not debating must observe/flow debates and not be disruptive in any way to those debates. Unsupervised students not doing anything debate-related during debate rounds aren’t allowed at tournaments.

Travel plans: Please check/confirm with all students and judges that they are arriving on time and leave extra time for your vehicle or for the bus.

We look forward to an enjoyable and competitive CMSDL Tournament One and to starting the year strong.

See you Saturday morning.