Reminders and Logistics for Tomorrow's Tournament One in Conference "A" and "AA"

Dear Conference “A” and Conference “AA” Coaches,

A few brief reminders:

First, please check latest registrations for:

• Current Conference “AA” T1 registration – please check and update
• Conference “A” registration will not be posted until later tonight, but please advise of any changes to your registration since you last e-mailed it to David

Confirm with students and judges and advise of any changes ASAP. If you know of any additional judges who you wish to bring, please let David know and we’d be happy to use them.

As of Saturday morning, changes you know of should come directly (ASAP) to the tournament directors as follows:

For Conference “AA” at Bogan, please call/text tournament director Desiree Weber with all changes to current registration as soon as you’re aware of them:

3 1 2 – 6 1 8 – 8 1 0 9

For Conference “A” at Chicago Ag, please call/text Imran Makani with all changes on Saturday morning as soon as you’re aware of them:

3 1 2 – 2 0 3 – 2 4 7 0

Second, please note locations of the tournaments for this weekend:

Conference “A”
Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences
3857 W. 111th St.
Chicago, IL

Conference “AA”
Bogan Computer Technical High School
3939 W. 79th St.
Chicago, IL

Third, please note T1 schedule.

* All schools should plan to arrive around 8 am on Saturday, where we start serving breakfast. Our dedicated, wonderful judge table staff will begin calling you not long after that time if you have not yet arrived at the tournament. We have your cell phone numbers and will use them to ensure we’re on-time, so please call us with your changes in registration.

* As soon as you are ready to leave your school and get on the bus Saturday morning, please call/text any changes as soon as you know them. Showing up to the tournament without communicating a changed registration in a timely fashion will mean your students are left off the pairing and forfeited. Changes must be called/texted in by 8:15 am at the latest on Saturday, but we’d strongly suggest informing of changes by 8 am, or earlier.

* 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. For Round 1 Saturday morning, 9:15 am is the forfeit time at Chicago Ag and Bogan. Please make sure you plan enough travel time and check with your judges in the morning as well – having students lose their first debate due to tardiness is not the way to start a year of competition.

* All schools will stay until departure at 6 pm following awards on Saturday – no school leaves before first departure at our tournaments and your students are certainly in contention for awards and don’t want to miss the excitement of the awards ceremony.

* We appreciate judges, even relatively inexperienced ones, being willing and ready to judge debates to enable students to compete in preliminary debates.

We look forward to great competition. Please update tournament directors directly with registration changes in the morning.

Please contact us with any questions or confusion – we’re here to help make your first tournament of the year a successful learning experience for your students!