August 30, 2017

Dear Colleagues:
TheGroves Debate Team cordially invites you and your team to the 28th Annual Wylie E.Groves FalconDebate Invitational, to be held at GrovesHigh School Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28, 2017. Grovesis located at 20500 West 13 Mile, Beverly Hills, Mi 48025, on the corner of 13 Mile and Evergreen (Cranbrook) Roads in Beverly Hills, MI.Policy divisions will be held October 27-28, 2017. Public Forum and Legislative Debate will be held on Saturday, October28 only.
Please enter early!
TOPIC:
The National High School Policy Debate Resolution for 2017-18.

The September-October 2017 NSDA Public Forum Resolution.
FORMAT:
Varsity two person with a junior varsity two person break-out and novice two person in policy debate.

We will be offering Novice and VarsityLegislative and Public Forum DebateDivisions on Saturday, October 28thonly. We will offer a Middle School Public Forum Division if there are sufficient entries. All bills should be emailed to John Lawson nolater than Monday, October 16, 2017.

LOGISTICS:
All debates will take place at Wylie E. Groves High School. Please plan on parking off 13 Mile Rd on the west side of the high school (between the football field and the school).

TABBING:
ALL POLICY AND PUBLIC FORUM DIVISIONS WILL USE A COMPUTERIZED TAB PROGRAM. THE PROGRAM RANDOMIZES THE FIRST TWO ROUNDS AND POWER MATCHES THE NEXT THREE (TWO IN PUBLIC FORUM).

ALL POLICY AND PUBLIC FORUM DIVISIONS MUST REGISTER TEAMS AND JUDGES ON TABROOM.COM IN ORDER TOENTER! Legislative Debate may continue to register via email at or .
TOURNAMENT ENTRY:

REGISTER ON TABROOM.COM FOR POLICY AND PUBLIC FORUM DIVISIONS BY MONDAY, OCTOBER23, 2017, AT 5 PM. Tabroom.com entry opens on September18, 2017 at 9 AM.
JUDGES:
The two person divisions:Onequalifiedjudge for everytwo2-person teams orfraction thereof PER DIVISION (one 2 person team PER DIVISION require one judge, two 2 person teams require one judge, three 2 person teams require two judges, etc.).

Legislative Debate:onejudge for every eight entries or fraction thereof.

Public Forum Debate: One judge for every two 2-person teams or fraction thereof. Any adult high school graduate, regardless of debate experience, may judge this division. Lay judges are encouraged.
Ballots and elimination rounds:Judges are expected to be available to judgeoneround past their own team's elimination in ALL POLICY DIVISIONS AND PUBLIC FORUM DIVISIONS. Thisincludes judges hired by a school. Additionally,all judges, including hired judges, are required towrite or type (on tabroom.com)complete ballots whether or not they voluntarily decide to provide oral critiques. Schools whose judges do not WRITE or TYPEallpreliminary round ballots will NOT receive their ballots and result packets.

RULES:
MIFA:The Tab Room/Tournament Administration will not enforce MIFA, NSDA or NCFL rules or guidelines regarding disclosure of decisions, reading of evidence, prompting or "tag teaming," paperless debate or evidence citation. Judges may, or course, enforce certain rules, guidelines and preferences in individual debate rounds. We only ask that judges announce their preferences to the debaters prior to the beginning of the rounds. PREP TIME WILL BE EIGHT (8) MINUTES IN POLICY DEBATE AND TWO (2) MINUTES PER TEAM IN PUBLIC FORUM.
Behavior:The Tournament Administration, upon investigation, reserves the right to remove from the judging pool adjudicators whose personal behavior is inappropriate or offensive. The school which has provided the removed judge will be financially responsible FOR ANY UNCOVERED DEBATES. Examples of inappropriate behavior include, but are not limited to: leaving the room during speeches, including cross-examination; rude or intemperate written or oral comments to debaters; undue familiarity/favoritism shown to a team in a round; evidence of bias or hostility exhibited towards competitors or harassment of any nature. SMOKING ON SCHOOL PROPERTY IS FORBIDDEN IN ACCORDANCE WITH STATE LAW.
FOOD:
Food, snacks, and refreshments (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) will be soldin the cafeteria by Debate Boosters.
FEES:
$50.00per each two person team in varsity and novice policy debate. Legislative Debate entries will be $5.00 per student. Public Forum entries will be $25.00 per two person team. Please make allchecks payable toWylie E. GrovesHigh School,NOTJohn Lawson or Ryan Nierman. Payment is due prior to, or at, registration. If you are a new program or are undergoing severe financial difficulties, please contact us regarding a reduced financial commitment.UDL debate programs do not have to pay entry fees. However, they are responsible for meeting judging commitments or hiring judges.
AWARDS:
Speaker awards will be given out based on the number of entries in each division. All teams reaching elimination rounds in each division will receive awards. Presiding officers in Legislative debate will receive a gavel.
LODGING:
We are providing one "tournament hotel:" We have a great tournament hotel only three (3) miles from Groves HS. It is the Comfort Suites, 24977 Northwestern Highway, Southfield, MI 48076. The phone number of the hotel is 1-248-357-9990; the fax number is 248-358-0140. The Comfort Suites offers suites which can accommodate five (5) persons (two queen beds plus a rollout couch) for $90.00 per night plus tax (so bring your tax exempt forms and numbers). The price includes an excellent hot breakfast (eggs, sausage, waffles, fruit, yogurt, cereal, juices). Each room has a microwave and refrigerator. The hotel has been recently renovated andhas updated the speed of its free WiFi.It is ranked #1 out of 19 hotels in Southfield on Trip Advisor.There is a pantry with food for purchase in the lobby. The indoor pool is open until 11 PM; the fitness room is open 24/7. Within one-half mile of the hotel are Middle Eastern, Thai, Kerby’s Coney Island, an IHOP, Jimmy John’s, Subway and Wings Stop restaurants. There are a TGI Fridays and a Greek restaurant about 1 mile from the hotel. We have visited the hotel before we selected it and it’s the type of property that we would want to stay at when we go on “overnight(s)” debate trips. The special rate for our block is available until October 16, 2017, so make your reservations early. The block is held under “Groves Debate.” Please ask for Devon Dallo, Sales Manager, if you have any difficulty with reservations when you call.

Registration:
Register inside of the Little Theater on the west side of theGrovesH.S. (across from the Football Field off 13 Mile Rd.)on Friday, October27, 2017 between 2:00 P.M. and 2:45 P.M. LEGISLATIVE DEBATE and PUBLIC FORUM registration begins at 7:30 AM, October 28, 2017in the Groves Cafeteria.

Schedule (two person policy)

Friday:
General Meeting – 2:50 P.M. (Auditorium)

Round 1 – 3:30 P.M.

Round 2 – 5:30 P.M.

Dinner - 7:30 P.M.

Round 3 - 8:30 P.M.

Saturday:

Pairings Available: 7:30 AM

Round 4 - 8:30 A.M.

Round 5 – 11:00 A.M.

Lunch - 12:30 P.M.

First Elim: 2:00 PM

Awards- 4:30 P.M.(Little Theater)

Second Elim: 5:30 P.M.

Third Elim: 8:00 PM

Schedule (Public Forum)

Saturday:

Registration: 7:30 AM (Cafeteria)

Round 1-8:45 AM

Round 2-9:45 AM

Round 3-10:45 AM

Lunch: 11:45 AM

Round 4-12:45 PM

Semis: 2:00 PM

Finals: 3:15 PM

Awards: 4:15 PM (Little Theater)

Schedule (Legislative Debate)

Saturday:

Registration 7:30 (Cafeteria)

Round 1- 8:45 A.M

Round 2- 10:30 A.M

Lunch- 12:15

Super Session – 1:15 P.M.

Awards 3:45 PM (Little Theater)

Contacts:
John Lawson: 1-248-647-5478 (H); 1-248-310-5909 (C)

Fax #'s: 1-248-203-3636
Emergency #'s, day of tournament: 1-248-310-5909; 1-248-203-3500

Ryan Nierman: 1-248-892-7161 (C)

Email:
Hired Judges:
A limited number of hired judges for policy debate are available at $180.00/full judge and $100.00/half judge. Hired judges for legislative debate and public forum are $100.00 per judge.
Entry:
Deadline for entry is Monday, October23, 2017 by 5 PM. Please enter via Tabroom for Policy and Public Forum and by email:r r call 248-310-5909 (JL Cell) or 248-892-7161 (Ryan Cell) for legislative.
Drops:
Drops after 5 P.M. onMonday, October 23, 2017will be assessed their original fees. Drops which involve judges hired at the coaches' request by the tournament will be assessed their full fee for the judge regardless of the time at which the drop occurs.

We look forward to seeing you on October27and/or October 28, 2017.

John Lawson
Co-Director of Debate
Ryan Nierman
Co-Director of Debate

Shannon Nierman

Assistant Director of Debate