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You and your squad are cordially invited to the inaugural East Coast Early Bird Debate Tournament, to take place on the campus of Nassau Community College, which is located in beautiful Garden City, Long Island – just 35 minutes east of New York City! September is an amazing time to visit New York as the temperatures become comfortably mild right before fall sets in. We’ve conceived this tournament to be a fun yet competitive one, where students can get in some early debate rounds in a relaxed and educational atmosphere.

We plan to offer three debate formats: Individual IPDA, NFA-LD, and NPDA with novice and open divisions in all three formats! Our one-day schedule should make travel convenient and allow time for teams to explore the area. What follows is all the information you should need, but feel free to email or call if you have additional questions. We look forward to hosting you!

We plan on offering novice and open divisions in each format. However, the tournament reserves to the right to collapse divisions if entries warrant.

Awards will be given to all elimination round participants, as well as the top 5 speakers in each division and format. We will also award team sweepstakes in each format; and the overall teams across formats.

Nassau Community College students may compete and will be eligible to advance and receive speaker awards. However, Nassau Community College will not be eligible for any school sweepstakes awards.

For our purposes, a novice shall be defined as a student who has NO prior debate experience including high school. Please enter your students accordingly.

Though we will not employ any official “warm rooms”, we do encourage cordial and constructive dialogue between judges and competitors, but ONLY at the judges’ discretion. Judges should not feel compelled or pressured to engage students. In turn, students should not engage or pressure judges for commentary after rounds. We do ask that all judges turn in ballots before they give any oral critiques.

Schools should make every attempt to cover their entries. If you don’t feel comfortable/qualified judging one of the debate formats, please note that on your entry. Nassau Community College will make every attempt to hire qualified judges for the tournament. As a reminder, IPDA encourages the use of “lay” judges. If you know of any former debaters in the NYC/Long Island area, please let us know, as we’d love to hire them!

Any student who is more than 5 minutes late will forfeit their round; and the opposing team will be awarded a win with their speaker points averaged.

1. All entries will be due by Wednesday, September 26^th at 1pm EST via Speechwire.

2. All competitors must be undergraduate students enrolled at their respective colleges/universities.

4. It is up to coaches to enter students in their proper division (novice/open). Please see the “definition of novices” section in this invite.

I will be working with our IT department to provide free access to WiFi. Schools will be given instructions on how to access the WiFi at NCC at registration in their packets. While I will make every attempt to ensure access, I encourage teams to have a backup plan, just in case.

Both New York City and Nassau County, Long Island are proud to be sanctuary cities. Our cities and our tournament embrace all forms of diversity.

Nassau Community College is a large campus. While we will attempt to keep all rounds close to tournament headquarters, some rounds will be scheduled in buildings that require a 5 to 10 minute walk. If any coach, judge or student requires any special accommodations, please let me know as soon as possible.

The East Coast Early Bird Debate Tournament will adhere to the ethical standards prescribed by each debate format’s parent organization. It is strongly suggested that each participant familiarize themselves with these principles.

All four preliminary rounds will be randomly paired. We will NOT break brackets in elimination rounds.

We will be offering Individual IPDA debate in both a novice and open division. Topic draw will be in round where five resolutions will be presented. The negative and affirmative debaters will alternatively strike two topics each and the remaining resolution shall be the resolution for the round. The 30-minute prep period begins at the first strike. As per IPDA guidelines, debaters may consult any materials during prep time including the Internet, prepared files and electronic material. Debaters may not access the Internet or online materials during the debate. Time constraints are: 5-2-6-2-3-5-3

We will follow all the guidelines set forth by NFA. The 2018-2019 resolution shall be used. We plan to offer both a novice and open division. The following time constraints will be used: 6-3-7-3-6-6-3 with 4 minutes of additional prep time.

We will offer a novice and open division of NPDA. We will honor the traditional time constraints: 7-8-8-8-4-5 with 15 minutes of prep time prior to the debate. Teams will be presented with three resolutions. Negative strikes first, then Affirmative. The remaining resolution shall be the resolution for the round.

**An octofinal round will be added, at the tournament director’s discretion, if entries warrant. This will, of course, alter the schedule.

1. Long Island is served by three airports. Both JFK and LaGuardia are located in Queens about 30-40 minutes from campus. Islip Airport is a smaller regional airport in Suffolk County about 1.5 hours from campus.

2. Your best bet is to contact Jason@TravelAdvocates.com for your hotel needs. Jason secures negotiated rates for most tournaments on the east coast.

3. Tab, tournament headquarters, and postings will all be in the CCB (College Center Building). A campus map will be posted on the Speechwire site and additional logistics will be given out with the confirmation of your entry.

4. You should park in front of “G” Building, which is adjacent to the CCB. You may park in any space on weekends, provided that it is not designated as a handicapped space.

Trent Webb
Email address: Trent.Webb@ncc.edu
Phone number: 516-572-7170 x25417

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