The Harvard Debate Tournament

	The Harvard National High School Invitational Forensics Tournament A Project of the Harvard Debate Council, a student run organization at Harvard College

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The Thirty-Fourth Annual

Harvard National Invitational Forensics Tournament

Greetings from Harvard Debate!

We are delighted to invite you to attend the thirty-fourth annual Harvard National Invitational Forensics Tournament, which will be held in Cambridge on Presidents' Day Weekend, Saturday, Sunday, & Monday, February 16-18, 2008.

All entries into the tournament will be managed through this web site. No paper invitations will be mailed. No entries by phone or fax will be accepted. Only by centralizing this function in one place can we continue to manage all of the data and allow everyone an equal chance to enter the tournament.

E-registration! We will once again offer e-registration to all schools that have submitted an accurate and complete entry and fully paid their fees. Registration materials will be distributed via fax or delivered to your local hotel.

What do you need to do now? The professionals at Traveline (888-642-2248 or TraveLine1@aol.com) have great discounts off of best-available airfares, exclusively for people attending the tournament. The earlier you book, the bigger the discounts.

Some of our hotels fill up early, so you may wish to make reservations now. Other than that, watch this web site for future announcements. The site will be ready to take your entries on December 11, 2007.

Sincerely yours,

Sherry Hall & Dallas Perkins, Jr.

Competition Rules, Procedures, & Eligibility

Due to scheduling conflicts, no student may enter more than one of the following four tournaments. This includes Extemporaneous Speaking and Lincoln-Douglas. Students must choose between extemp and LD.

The Policy Debate Tournament

There will be one open division of two-person, switch-sides, cross-examination debate, on the national topic. Time limits will be 8-3-5, with ten minutes preparation time per team. In order to maximize opportunities to participate, we must require that all teams have two members: no "mavericks." Both members of the team must attend the same school.

Vital Stats: Prelims: 7. Elims: Partial Triple-octafinals. All teams with a 5-2 record guaranteed to clear.

The Public Forum Debate Tournament

There will be one open division of public forum debate, on the February NFL topic, and using NFL time format and rules. Both members of the team must attend the same school.

VITAL STATS: Prelims: 6 Elims; Triple-Octafinals.

The Speech Tournament

The tournament will feature competition in five events:

extemporaneous speaking (no foreign/domestic split),
original oratory,
dramatic interpretation,
humorous interpretation,
duo interpretation.

The schedule should allow responsible students to enter two of these events, and it is not unheard of to enter three. NFL rules will govern all competitions. It is our understanding that these rules forbid scripts in interp events, oratory or interp pieces which were performed last year in NFL events, and computers in extemp prep.

VITAL STATS: Prelims: 4. Elims: Octafinals (top 56 contestants), Double-Octafinals for events with more than 300 entries (last year DI broke to doubles).

The Lincoln-Douglas Debate Tournament

There will be two divisions, varsity and junior-varsity. Both will use the January-February NFL topic.

VITAL STATS: Prelims: 6. Elims: Triple-octas in both divisions (top 64). No Entry Limit.

The Harvard National Student Congress

The The Harvard National Congress (HNC) is again directed by Brent Pesola (brentp@ccaeagles.org) and Jason Wysong (jcwysong@gmail.com).

Unlike the rest of the tournament, the deadline for entry into the Harvard National Congress tournament is FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2008.

Full text of all bills/resolutions must be submitted along with entry--see details on Congress registration page. Legislation and chamber assignments will ONLY be available AFTER 12:00 NOON, ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2008. If you have any questions about the HNC, other than "When can we get the bill titles?," you should EMAIL brentp@ccaeagles.org. Note that the link to get legislation and assignments (after February 1) is located at the bottom of the entry form for the Congress tournament.

VITAL STATS: Prelims: 3 three-hour sessions. Semi-Super Congress (top 96) Sunday. Super Congress (top 24) Monday. There will be 12-14 Prelim Houses, 400 contestants. Entry Limit: Schools limited to 15 entries.*

*Schools may enter 9th graders separately by creating a “Junior” school entry, even if the high school is technically 9th-12th graders. This eliminates an unfair advantage for schools whose 9th graders are at a separate campus.

Click here to download the 2008 HNC Contestant Package
Click here to download the 2008 HNC Legislation Book

General Tournament Rules

Without objection from school officials, unaffiliated entries are welcome in all tournaments. However, debate and duo team members must attend the same school. Furthermore, unaffiliated entrants must submit full payment by mail prior to registration. All judges provided by schools must be qualified, which at a minimum means a high school diploma. Any complaints about judge qualifications must be addressed to the tournament director prior to or immediately after the competition involved. All tournament directors have been authorized to impose penalties against schools whose judges do not appear for the rounds to which they have been assigned. The individual events tournament director will be prepared to enforce NFL rules if objections are brought to her attention in a timely manner.

Registration, Judging, & Fees

Entry Procedures

You must enter via this web-site. The web site will begin accepting your entries on December 11, 2007. You are responsible for entering your school and student information, and also for getting the spelling and event information correct. After you have entered the information, you should verify your entry and print out a copy of this information in addition to your invoice.

The deadline for Policy, Lincoln Douglas and Individual Events entries is February 11, 2008. The deadline for entry into the Harvard National Congress tournament is January 25, 2008. The fees for your entry will be set by midnight February 11, 2008. You will be responsible for paying the full entry fee for any entries dropped after that date.

Paying Fees and Completing Registration

Our new e-registration system makes it possible for schools that have provided accurate entry information and paid their fees in advance to receive their registration materials either at their hotel or by fax before they leave home.

For those schools who must pay their fees in person and/or make emergency corrections to their entries or judges, we will continue to hold the traditional registration in the media cafeteria at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, on Friday, February 15, 2008, between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Since we are setting up at the high school and have to wait for classes to end, we ask that you not arrive early.

STUDENTS FROM SCHOOLS WHICH DO NOT COMPLETE REGISTRATION, WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO COMPETE. Each school must register either through e-registration or in person. It is important that the persons registering be prepared to confirm all details of their school’s entry, judging, local contacts, etc., and be prepared to pay the tournament fees. We reserve the right to exclude contestants from competition if their school fails to register. If your travel to Cambridge is unavoidably delayed, please call Dallas Perkins at 617-306-4514.

It will be best to pay your fees by mail. You may obtain an invoice by downloading it from the web site.

For the first time in a number of years we are forced to raise our fees because our rental fees for using the high school have skyrocketed. Given the tremendous wear and tear we inflict on the facilities, we think the higher rental fees are entirely reasonable.

Fees will be as follows:

Debate Teams – $160.00
Public Forum Debate Teams -- $140.00
Lincoln-Douglas Entries – $120.00
Individual Speech Events – $60.00
Duo Interpretation Teams – $75.00
Student Congress – $75.00
School fee -- $50.00

Judging

Each two policy debate teams, each three LD contestants, each three public forum teams, each five speech and each ten congress entries must be accompanied by a qualified judge. No person can cover entries from different tournaments. All judges must be available for all preliminary rounds, the first elimination round, and for one round beyond elimination of the last contestant from the school that the judge represents. All judges must be qualified, which at a minimum means a high school diploma. First year judges in Lincoln Douglas will generally be assigned to the junior varsity division.

Hired judging will be available for schools unable to cover the above requirements. The costs will be as follows:

Policy Debate Teams – $160.00 per team not covered
Public Forum Debate Teams -- $100.00 per team not covered
Lincoln Douglas – $80.00 per entrant not covered
Speech – $30.00 per entry not covered
Student Congress – $30.00 per entrant not covered

The Harvard National High School Invitational Forensics Tournament