Fees

• Lincoln-Douglas debate: $75 per entry
• Duo Interpretation: $55 per team
• All other speech events: $50 per entry
• Student Congress: $55 per entry
• Public Forum debate: $85 per team
• Policy & Parliamentary Debate: $70 per team

Fees are due at registration on the Friday of the tournament. Checks should be made out to the Yale Debate Association. We cannot accept credit cards; we can accept cash, but don’t expect us to be able to break large bills or give a lot of change. You must pay your registration fees before rounds begin; if your school’s check is late, that’s between you and your school, not the tournament and your school; we cannot run a post-facto collection agency anymore and require payment up front.

Unreported Drops

Some schools in the past have not reported all their drops to the tournament; this harms our ability to panel rounds for good competition. Schools with unreported drops will be assessed a fee of $50 per drop. Please notify Tab immediately if a student falls ill or withdraws from competition during the tournament. We’ll panic otherwise, and probably be very angry at you if we find out you knew about it. The safety of the students demands nothing less.

Results

We will publicly post the results of each round in each Debate event (Parli, PF, Policy, LD) after each round is tabbed, to serve as a double-check.  Judges in debate events are encouraged, but not required, to give feedback and critiques to the debaters and disclose their decisions.  However, please be sure the tab room knows the results of the round before you give extended critiques.  We will use an optional text-messaging system to allow you to quickly send results into the tab room.

Ballots and Awards

Awards will be given to all competitors reaching eliminations. Please pick them up during the awards ceremony, or arrange to have someone else do so on your behalf. We do not mail trophies. If we had a nickel for every time we had to repeat this, we’d all be retired right now, enjoying our very own Caribbean island.

We also do not release ballots early to teams who cleared entries into elim rounds. Non-clearing teams can pick up ballots, but they won’t be ready & sorted until Sunday morning after the first elim round. If you anticipate leaving early, bring a self-addressed, stamped envelope of sufficient size and postage to mail your ballots, label it with your school name, and deliver it to tab. We will put your ballots into the envelope and send it after the tournament. Please don’t just staple enough money to the envelope; bring actual postage; our asking for stamps is a time/hassle thing, not a money thing.

Safety

The tab room phone number is (617) 981-2754. Please make all your students and judges aware of this number, so they can contact Tab. This number is for on-site issues only, and will not be answered except during the tournament. The policy of the Yale Tournament concerning consumption of alcoholic beverages by minors, illegal use of controlled substances, vandalism, and destructive, and other illegal or disorderly behavior shall be: (1) to disqualify involved contestants from further competition, (2) to communicate the offending incident to the contestants’ on-site guardians and/or parents, (3) to require financial reimbursement for all damages or liabilities caused directly or indirectly by the incident, (4) to notify the local legal authorities. The precise remedy or remedies selected will remain at the discretion of the tournament staff. Every student must be accompanied to the tournament by an adult empowered by the student’s school and/or parent to care for that student in the event of a medical or other emergency. The contact information for this adult must be given to the Tab Room on registration. The Yale Tournament can take no responsibility for the health and safety of students beyond notifying this accompanying adult of concerns or problems as we become aware of them.  The Yale Invitational Tournament staff reserves the right to refuse entry to the tournament to anyone, be they competitor, judge or observer, at its sole discretion.