Welcome to the 2024 season of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute's Great Communicator Debate Series! Click on the link to find out more about the Great Communicator Debates! If you are not familiar with the Reagan style of debating, please review the website to learn more. We emphasize effective communication, civility, and competition without debate jargon or terminology. Anyone can understand and enjoy a Great Communicator Debate! 

Please note that we are at Rockhurst High School on Friday and at the Truman Library on Saturday! 

Our 2024 Regional Topic is:

Resolved: Teachers should integrate generative AI in their teaching and learning. 

We will have optional Zoom sessions the week of the tournament where all students, judges, and coaches can have their questions answered prior to the start of the regional on Friday. We will email the Zoom links and details to all coaches via tabroom! 

A few notes for the coaches/parents: 

1) Adult contacts must register students. Student-only teams are not permitted to enter. All institutions must provide at least one judge (for more than two students, an additional judge is required for every two students). We have now removed the caps on teams - you may enter more than five students per school! 

2) The entry fee is $15 per debater. If this fee creates a financial hardship, please reach out to us. You may pay your fees here. In the event of drops, fees are not refundable. However, you may replace a debater who is ill or unable to attend at any time. 

For those who wish to pay by credit card click here!  

If you are paying by check, please make it out to: The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute. Be sure to indicate the name of the school or entity, as registered in tabroom, on the check and bring with you to registration. 

3) All judges will use electronic ballots via tabroom.com - encourage your judges to log in prior to Saturday morning and make sure they bring a laptop or tablet to type comments during the debates. It is very difficult to fill out ballots on your phone. We will not have paper ballots this year in order to keep the event moving on time.

4) Please make sure that students who are under the age of 18 have their parents fill out the following media release form before Friday evening: Media Release Form! - if they are 18 they can sign their own form. We need to have completed forms for all students.

5) All debaters must have tabroom accounts. All participants, including coaches, students, and judges, will receive breakfast and lunch on site. 

6) All judges must have tabroom accounts and phone numbers attached to those tabroom accounts so that we can reach them during the day of the tournament. Please reach out to us if you have any questions about judging or setting up accounts on tabroom. We are happy to help! 

7) All participants must be of high school age and attend an accredited high school, virtual school, or be homeschooled. Students who have graduated from high school are NOT permitted to debate unless they are mid-year graduates. Middle school students are not permitted to attend regional tournaments; however, look for additional information on our website in the fall about middle school tournament experiences starting next school year! 

Questions? Please reach out to us! We are happy to help! We want to make your Great Communicator Debates an amazing experience! 

Deano Pape
Great Communicator Debate Coordinator 
dpape@reaganfoundation.org