You are invited to the campus of Illinois College for a 5 round tournament in Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas debate! Competition will take place in several academic buildings around the “quad,” where the buildings are relatively close together, but there will be some walking involved. We’re sharing space with another organization on campus that day, so we are capping entries at a total of 50.

We will offer competition in three divisions of debate as long as entries warrant. If we need to collapse, every effort will be made to protect the novice divisions.

Novice: Any competitor in their first year of high school debate competition
Junior Varsity: Any competitor in their first or second year of high school debate competition
Varsity: Any competitor

Competitors may be moved up to a higher division, but no debater may be moved to a lower level of competition.

Topics:
Public Forum: January topic – Resolved: The African Union should grant diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Somaliland as an independent state.
Lincoln-Douglas: January/February topic – Resolved: The United States ought to become party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.** (this is the revised version approved by IL coaches)

Fees:
$30.00 per Public Forum team or Lincoln-Douglas entry

Checks can be brought to the tournament or sent to:
Illinois College Debate & Speech Team
1101 W. College Ave.
Jacksonville, IL 62650
EIN # 37-0661211

A W9 for the college is available upon request.

Judging Requirements:
1 judge/every two Public Forum Teams
1 judge/every two Lincoln-Douglas Debaters
* For example, if you enter 3 Public Forum teams and 3 Lincoln-Douglas debaters, you would owe 4 judges, 2 for PF and 2 for LD.

**If you have extra judges OR if you are in need of hiring extra judges, please reach out. We will attempt to get you in contact with judges that are available. We are hopeful that we will have some IC students available to help if needed.

Registration:
We will conduct registration at http://trueblue.tabroom.com/. All entries are due by Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 6:00 PM. We will initially limit each team to 4 entries/division, but if you need to go beyond that, please reach out, and we will allow additional entries as the tournament has room.

Tentative Schedule:
8:15AM Check In
8:45AM Judges Meeting
9:00AM Round 1
10:15AM Round 2
11:45AM Round 3
12:45PM Lunch
1:30PM Round 4
2:45PM Round 5
4:00PM Awards

Location:
Illinois College
1101 W. College Ave.
Jacksonville, IL 62650

Contact Information:
Tournament Director & Director of Illinois College Debate & Speech Team – Shawna Merrill
Email: shawna.merrill@ic.edu Cell: (417) 773-3541