On behalf of the Hart House Debates Committee, it is my pleasure to formally invite youto the Hart House IV, taking place on October 14th – 16th.
Debating
All debates will be in standard British Parliamentary format, using Worlds speaking times (7 minutes per speech). All resolutions will be tight-link, with our very capable CAs ensuring a wide variety of topics are debated. There will be a hard cap of 80 teams.
There will be five preliminary rounds, with rounds 1-3 being open adjudication. If there are 80 registered teams, then we will break to quarter-finals. Otherwise, the top 8 teams will break to semis.
Awards will be given to the top 8 teams, top 10 speakers, top novice team, and top novice speaker.
Adjudication
The Chief Adjudicators of this year’s tournament are Steven Penner and Sam Greene. In the past year alone, Steven was the CUSID National Champion and British Parliamentary Champion. Steve has twice won the Seagram Cup, and has been a Chancellors semi finalist and Winter Carnival quarter finalist. Sam’s accomplishments include CUSID British Parliamentary Champion, Central Canadian (Leger Cup) Champion, Nationals Semifinalist, National, North American and Central Novice champion, Guindon and Chancellors semifinalist.
In addition to our highly qualified Chief Adjudicators, Hart House has access to an incredibly deep judging pool. Between the Hart House debating club, Hart House alumni and other debaters in Toronto, we have multiple National and North American debating champions, as well as numerous members who have broken as judges or adjudicators at previous worlds. We're confident that we can provide quality judging in every room.
The judging requirement will be n/3, rounded down. If a team is unable to fulfill their judging requirement then this can be waived at the discretion of the Chief Adjudicators. We strongly encourage those teams who feel like they need a waiver to contact us, rather than sending an adjudicator who may be uncomfortable judging.
Equity and Accessibility
The equity officer for this year's tournament is Gemma Stanton-Hagan. An equity policy will be posted by October 1st.
Food and Socials
Debaters and judges will be provided with a bag dinner on Friday evening, breakfast and lunch on Saturday, and brunch on Sunday. Our traditional formal banquet will be happening on Saturday evening. If you require special dietary requirements (veggie, vegan, halal, kosher, allergies) then we can make arrangements for you if we're notified by October 9th.
There willbe socials on both Friday and Saturday night, as well as an informal social for those arriving on Thursday. Every effort will be made to make the socials novice friendly.
Accommodation
We will benegotiating a hotel deal in the next few weeks. Details to follow.
For those who wish to billet, billeting is allotted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Registration
Registrationis $150 per team, and $70 per adjudicator, all prices in Canadian dollars. Registration begins September 1st, and ends October 5th. All schools must have paid in full by October 7th.
Registration and payment will be done online.
Beginning September 1st, each school can register up to six teams by emailing harthousedebate@gmail.com with the following information:
- school name
- number of teams
- number of judges
- billeting requirements (number and sex of those requiring billeting)
- payment type (cheque or credit card)
Credit card is our preferred form of payment, and due to policy constraints is the only type of payment we can accept from American and international participants.
More detailed information and payment will be collected through an online form at a later date as the second step of registration. Details to follow.
Teams who must travel a significant distance (ie. those outside of North America, or those with abnormally high travel costs) can request that their registration be waived. We will consider these requests on a case-by-case basis. Please make this request during registration.
There is an initial school cap of 6 teams, which will be lifted on October 1st.
Hope to see lots of you there! If you have any questions, please contact the Tournament Directors, Deirdre Casey and Allie Allison, at harthousedebate@gmail.com.
