Dear Coaches and Students:

We would like to invite you to the 43rd annual Malcolm A. Bump Memorial Tournament, November 14-15, 2008, at Hendrick Hudson HS, Montrose, NY. We will again be offering Varsity and Novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate and open Public Forum Debate. We hope to once again offer great competition, an efficient tab room, good food for both debaters and judges, and a decent place to hang your hat for our student housing. We usually break to double-octos in Varsity LD, octos in Novice LD, and either octos or quarters in the PF division. Bump remains a TOC qualifier in LD at the Quarters level and PF at the Semis level.

Varsity and Novice LD will debate the November-December NFL resolution; PF will debate the November resolution.

Definition of a novice: A novice debater is defined, at this tournament, as a student in his or her absolute first year of debate. Any previous high school forensics experience negates a studentÕs novice status. Novices who happen to be in their sophomore year, with no previous forensics experience, are perfectly acceptable. Novices in their junior or senior year, on the other hand, should set their sights higher and enter the varsity division. Students with pre-high school debate experience (i.e., middle school), may enter either the Novice or Varsity divisions, at the best judgment of their coaches.

REGISTRATION:

All pre-registration is at www.tabroom.com, beginning 10/1.

Pre-registration will close at 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov 5. There is an initial limit of 6 Varsity Lincoln-Douglas debaters, 8 Novice LD debaters, and 5 PF teams per school. If you predict a likelihood of needing more slots, we will waitlist them. Note: we have historically filled up weeks before the deadline; waiting till the last minute may mean we canÕt get you in; we have just so much space, and once itÕs filled up, weÕre done. If slots remain available after 11/5, they will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis; availability will be announced in the updates on our web site and through email blasts via tabroom.com. Slots will go first to schools totally shut out; extra slots will only be given after all locked-out schools have their chance.

Important note: No teams will be accepted into the tournament without a responsible adult chaperone, unless other plans are made in advance with the Tournament Director. Showing up without a chaperone and looking like a wounded dove will not suffice. An adult, for these purposes, is defined as a college graduate twenty-one years of age or older. And no teams will be accepted except as official entries from their schools unless, again, other plans are made in advance with the Tournament Director.

Drops and other changes will be accepted without penalty through 9:00 p.m., November 9. Fees will be fixed at that time, payable at registration. Every and any change after that time, through midnight 11/13 (email jim_menick@yahoo.com), will be charged at $10 nuisance fee; changes at the registration table on Friday, 11/14, will be charged $25 per change. These nuisance fees will be collected, and are posted not as a source of income for the tournament, but an incentive for teams to finalize by the finalization date.

FEES:

$90 per PF team, $60 per Varsity LD debater, $45 per Novice LD debater, $25 general school fee (for judge lounge amenities, etc.). Fees are fixed 11/9/08 at 9:00 pm (plus nuisance fees, as noted above). All fees are due at registration; checks only please, payable to Hendrick Hudson High School Student Activities Fund.

Important note regarding Express check-in: Schools with no changes after 11/9 will be allowed an express check-in. WeÕll simply shake your hand when you arrive, take your check and give you your codes and housing info. No waiting on confusing lines explaining yourself to an obtuse high school freshman. On the other hand, those who do have changes will, indeed, face our fierce and forbidding line of student registrars, who have been known to send even the most experienced coaches into states of total and permanent depression.

FOOD:

Dinner on Friday will be provided at the tournament. Once again we intend to offer a spread of various six-foot-long heroes, including vegetarian options so that Chetan will have something to eat. Housing families will provide breakfasts on Saturday. Lunch Saturday will be provided by the tournament; this will prevent the dreaded "debater drift" of tournament participants disappearing to the various greasy spoons, gin mills, billiard parlors, cockfight arenas and literary salons surrounding the high school.

HOUSING:

We will house up to 150 students (and high school students only) who travel a considerable distance; bring a sleeping bag. All housing requests must be submitted along with your pre-registration information through tabroom.com. We can offer no more than 150 housing slots, on a first-come, first-served basis. A number of motels are available nearby for coaches and adult chaperones; please keep in mind that it is a drive to all of these motels.

Peekskill Motor Inn, 634 Main St., Peekskill 10566. The closest venue.

Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites West Point-Fort Montgomery, 1106 Route 9w, Fort Montgomery, NY 10922. Right across the Hudson, about 20 minutes away.

Route 9A, about half an hour south: La Quinta Inn Elmsford 540 Saw Mill River Rd, Elmsford, NY 10523

The Alexander Hamilton House is a small B&B in Croton, close to the school, with only 8 rooms. (914) 271-6737

The various motels in Tarrytown and Fishkill (for those of you who are familiar with these) are all also easily accessible, about half an hour away, and may be worth a look.

JUDGING:

Public Forum: The ratio in PF is 1 judge for every 2 teams. Given the nature of PF, for some reason judging always seems impossibly and inexplicably tight, so this ratio, stiff as it is, is the one we must adhere to. If necessary, we will augment the pool slightly with LD judges off and on.

For the sake of consistency, and because schools often send new PF judges, we will have a short training session prior to the PF round one. We encourage lay judging; we just donÕt want the judges to be confused when they go into their rounds. Of course, coaches should also see to informing their PF judges in advance of what they should expect.

A very small number of PF judges may be available for hire at $160 via tabroom.com. (Please note that Bump does not sell arithmetic: if you buy a judge from us, it is a real, live person. If we have no real, live persons of the judge persuasion available to us, then we do not cross our fingers and sell them anyhow.)

All PF judges must remain available for the first elimination rounds, even if their own teams do not break, and subsequently must remain available for one round after their own teamsÕ elimination.

LD: In LD, schools are asked to provide one qualified LD judge for every 1-3 LDers in each division. That is, you need to cover your varsity separate from your novices. For example, if you have 2 varsity and 1 novice, you are required to provide a judge for the 2 (itÕs a 1-3 ratio) varsity, and a judge for the 1 (a similar 1-3 ratio) novice. Juniors and Seniors with at least 2 years of LD experience are acceptable as novice judges (and will be housed by us, if you request it in time to include them in our 150 slots). There are no strikes or community rankings in the novice division.

Keep in mind that a qualified judge understands the activity, speaks English, and is either experienced sitting in the back of the room with a flow pad, or else has been carefully trained by the team he or she is accompanying. A qualified LD judge knows how to assign speaker points, and knows how to fill out a ballot. If you need some instructional materials in advance for your lay judges, feel free to use ours (visit www.jimmenick.com/mhl/judge.html), but please do not try to sneak in a ringer. When you provide an incompetent judge, we usually find out about it only after a number of competitors have been, in a word, shafted, while you have been basking in the glow of judging by trained or experienced judges. This tournament is happy to provide a dozen reasons why we love lay judges in LD, but by that we mean a lay judge who knows what to do, even if just starting out, as compared to a seat-filler used by you to gain entry to the tournament.

To maintain a level of usability in the Varsity LD judge pool, we ask that each varsity judge be rated by you when you pre-register, as follows:

#1 – Coach, or experienced former debater

#2 – Parent or adult chaperone, with more than one yearÕs experience judging regional tournaments
#3 – Newcomer whom you have carefully trained, and whose training you vouch for

We will once more have a few LD judges for sale, provided the graduates once again come home to roost. First come, first served, $160 a pop. No fractional judges are available, and judges may not be shared. A small number of novice judges will also be available, also at $160 per.

All LD judges must remain available for the first elimination rounds in their divisions, even if their own teams do not break.

This year we will again offer community ratings and strikes in Varsity LD. This is how they work.

Strikes:
Any Varsity LDer registered by 9:00 p.m., November 9, with proper judge coverage (yours or hired), will be able to strike 3 judges. A complete judge list will be posted as soon as possible after the closing of registration. We will note on the list the rankings (1, 2 or 3) given by the submitting schools. That is, if you say your judge is a 1, thatÕs what the list will say. Strikes must be in our hands by 9:00 p.m. November 12 in order to be included in Round 1. WeÕll handle this by email.

Any LDer who has made strikes but whose own judges fail to materialize at the tournament, will forfeit their strikes.

Other students will be allowed to enter strikes at the registration table on November 14, but we can only guarantee that their strikes will go into effect by round 3.

Strikes may not last through elimination rounds, but weÕll see what we can do. Usually this is not a problem.

Community rankings:
In an effort to equalize the judging pool without giving any particular advantage to anyone, we use a system of ranking the judges by popular consent. Our belief is that "A" judges should be adjudicating so-called bubble rounds (down 1 or 2), as these are the debaters still in contention for elimination rounds. "C" judges are best placed for adjudicating where the stakes are less high. And "Bs" fit where they fit. Rather than the tab room deciding arbitrarily whoÕs what on their own initiative, we will leave it to you. We will post a list of judges (with their 1, 2, or 3 ratings) on November 9. Each school (not each individual) may rate each judge A, B or C. We will simply rank a judge where he or she gets the majority of votes; that is, no complicated math, just rate them as the arithmetic sees them. We set no limits; you can rank as many as you want whatever you want. Rankings are due with strikes, by 11/12 at 9:00 p.m.

As for elimination rounds, we will pair as equitably as possible; that is, every round should get the same proportion of A/B/C.

Judges added to the list after 11/9 will be ranked by the tab room.

Other judging issues: Judges may or may not publish paradigms as they see fit, although we urge them to do so, but in either case, they should be willing to indicate to competitors before a round a general sense of their vision of LD (if any) or a sense of their experience, to aid competitors in choosing how best to make their arguments.

As Bump does award speaker prizes, the concept of speaker points at this tournament should be clear. The points are from 20-30, which means, in effect, a scale of 1-10. Our paradigm is that the points are analogous to grades: 29-30 is an A (excellent), 27-28 a B (good), 25-26 a C (average), less than 25 a poor performance that needs work. Points in LD should reflect the debating skill of the competitor in the round, and need not reflect the actual win/loss (i.e., low-point wins are acceptable). Because of the more oratorical nature of PF, there are no low-point wins in that activity.

DIRECTIONS:

From points north, get from Rt 84 to Rt 9 South. Stay on Rt 9 past Peekskill and exit at Welcher Avenue. Go straight off the exit. This will put you on Route 9A. The school is about 2 miles south on your right.

From points south, get to Route 9A north. 9A becomes Rt 9 in Croton. Exit Rt 9 at Montrose and turn left on to 9A (again). The school will be about 2 miles north on your left.

We are half an hour from Stewart and Westchester airports, and an hour or so from the metro New York airports.

ARRIVAL:

The following will make everyone's life easier, I hope.

On the morning of the tournament, as soon as you have collected your team and boarded your bus or other vehicle of choice, please text 914-382-2661 with either a confirmation of no changes, or a list of changes. This will speed registration enormously. (The reason we prefer texts to regular phone calls is that data transmission of texts is 100% accurate in our limited-service area, whereas phone calls from the bus all sound like you're being attacked by wolves, which, in fact, may be an accurate description of your bus ride, but we don't want to know about it.)

Plan on arriving after 2:15. You will not be let onto the school grounds before that; our buses simply to not wish to perform a mating ritual with your buses. If you find yourself arriving early, consider the following:

á North of the school there is a diner, near the Route 9 Welcher Ave exit. Across from the diner is a small shopping center with a McDonalds and a Chinese restaurant. There's plenty of room at either the diner or the shopping center for a large bus.

á These are more car or small bus territory: Across from the school and slightly north there's a Dunkin Donuts and a couple of other joints of that ilk. Across almost directly from the school and slightly south is a Mexican cafe. To the south on the same side of the street as the school there's a pizza joint (Some-Number-of-Brothers Pizzeria).

Remember: only adult chaperones/coaches will be allowed to register teams. Teams that misplace their adults will be sent packing. But you will still owe us your fees, because we held space for you that others could have taken.

Important note for those in the novice pool: you will be back and forth between the high school and grammar school often over the two days of the tournament. If the weather looks iffy, do yourself a favor and bring an umbrella. You will thank me for this, I promise you.

On arrival at the school, you will be met by some team members specially chosen to guide you through registration. If you have no changes since closing on Sunday night, which means that your copy of the registration matches ours, untouched by human hands and untainted by nuisance fees, the legendary and/or mythical Robbie Grabowitz will personally greet you, take your check and hand you your packet, and you will skip registration entirely. You can now relax and play "Go Fish" with your students; such is the joy of Express Check-In. Anyone with changes since registration closing on Sunday, which will require payment of nuisance fees, will be directed to the mind-numbing experience of our registration desk.

Tentative Schedule

Wednesday, Nov 5
Registration closes at 9:00 p.m.

Sunday, Nov 9
All fees set at 9:00 p.m. All LD judges due.

Monday, Nov 10
LD Judge ranking/strikes begin

Wednesday, Nov 12
LD Judge ranking/strikes end 9:00 p.m.

Friday, Nov 14
As soon as you leave your school please text 914-382-2661 en route to report: A) all is fine, or B) any registration changes. This will speed everyone up at the registration table.

Circa 2:30 (See notes above on arrival). No one will be allowed to enter the premises until the place is emptied of Hen Hudders at the 2:15 dismissal. Nevertheless, we still plan to begin Round 1 at 3:30. Therefore, please schedule your trip to arrive between 2:15 and 2:30; if this means circling the block a few times because you wisely decided to come early, this will be laudable on your part. Keep in mind that we have to register about 250 teams in about half an hour if we want to start at 3:30. Your early call-in (see above) will help insure this.

Schools not registered by 2:45 may forfeit Round 1. If you are going to be delayed, you can connect with us on our cell phone (914-382-2661). We are requesting your cell phone number as well with registration, to make this a two-way operation.

NOTE: There will be no opening assembly. An electronic virtual opening meeting will be sent to all the tournament participants outlining the rules of the day; handouts outlining the same information will also be included in the registration packets.

3:30 Round 1 LD: Varsity LD preliminary rounds in the high school, Novice LD prelims down the hill at the grammar school.

3:45 Introductory session for PF in the high school cafeteria

4:00 Round 1 PF in the high school

5:15 Round 2

6:30 Dinner in the high school, all divisions

7:45 Round 3

10:00 Housing assignments in the cafeteria

Saturday Nov 15

7:30 Yes, Virginia. 7:30!!! Round 4 (forfeit at 7:45) 


10:00 Round 5

12:00 Lunch served in the high school, Round 6 begins in Varsity LD

1:00 Elimination rounds begin in Novice LD and PF.

2:00 Elimination rounds begin in Varsity LD.

We target two awards ceremonies: for LD following Varsity octofinals, and for PF following semis. This should allow all students to enjoy recognition for their achievements at the tournament, while keeping things moving efficiently. (We will try to get everyone together at the same time, if possible.)

As usual, assuming that everything runs according to plan, we can only hold final rounds, if warranted, provided that they begin no later than 9:00 p.m. (By begin, we mean begin: all judges and debaters in the room, at the very least in a 1AC.) The decision to hold the rounds will be announced no later than the emptying of the rooms from the various semifinal rounds. (If you wish to query this position, there are those among us who will be happy to rant at a momentÕs notice over the abuse meted out to debaters in aid ofÉ somethingÉ at too many venues. We hesitate to even suggest a reason why tournament directors feel their events should last longer than the Crimean War.)