Dear coaches and debaters,

Penn for Youth Debate is hosting a Public Forum RR on the Friday preceding the tournament (February 17th). We invite all public forum teams to apply for this opportunity. Participants will get the chance to compete against top debaters and receive feedback from qualified judges right before competing in the 2012 Liberty Bell Classic. Both the round robin and tournament proceeds will go to Penn for Youth Debate and we would love to see you at both!

The application can be found on this website. Please note that the cost for the round robin will be $100 per team. If a team requires a hired judge, the cost will be $70.

The deadline for applications is January 15th; please email Kanisha Parthasarathy, PFYD’s Round Robin Director, if that is a problem for any team, since this may be edging on winter break for many of you.

Please let me know if you have any questions. You can reach me at kanishap (at) sas.upenn.edu.

We hope to see you soon!

Here is the application for the Public Forum Round Robin:

Dear Coaches and Contestants,

Penn for Youth Debate invites you to attend the 2012 Liberty Bell Classic, the 37^th annual LBC and a continuation of the extremely successful LBC held last year in February! This year’s tournament will be held on the weekend of February 18^th and 19^th. We are aiming to offer a uniquely on time, affordable, and quality competition on this weekend.  We have early commitments to attend from schools from throughout the Northeast, as well as Virginia, the Carolinas, Colorado, and Florida. The LBC is a great opportunity to visit our beautiful city, and to find out what our university has to offer students. Finally, all proceeds from the tournament go to promote urban high school debate programs in Philadelphia, thus staying within the high school forensics community.

The LBC offers the following categories of competition: Lincoln-Douglas Debate (Varsity and Novice), Policy Debate, Public Forum Debate, Student Congress, Oratory, Oral Interpretation, Dramatic Performance, Extemporaneous, Duo Interpretation, and Declamation. There will be four preliminary rounds in individual Speech events, three preliminary sessions in Congress, five preliminary sessions in Policy, and six preliminary rounds in both divisions of Lincoln Douglas and in Public Forum.

Tab will be directed for the sixth year by Chris Palmer of Lexington High School in Massachusetts. He will be joined again by Jonathan Chavez of Lexington High School, who will be directing IE Events, by Jim Menick of Hendrick Hudson High School and Sheryl Kaczmarek of Newburgh Free Academy in New York, who direct the debate events, as well as by other tabulation staff to be determined. Our tab directors run most of the other invitationals in the Northeast, and as key members of the high school community, are particularly experienced in how to manage a predictable, familiar and high-quality tournament.-Douglas and Public Forum.

We will continue our popular Cheesesteak lunch and will continue to expand the tournament into more buildings on campus. The latest updates will also be on our website at http://upenn.tabroom.com. If you have any questions, please email us at penn@tabroom.com. If the concern is urgent, you may contact Stefanie Rohde by phone at 301-651-5938.

Best of luck,

Amy Wei, Mike Contillo, and Stefanie Rohde