PLANNING: BEFORE THE YEAR STARTS
- Select a date - ask advice, check
for conflicts, see if nearby schools will attend, see what kind of tournament
(divisions, rounds, days) people want.
- Contact a nearby hotel - shop
around, gain a good price for rooms, reserve some, establish a date they will
hold them until, gain any free rooms or special offers they might grant.
- Create a tournament schedule -
leave lots of time, consider movement time from building to building, 2 hours
per debate (2.5 hours college), extra long lunch breaks if they have to leave
campus, consider power pairing breaks.
- Distribute invitations - mail
them, put them in results packets at other tournaments, distribute them by
hand to other coaches you see, add it to league or other calendars,, put the
invitation of a debate listserv, make a webpage for it.
- Plan a budget. Make your fees
reflect your costs.
IMPLEMENTING: IN THE WEEKS BEFORE
THE TOURNAMENT
- Reserve rooms to fit your needs
and schedule. Always get more rooms than you need.
- Awards - shop around, get a good
price, don't wait to order them, keep engraved parts separate from awards
so you can use them again if fewer teams show up.
- Ballots - get ballots from AFA
or make your own, make sure you have enough, include elimination rounds.
- Plan refreshments - negotiate
with campus catering or provide your own, make sure coffee gets started brewing
very early in the AM, consider providing snacks for power pairing breaks.
Buy bulk candy and snacks to have available.
- Put out a publicity release to
local press, but especially to campus publicity and send it to all administrators
you want to know about your event.
- Accept entries as they come in,
call people to confirm they are coming even if they don't know precisely which
teams, create a file and list of teams and judges.
STAGING THE EVENT: IN THE DAYS BEFORE
- Reconfirm room reservations, make
extra copies of your supporting documents to show to teachers who "just assume"
they can use rooms, alert custodial and security.
- Plan registration for hotel or
campus, have people to staff it, prepare receipts and have change in a cash
box. Take good records of all funds received. Whenever possible, have all
checks made payable to your school, not to you. Deposit it in your team account.
- Reconfirm refreshments and who
is responsible for them.