COACHES: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AND DISTRIBUTE THIS INFO TO YOUR STUDENTS, JUDGES, AND CHAPERONES!!!

The UNLV Debate Team is pleased to welcome you all to our campus this weekend for the IN PERSON 2024 Golden Desert Debate Tournament!

1) JUDGING: Please double check your entry to confirm that your judging is in place and finalized. Judge preferences for the VCX, VLD, and PF divisions has been enabled. If you have not yet begun filling out your judging preferences for those divisions, please do not wait to do so until the last minute… start working on them ASAP.

2) WIFI: If your institution uses eduroam, your eduroam account should work here at UNLV too. Most folks will use the "UNLV-WIFI" wifi network while on the UNLV campus; there is no password. You will have to check an “accept the terms” box on a pop-up and click the “submit” button.

3) ROOMS, BUILDINGS, AND FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND: The main tabroom will be in CBC-C 110. Light Breakfast food and coffee will be available for all participants on Saturday and Sunday in the first floor lobby of the CBC-C building starting at 7:15. Lunch will be served in the CBC-A building. We will be using rooms across the campus so be aware of time when proceeding to your next round. Elimination rounds on Monday will be held at the Embassy Suites Convention Center. The CBC building also goes by CHB, yes, this is confusing, but Google Maps can take you to the right place.

UNLV has a mobile app (UNLV Mobile) with an interactive “Locate a Building” function. Please download it to your phone and encourage your students to do the same... it will help you all find your way around the campus. If you happen to not have a smartphone, there is an interactive map online that you can access at https://www.unlv.edu/maps/campus. Google Maps also works for the buildings where our tournament is in, even by abbreviations like CBC, CEB, GUA, etc.

4) PARKING: The closest parking lot to the CBC building is labeled as "lot N" on the interactive UNLV campus map. It is in the southwest region of the campus and can be accessed from Harmon Avenue off of Swenson St. You can also park in the large surface lot in front of the Student Union, although it is farther away from the CBC building than Lot N is. Parking on campus on the weekends is free in any regular surface lot parking space marked “student” or “staff.” Please do NOT illegally park in any spot labeled “Handicapped,” “Reserved,” etc. Spaces marked in green are actually reserved spaces, and not free to park in.

5) REGISTRATION: Teams have two options for registration: 1) The STRONGLY PREFERRED option for registration is for you to use the "onsite registration" feature in tabroom.com. PRIOR TO 9:00 pm on Friday, February 3, when your team is in Las Vegas (or is guaranteed to arrive here). To access onsite registration, just login to tabroom.com, then click the "Confirm Onsite" button next to the Golden Desert Tournament. 2) You can call or text me between 7 and 9 pm on Friday, February 3 to confirm your entry and judging. My cell phone number is 586-838-8399. If you text, ensure you are telling me what school you are representing. If you need to drop off a check in person,

6) TABROOM.COM: Everything (pairings/postings/voting/schedule, etc.) for this tournament is done through tabroom.com. The tournament website is: http://goldendesertunlv.tabroom.com.

7) BE A DECENT PERSON: Please respect the UNLV campus

--Do not leave messes in the rooms or common areas. Pick up after yourselves. Our ability to continue hosting this tournament depends on our guests not trashing our campus.

--If you play music at the tournament in or before your rounds, the sound of the music should NOT reach beyond the door of the classroom in which you’re debating.

--Do NOT touch or move any classroom technology. Please stay away from overhead projectors, computers, keyboards, touch screens, etc.

Debaters, judges, or other folks in a team's entourage found to be in violation of this policy may be removed from the tournament without refund.

8) IN ROUND ELECTRONICS: In order to align the tournament rules with the prevailing practice on the national circuit, debate events will use the TOC standard for the use of wifi and electronic devices in round. Those rules are: "For Policy, Public Forum and Lincoln Douglas Debate, use of laptop computers, tablet computers, smart phones and other electronic devices able to access the internet are permitted during events. The use of computers during debates is permitted for both flowing and research purposes including retrieval of evidence stored on hard drives and accessing resources via the internet. Students should not attempt to use electronic devices to initiate or respond to contact with outside parties during a debate. The penalty for violation of this rule is loss of the debate in question and zero speaker points assigned to the offending debater. This rule recommends, but does not require, that all text messaging devices and cell phones be turned off during debates. It is meant to restrict the debaters from initiating or responding to any outside contact during a debate round. Example: A student’s cell phone ringing during a debate would not violate the rule. A student calling, emailing, chatting text messaging or responding to any contact from their coach during a debate would violate this rule."

9) OBSERVERS: UNLV is a public institution and all debate rounds held here are open to the public. No judge or debater should ask an observer to leave a round that they are observing. Observer note-taking also is allowed and even encouraged. If anyone has any specific concerns regarding exceptions to this norm/rule, they are welcome to talk to me about it.

10) SHOW COMPASSION! To competitors, judges, and your brand new first time tournament director. An event of this size is likely to have some bumps in the road. Its our promise to try and fix problems as quickly as possible to your satisfaction and we hope that some patience will be returned.

11) Food and drink - Our catering order is VERY tight with the number of people who are coming here due to some late adds for judges and competitors. Keep this in mind during lunch that we want to feed all our competitors and judges. Please remember that although it is winter, it is still a desert, keep your water bottles full. There are filtered water refilling stations across every campus building. "Make good decisions, stay hydrated."

12) HAVE FUN!!! We want every participant to have a fantastic and memorable experience here at the UNLV Golden Desert Debate Tournament!

Safe travels, and we look forward to seeing you all soon in FABULOUS LAS VEGAS!!!

Dr. Craig Hennigan and the UNLV Debate Team

Addendum, we'll have a couple of golf carts for people running late needing to get across the campus quickly. There are only two, however, so getting to your rounds in a timely fashion by moving quickly and reducing the time you do RFD's is ESSENTIAL this tournament. Please help us help you to have a smoothly running tournament by proceeding to your next rounds as soon as postings come out.