Dear Coaches,

 

I hope your season is starting off with a bang! I want to invite you to use our online registration system at www.forensicstournament.net for your forensics tournament this year.  Even if you have already sent out your tournament invitation you can still use our site - just redirect entries sent to you to our website. By the end of the 2006 season, forensicstournament.net had hosted 29 tournaments collecting over 11,000 entries from 222 schools (high school and college) including large tournaments such as the 2007 NPDA Nationals and the Point Loma Sunset Cliffs Classic.  We were also the online registration home for PSCFA tournaments and numerous debate only and IE only invitational tournaments.  We have copied the list of tournaments to the end of this message that we hosted on our site last season. Coaches from previous seasons report saving HOURS of work by using our site and saving HUNDREDS of change emails.  Schools entering the tournament are able to take care of entry changes without contacting you until you set the tournament access to stop accepting changes.  It saves everyone time and hassle.

 

Additionally, hosting your tournament on our site could increase exposure and interest in your tournament.  As coaches begin to use our site for the season they will invariably see you tournament listed on the website.  Programs may consider attending your tournament for the first time because they saw you listed on our site.

 

This year the site has gone through a lot of upgrades to add features coaches and tournament directors requested.  We are excited about providing the most comprehensive, sophisticated, and easy-to-use web registration system on the internet.  The online registration system can handle debate, individual event and judge entries in addition to options including wait list registration, judge philosophies, and posting of results following the tournament.  Additional changes from the previous year are listed below:

 

CHANGES FOR 2007-2008

 

·        Advanced login security - passwords are now more secure and connections will time out after 20 minutes of inactivity.  This will ensure that no one logs onto your account by accident if you leave your computer.

·        Tournament Messages - you can now specify messages to appear at the top of the registration pages for debate, individual events, or judge entry pages.  This will allow you to communicate, directly on the page where coaches enter the information, any specific instructions or comments about your tournament.

·        Judging Requirements - the site can help to calculate the specific judging commitments each school has based on their entry.  Under the tournament settings page you can specify how many judges are needed for debate and IEs. Coaches will see this information on their entry summary page to know if they are low on judges.  Additionally, tournament administrators will have the tournament judging situation summarized on the main administration page.

·        Emailed Narratives - One of the top feature requests asked for last year was the ability to receive updates on tournament registration.  You can now receive email updates every hour, four hours, 12 hours, or once a day, detailing any changes in the tournament registration process for your tournaments.  This email will tell you what schools have registered, the number of debate teams, IE entries, and judges, as well as any changes in the registration for existing schools.  This should help you keep on top of the entry information for your tournament directly in your email.

·        More Control - We are happy to again provide technical support services for your tournament including setting it up on the system, changing the access level for schools, and emailing you data files.  However, we also wanted you to be able to have more control over these aspects of your tournament.  As such, the main administration page will now feature additional controls that you can set yourself.

·        More Data Export Options - forensicstournament.net provides you with tremendous flexibility in exporting your data from our site to your tournament.  We provide easy templates for the most popular tabulation programs in addition to simple excel or text file formats that you can convert to other programs.  We will be happy to work with you in making sure you get the data in the format that you need it in for your tournament.

 

We will continue to provide technical support to all of our tournaments.  If a feature is not working as you expected we will be happy to work with you in making the site work for your tournament. 

 

Now that the site has moved out of the beta mode we will begin charging tournaments to recoup the substantial investment Erick and I have made into making forensicstournament.net a leading online registration site on the internet for speech and debate tournaments.  Our fee structure is simple and reasonable:

 

$1 per school entered per tournament.

 

For each tournament that we host registration on forensicstournament.net we request a $1 payment for each school entered in your tournament by the tournament director/host.  There are no complicated formulas for each debate or IE entry. Your tournament can be as small or large as you like and the charge will remain consistent.  Additionally, there are no additional fees if you want to include wait lists or judging philosophies for your tournament.

 

For example, if you hosted a tournament in the fall that had 15 schools entered, we would send you (as tournament director) an invoice for $15.  If you then hosted a second tournament in the spring that had 20 schools entered, we would send you a second invoice for $20.  All payments are due within 10 business days following the end of your tournament.  NOTE: we will only count the total number of schools registered at the end of registration. If a school registers and then drops their teams that will not count towards the invoice.

 

The site has now been incorporated into Picket Fence Memories - my home-based business.  This will allow for easier payment options in the future.

 

If you have any questions about our site please feel free to email us forensicstnmt@gmail.com or call at 310-766-0229.  We hope your upcoming season is shaping up to be another exciting year and look forward to working with you on your tournament registration at http://www.forensicstournament.net

 

Sincerely,

 

Danny Cantrell

Administrator, ForensicsTournament.net

Owner, Picket Fence Memories

Debate Coach, Cerritos College

 

 

2006-2007 Tournaments

Todd Lewis Invitational ...hosted by Biola University on 2006-10-20
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Cougar Classic ...hosted by Azusa Pacific University on 2006-10-21
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Watson-Lancer Invitational ...hosted by Pasadena City College on 2006-10-28
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Mustang Invitational ...hosted by San Joaquin Delta College on 2006-11-10
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Ray Dahlin Invitational ...hosted by Palomar College on 2006-11-10
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Griffin Mann Invitational ...hosted by Grossmont College on 2006-11-11
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Paul Winters Invitational ...hosted by Univ. of the Pacific on 2006-11-11
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PSCFA Fall Champs ...hosted by CSU Long Beach on 2006-12-01
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Cypress College Invitational Tournament ...hosted by Cypress College on 2006-12-08
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Sleet and Snow #1 ...hosted by Concordia Univ. on 2007-01-19
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Sun God Invitational ...hosted by UC San Diego on 2007-01-20
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Sleet and Snow #2 ...hosted by Wheaton on 2007-01-21
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SCUDL Swing Part 1 ...hosted by Biola University @ CSU Fullerton on 2007-01-26
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SCUDL Swing Part 2 ...hosted by CSU Fullerton on 2007-01-28
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Southwestern Invitational ...hosted by Southwestern College on 2007-02-02
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Sunset Cliffs Classic ...hosted by Pt. Loma Nazarene University on 2007-02-03
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USAFA Classic ...hosted by USAFA on 2007-02-09
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Tabor-Venitsky ...hosted by Cerritos College on 2007-02-16
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Southern California LD Championships ...hosted by Cerritos College on 2007-02-18
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PSCFA Spring Championships ...hosted by Los Angeles Valley College on 2007-02-23
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AFA District One Warm-Up ...hosted by Mt San Antonio College on 2007-03-02
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AFA-NIET District One Qualifier ...hosted by Mt. SAC on 2007-03-03
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2007 CCCFA State Championships ...hosted by Woodland Hills on 2007-03-07
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2007 NPDA Nationals ...hosted by The Colorado College on 2007-03-22
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PSCFA Cool Off ...hosted by Palomar College on 2007-04-28
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2007 HS Falcon Invitational ...hosted by Cerritos College on 2007-05-19
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