Dear Coach,

Below we share tips and advice for staying safe at the National Tournament. 

Emergency Medical Technicians on Site  

If you need medical attention at the tournament, EMTs are available in the Tournament Office at each competition venue. If you need an EMT to come to you, please call or text the NSDA Help Line at (920) 748-6206. In the event of an emergency, always dial 911 first. 

Enter Information on Tabroom.com 

There are a number of ways to stay connected to the tournament via Tabroom.com. To get started, please log in to Tabroom.com and click Entry next to National Speech and Debate Tournament
Hotel Information » On your entry page, please double check that your hotel information is up to date so we can reach you in the event of an emergency. 
School Contacts » Enter the email address of any assistant coach, chaperone, parent, or school official who should be receiving updates from the tournament. These updates may include procedures during an emergency, reminders about tournament events, and updates to the schedule or location of the tournament.
Live Updates » Enter the email address of any person who would like to receive an email update every time a round pairing is released. This may be useful for parents following along at home or a chaperone who may need to locate students.

Enable Push Notifications on the Nats19 Guidebook App 

Our free Nats19 Guidebook app will serve as your number one source for tournament notifications and updates. It contains schedules, maps, elevator details, inclusive restroom and lactation room locations, and more. We strongly recommend allowing push notifications. In the event of an emergency, we will use the Guidebook App to share information with attendees. To download the app, click here or follow the instructions below. 
  1. Go to the app store that corresponds with your device and search for “Guidebook."
  2. Follow the prompts on your screen, and Guidebook will download.
  3. Open up the Guidebook app on your device to get started. 
  4. Use the Search box to type in “Nats19.”
  5. Tap “Download Guide” to download the guide to your device. You may be prompted to allow push notifications and location services.

Utilize the Equity Team  

Equity Officers provide a first point of contact for attendees with inquiries related to harassment and discrimination at the tournament. If you have a concern about how people are treating you that you want to make known to the NSDA and, if appropriate, legal authorities, or you have witnessed behavior that is inconsistent with our NSDA Harassment and Discrimination Policy, please report to your building’s Tournament Office to reach an equity officer. You will be asked to fill out a form sharing your information and describing the violation. You will then discuss the grievance informally and on a verbal basis with the equity officer, who shall in turn investigate the complaint. Whenever possible, please connect with an equity officer in person first. 
You may also call or text the NSDA Help Line at (920) 748-6206. If you need to make an immediate connection with an equity officer, please call (920) 212-1362.

Meet the Equity Officers  

Monica Silverstein: Monica Silverstein is an NSDA Board Member and an International Human Resources Executive with more than 25 years of experience in national and international markets. She is a founding member of the Employee Resources Group for NBC Sports, Corporate Diversity Initiative. Monica is the chief equity officer at the 2019 National Tournament. 
Dr. J. Scott Baker: Dr. J. Scott Baker is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. He previously taught high school speech, debate, and English for 18 years in Texas, and continues to work with the Harvard Debate Council Summer Workshops. His research areas include multicultural education, arts-based inquiry, undergraduate research, educational foundations, and social justice advocacy. He is also a three-diamond coach and winner of the NFHS National Citation Award for Speech, Debate, and Theatre Education.  
Dr. Darrell Harvey: Dr. Darrell Harvey is an NSDA coach and recipient of the NSDA's 2017 Frank Sferra Director's Commendation Award. He's a Senior Fellow at the George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership and president of Integrated Leadership Solutions, LLC. He has over 30 years experience helping leaders analyze organizational and public policy problems, and drive positive change.
Adam Nelson: Adam Nelson, J.D. is an NSDA coach and Interim Deputy Head of School (KA-12) at Taipei American School in Taiwan. In that capacity, they have helped draft and revise the school's nondiscrimination and student protection policies, including its policy on trans and other gender non-conforming students. They are a one-diamond coach and former district chair with 20 years of experience in the activity.
Jan Pizzo: Jan Pizzo became an NSDA member coach over 35 years ago, spending a decade coaching in a small, rural, economically challenged high school. She has belonged to various NSDA sub-committees where she advocated for inclusion, with a particular emphasis on issues faced by economically disadvantaged rural students. Jan served on the board of a disability rights organization, received training in the application of the ADAAG (Americans with Disabilities Act Architectural Guidelines), and wrote the legal argumentation for a substantial federal ADA non-compliance complaint against a municipality.

For more tournament details, please see the high school and middle school Tournament Books. 

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