If you are interested in starting a middle school debate team at your school, here are the steps you should take:

1. Obtain approval from school administrators to start a team. We welcome all types of schools in Connecticut and nearby areas in surrounding states. We require children to be affiliated with a school to participate in CTMSDL events.
2. Find a coach to oversee debate team practices: teachers, administrators, high school students and parents can all serve as middle school debate coaches as long as they are approved by the school’s administration. No debate experience is needed to become a coach–CTMSDL will train and support coaches! Some middle school coaches recruit high school debaters to provide debate instruction.
3. Recruit debaters: the CTMSDL Parliamentary debate format uses 3 person teams so you need a minimum of 3 students to form a team.
4. Pay CTMSDL dues of $50 per year: teams may attend one event prior to paying dues to make sure they want to join. We ask teams to pay dues by December 31. Find the Dues Payment Form on our website.
5. Get on the CTMSDL email list by emailing jen.posner@ctmsdebate.org. We announce the October scrimmage motion (topic) in late August. We also send coaches sample cases and research links for the scrimmage topic. Motions for our December, January, and April tournaments are released 6-8 weeks ahead of time by email and on our website. The Championship Tournament Motion will be released at the April Tournament.
6. Recruit judges: every CTMSDL debate requires 1 judge! Schools must to provide 1 judge for every 2 teams attending an event. Judges can be coaches, high school debaters, parents, administrators or any responsible adult. The CTMSDL provides information on how to judge on its website and conducts a Judges’ Training Session at every event.  We ask coaches to make sure their judges have thoroughly reviewed our judging materials before attending an event. New judges have the opportunity to shadow experienced judges before judging rounds themselves.
7. Attend tournaments: have a fun and educational time attending CTMSDL events! Coaches must coordinate transportation arrangements with school administrators. Coaches are also responsible for registering their teams and judges on tabroom before events.
8. Attend coaches’ events: we host 2 coaches’ events per year. The first is a May meeting where we review the season, make changes to our format and procedures if desired, elect board members, and approve the budget for the upcoming season. The second is a coaches’ workshop in August where we discuss how to coach and judge effectively. Coaches are welcome to join the CTMSDL Board.  Attendance at meetings is voluntary.