Tab Wisdom

Tab Room (High & Mighty, Undisputable) Wisdom from the All-knowing, All-seeing, Humble Tab Master Extraordinaire!

Disclaimer: The tips and wisdom here are solely the opinion of Kim Sheffield. Clash Debate Club is not responsible for this page, Kim is, and you are not obligated in any way to take his advice. Use these tips and ideas only if you want your tournament to run on time with no errors. I will be updating regularly and adding new items as I find them and/or find them out.

**Coming Sooner or later Individual Events Tab Help. Check back often to see if I'm telling the truth!

Do you have what it takes? - NEW! a tab room quiz to discover if you can hack it!

Tab Program Links - Links to the 3 tab programs I'm aware of & have seen that work

Tournament Narrative - a description of what to do and why w/pithy narrative

Tournament Checklist - NEW! a simple listing w/o pithy narrative for ease of use

Tab Room Signs - NEW! a link to a few tab signs I've used over the years

Do You Have What it Takes? Take this quiz if you think you might want to get involved in the challenging career of Debate Tab. This is not for the faint of heart!

If you answered "Yes" to all these questions, you may have the mentality to take on the demanding, yet rewarding, job of Tab Master. See the answers to these questions below and read why these characteristics are important.

**How to browse: I've made General Headings, bolded some key words or phrases and added a few time saving tips. If you haven't gotten what you need, email me.**

1. Have a say in the schedule. Power matching takes more time than random pairings. Be sure there is enough time from the end of round 6 till announcements for out rounds. I suggest 1 hour minimum. Remember, you are only as fast as your slowest judge.

2. Get with the registrar of your tournament and arrange to have all the necessary info: the teams, their individual names, judges, rooms, and any special needs or constraints a week ahead of the tournament. Decide which program you are going to use and practice with it. Practice, practice, practice! NEVER do a program for the first time at a tournament. They each have their quirks and idiosyncrasies. Learn them and become familiar with them before the tournament! Time saving tip: Once you have received the initial info from the registration people, be sure they know to send you ONLY the changes (which are inevitable) from that point forward. If they send you the whole file each time, you have to go name by name to find out the changes. If they send you just the changes, you make them quickly and can make changes right up to the time you are ready to print for the first round.

3. Make sure your tab room is in a secure location (with power outlets and tables and chairs for your computer(s) and printers, etc.

4. Test all of your equipment to be sure it will work. Have a back up plan available.

5. Talk to the Tournament Director (TD) and find out if you are power matching, what rounds, and if anyone is opting out of out rounds (ex. qualified team). If there is an odd number of teams, how should the bye be handled? FYI - the tab programs will default to the lowest record teams getting the bye in power matching. Work closely with the TD on all things so you know exactly what she wants and then can defend what happened after the tournament.

6. Decide with the TD who and how many should have access to the Tab Room. It is the one place that should be considered the Holy of Holies. You, your aide, the TD, and maybe one other person like the ballot stuffer should be allowed in the Tab Room. And that is only to take care of business and get out. The job of the Tab Room is to put out data and input data with a minimum of mistakes (none is the goal), and that can't happen if everyone wants to have access for whatever reasons. If you get bored, go out and talk to people when there is time. Don't have them come in to you.

Supplies you need for the Tab Room: tape for posting, plain paper for printing/copying, pre-made ballots, manila folders for ballot stuffing, Sharpies for signing footballs or for manila envelopes, 3x10 labels for STA, surge protector, pens, judge food, caffeine, time, time, and more time!

1. Be one of the first people at the tournament and have everything ready to go first thing. Be prepared for and ask for any last minute changes before you post the first round. Sanity saving tip: Never, never, never try to be the debate AND IE tab at the same tournament! I really have nothing I can say that would make you see the stupidity of such a stupid, stupid thing to do. Just don't do it!

2. Your goal is to post 30 minutes before each round. Judge changes will be your biggest hold up. Find out from the TD how picky she will be in regards to having a ballot with the judges name on it nicely. If it is not the highest priority, pushing ballots becomes easy. If she is picky, reeducate her and do your best.

3. If someone is pushing ballots (and it shouldn't be you), take your computer with you and check judge availability before the pusher giving out the ballot. You can change the name in the computer then and there.

4. After the round goes off you must be available to trouble shoot problems or perceived problems.

5. If the next round is not power matched, prepare the next round. If it is, get everything ready for the next round so all you have to do is enter data, pair, and print.

It's extremely important to have good ballot checkers at the receiving table. A good ballot receiving table will make the tab room job oh so easy! You need to train them in what you want. If you don't, who will? You are the one stuck with the ballots and questions if they don't do the job the way you need it done. They need to check a number of things and need to do it well. If it's not done well and there are still questions, Murphy's Law will come into effect. That is the one judge you will never find to fix the problems. Have the ballot checkers ask the judge to stay for a minute while they check over the ballot and be sure there are no questions of the judge.

1. Ask if they meant to vote for the Affirmative or Negative team. This needs to be asked because one ballot we saw in the tab room voted for the affirmative, yet all the information stated how well the negative team did. We wanted to ask the judge just to clarify, but he was long gone (Murphy's Law). We went with the decision, but 2 1/2 years later, we still wonder.

2. The speaker points have to add up to the totals given. Some smart judges (like me) put in the total points we want and make the numbers add up. Others like to put in the individual points and then add it all up. Either way, they have to add up.

3. Be sure the speaker points and the speaker ranks match. There is always someone who wants to give Billy 30 points, but Suzy 1st speaker (presumably to assuage their guilt over having to make a decision). They can't do that and it needs to be fixed. This brings us to a very important point.

**Never, never change anything on a ballot unless you have permission and advice from the tournament director. Ideally, any changes that need to be made should be made by the judge at the ballot table. If that is impossible (ballot checkers missed something and you can't hunt down the judge), the tournament director has the final say and that needs to be based on the best guess about the intent of the judge from looking at the ballot as a whole.

4. When all has been checked to satisfaction, have the ballot checker initial the ballot so that you in the tab room know that it was checked and by who...by whom...that it was checked. A good ballot checker will make the tab room flow smoothly and not have to look at each ballot for mistakes. Mistakes happen, but our job is to minimize the occurrences.

Always, always, always, always double enter. Never, never, never, never trust yourself to enter alone. It's a breeding ground for mistakes! When you double enter, always switch positions. The goal is to minimize mistakes.

However the program allows you to enter, do it, mark it on the ballot, switch positions, and enter. Expert Tip Of The Day That No One Would Ever Think Of, But Me (ETOTDTNOWETOBM): Always use the blind ballot check, if the program has the option, so you can double check everything! Find a way to check and recheck everything. I have the first reader put a check mark on the ballot and the second reader put a slash thru the check mark to verify that each ballot has been entered twice. Never make decisions, do any pairings, or set out rounds w/o having entered each ballot twice. Double entering will find problems you thought you didn't have. Remember, mistakes will be made. Find a system that will minimize the mistakes and always stick to them!

1. It's important to know who is opting out of breaks for whatever reasons. In STA, you will need to deactivate the team before pairings. Don't forget to keep them in the speaker ranks and cums. You also need to have NCFCA tie-breaker rules in front of you. Most likely you will have to break ties by speaker points. Use the NCFCA rules so as not to cause yourself problems after the fact with somebody who has read the rules!

2. I like to print the rank order of speakers, the rank order of teams, and the cumulative files before going to out rounds. I feel safer with them in case anything goes wrong. Having hard copies to work off of, write on, and cuddle with helps tremendously.

3. Talk thru the procedures as you go. You'll want to be sure you break the top 16 teams if you are going to octos. First is record. Depending on the tournament size you will most likely have either a 4-2 team not break or you will need to bring up a 3-3 or two. If so, the first tie-breaker is speaker points with high/low taken out. It's an equalizer for judge variance. Second, is total speaker points. Then, comes removing double high/lows. That should about do it. Be very careful that you don't leave out a deserving team or bring up a team that didn't earn it. That's why you need to talk it thru.

1. Announcements are the most fun thing in the tournament. Decide ahead of time who will make the announcements. In most tournaments it will be the TD. If you want, push to be able to make the announcements yourself. It's impressive to the debaters when you walk out of the inner sanctum with papers in hand to announce. For most of them, you are a mystery person. It's cool. Find out if the TD minds you announcing the vote. I.e., "In the round Clash RS vs. Virginia BM, on a 2-1 split decision, advancing to Semifinals is Clash RS." If that is not what you want to do, just announce without the vote.

2. It's important to not only announce, but to post out rounds, even if you are down to the semifinals. People still need to see the rooms or the match ups. Only post after the announcements, however.

3. As there are less and less teams in a tournament, the job gets easier and easier. For time sake talk to the Judge Orientation person and have him let the judges know that speaker points in the out rounds are not tabulated and all they need is a decision and the reason. That should speed up getting some ballots back.

4. After each out round, work with the facilities coordinator as to which rooms to eliminate and which ones to use. Optimally, you want to use the bigger rooms each dwindling round since there are less rounds to watch and more people available to watch them.

5. When the tournament is getting closer and closer to closing, you need to prepare the final announcement sheets. It is extremely easier to announce all the octofinalists (no order), quarterfinalists (no order), and then rank the teams as they have to be ranked (from prelim rankings) for qualifying sake. If you must rank from 16th on down, use the rank order of teams you were supposed to have printed off. Mark the teams that did not advance and the lowest ranked team is 16th, then 15th, etc., etc., etc. (spoken like the King of Siam.) My suggestion, no matter who is announcing to make a spread sheet and count down from 16 to 15, etc., etc., etc. (spoken like the King of Siam.) Do the same thing for the speaker awards. Those can be done at any time during the out rounds since it's all based on prelim ballots. I also like to add little tidbits if something good happened that isn't in the basic announcements. Maybe a debater was ranked 1st in each of his prelim rounds. Tell everyone, especially if he was the only one to achieve that. If a team was undefeated throughout the tournament (10-0 if you do octofinals!) Let everyone know. It's fun information.

1. Find out from the TD what is going into the debaters packets. If the cums are to go, you need to print them and make them ready for the copy person. Brackets is another consideration. That is the cum for out rounds. If the TD wants them, you'll have to have it ready as soon as the final is decided. I like to have the brackets done up to the final and then copied. The debaters can fill in the winner themselves. That takes some time pressure off. Here are the links to Octofinal Brackets and Quarterfinal Brackets.

3. It is not your job to let out any information. The TD is the conduit for all tournament info. When someone asks you about results or policies, refer that person to the TD. If the TD directs you to respond to requests, be sure you know the parameters of what she wants divulged and give that info only. Be prepared to share with the tournament director your opinions if it appears the request may compromise tab security.

4. If you are also doing certificates, don't forget that for Team debate you need 2 certificates per team. For the final I like to print both scenarios and just toss out the ones that don't work before the awards ceremony.

Tournament Checklist (click here for a Word document of the checklists that you can adjust and print for your tournament)

5. Gather your supplies: computer, printer, paper, envelopes, pens, ballots, etc.

2. Ask the judge to stay a moment while you check the ballot to be sure you have no questions

4. Remove from the mix (if your region does such things) prequalified teams/ineligible teams

Danger Sign - Publisher document, not for the faint at heart, used at Nationals (June 2003)

1. Tab is a detail oriented job and needs someone who likes details and doing the same thing over and over and over and over again. Keeping the routine the same is important to minimizing mistakes.

2. Detail work is important, but so is speed, which is why I recommend a routine that can be done quickly with the minimal mistakes made.

3. If you like statistics, you probably are a detail oriented person, one of the qualifications for a successful tab guy (gal).

4. This is the most philosophical and important question! You need to think in great detail as stated above. You also need to be aware that the proper running of the whole tournament rests mostly on your shoulders. When people come to you and need things or want to talk, you have to be able to assess how it will effect the tournament and decide how and when to do it at the same time not neglecting everything else on your plate.

5. You will be required as stated and listed above to work with many different people before, during, and after the tournament. If you like working with people, tab is a rewarding and dare I say, fun, job.

6. When a bunch of people (and ballots) "need" you, you "need" to be able to prioritize what is most important for the tournament and politely, but firmly, let those "needy" people know where they stand in your prioritization and why. You will run a much smoother tournament when first things are first.

7. This is tied to #6. If you can remain calm in the midst of the storm and can concentrate to get done what needs to get done efficiently and correctly, you have the efficiency gene and will make tab a tournament asset.

8. You will not be able to take "time off" during the tournament to go see your debater(s). If that is not ok, go get a girly-man job and leave the tabbing to the professionals! Seriously, you will most likely not have time to go see your kids. If that is a problem, don't do tab. Even when things seem slow someone will need you for something. Stay close to tab and never make yourself inaccessible, except when using the restroom. That's ok...most of the time.

9. You will need to be one of the first people at the tournament and most likely one of the last to leave. Be sure this is ok with everyone that is riding with you too. They will whine, but you must come early to get the tournament started and stay until your job is done.

If you answered "yes" to all 9 questions, there is something really wrong with you! And you have what it takes to join the fraternity of nerds known as "Tab Room Personnel Only: No Admittance! No Exceptions!"

Before the Tournament	Prepping for Out Rounds
During the Tournament	Out Round and Announcements Management
Receiving Ballots	Cums, Brackets, and Other Misc. Stuff
Entering Ballots