The Southwest Baptist University forensics program, the Heartland Sigma chapter of Pi Kappa Delta, and the Bob R. Derryberry School of Communication Arts want to invite you to the Bob R. Derryberry Memorial Season Opener to be held on the campus of SBU October 5^th and 6^th. We invite you to come to lovely Bolivar, MO for two days of strong early season competition.

Our tournament offers four preliminary rounds of College Public Forum and four rounds of Lincoln Douglas debate on Friday; and all 11 standard AFA individual events (plus interviewing) on Saturday. One special note about interviewing. All competitors in that event will be expected to submit a hard copy of their resume at registration. Those who do not will be ineligible for the final round (which will be the resume round). 

Our tournament offers several nice amenities including…

• A humane competition schedule on both Friday and Saturday.
• A relatively compact campus—no competition building is more than a brisk five-minute walk from our tournament hub in the Jester Learning and Performance Center.
• A chance to sample the lovely early autumn weather in the Ozarks!
• Many hotel accommodations in the Bolivar/Springfield area.
• A nice selection of local eateries! (For a small town in Missouri anyway!)
• Lunch provided by the SBU Forensics Program on Saturday!
• A wide array of individual and sweepstakes awards!
• Nice trophies!
• A chance to start the season with the warm camaraderie fostered by the activity we love!

We hope that you will come and join us in October! Please contact us with any questions you may have.

Sincerely,      

Dr. David Bailey                                                          Mr. Jordan Compton                           

Director of Forensics                                                   Assistant Director of Forensics                                   Southwest Baptist University