Origin of "Warm Room"

[Dan6814]

Since Keith asked...

John Meany coined the term "warm room" before Claremont's fall '00 tournament. It's based off the "warm line" for new parents at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. New parents tend to call hospitals about any and every thing that seems even the littlest bit wrong with their baby, and taking each of these as an emergency call is apparently a big drain on hospital resources. So, instead of a "hotline," Mt. Sinai set up a "warmline," intended to calm down worried parents. It has soothing music, calm operators, etc.

The original warm room, at Claremont, is set up to alleviate the alleged shock that some claim happens when a debater sees their record. There is calming music, dimmed lights, a massage table this year, light and healthy snacks, etc. Now, instead of fainting and/or throwing a tantrum upon finding out whether they won or lost, the debater will be pacified. John is quite amused that the term has taken off; it was meant more as a joke than anything else.

Perhaps all of the problems discussed here and on the parli-l could be solved if soft reggae music was pumped into every "warm room"...

Dan P.

[Daniel Grossberg]

Last year had good food, but I wasn't there for a massage table. :-(

Let me also point out that there are 8 prelims, disclosure, a warm room, a full set of break rounds, and nothing ever runs behind on schedule. All these nefarious claims we hear about tournaments running behind be offering amenities are nonsense.

-Dan

[pattybar]

Ummmm you were at CC this year, right?? Disclosure and tournament ran late... not nonsense when friends of mine roll the van 4 hours from home at 2 am. All are out of the casts now, but one was out of school the rest of the semester.

Fact of the matter is that when judges take advantage of disclosure to re-debate a round, a tournament will run late. When tournaments run late, students and coaches are driving late and accidents happen.

Patty

[Daniel Grossberg]

Yes, I was at CC, but there was no in-round disclosure. I never saw any rounds being held up.

I stayed until the final round with Jed and John vs. Jon and Dan, as did Ade and Dan (I don't think anyone else on this list did). That was only 14 hours after the tournament started. 10 rounds in 14 hours cannot be done with any delays. The warm room and tab disclosure did not hold up the tournament.

What round do you think was held up?

-Dan

[pattybar]

Sorry, I should have been more specific... I intended the fall CC tournament in Colorado Springs. Elim rounds were on Sunday all day and well into the evening. The impact was after that tournament, not the January swing with Metro.

The debate portion of the fall CC tournament ran significantly behind all weekend and the topic announcement always included an admonishment to the judges to return the ballots and then discuss. I know that part of the problem was cross-scheduling but even when I had the farthest possible building and rounds with extempers etc (starting an hour or so behind schedule at best..) there were notorious 'court holders' whose ballots were consistently the last returned.

Patty

[Daniel Grossberg]

That makes sense but no, I was not at that tournament. My first two intended partners fell through (one got a new partner when Marisa and Owen split <hint, hint>, and the other dropped debate cold for several months because of academic problems), and it was then too late.

Once again, that reasoning makes perfect sense, but only occurs (as far as I can conjecture) with full disclosure and not tab-room disclosure (which is what I support).

I hope your friends are okay now.