How to run a SuperDebate chapter.

Aim for 50–80 capacity. Coworking spaces, libraries, university halls, and event venues all work. Cream of the crop is mHUB Chicago and 1871 Chicago — both are SuperDebate-friendly. Kiln Portland is the Portland equivalent.

Negotiate: free or sponsor-covered for first three months in exchange for cross-promotion. Many venues prefer this to charging $200–400 per night because they get a recurring audience.

Lock the venue calendar before you announce the cadence. The hardest thing to undo is moving a debate night.

Doors and social: 30 min. Lets the room warm up.

Opening remarks: 5 min. Name the new phase if you're in reactivation mode. Name the advisors.

Warm-up motion: 15 min. Audience-participation format so people are in the room before the main event.

Main debate: 30–45 min. The strongest content moment. Two sides, structured rounds.

Judging + audience vote: 10 min.

Challenge round: 10 min. New competitors in the audience get a quick shot at next month's slot.

Closing + founding-member invitation: 5 min. Convert energy → membership, judges, volunteers, sponsor leads, next-event interest.

Before the event date is announced, identify: photographer, videographer, testimonial collector, moments-to-capture list, publish targets, editor, and a 48-hour deadline.

The minimum capture stack: one phone on a tripod recording the main debate continuously, a designated photographer with 50–100 stills, and 3–5 testimonials taped at the social hour.

Publish within 48 hours: clip reel, recap blog post, photo selects, sponsor-facing reel cut. The auto-recap-draft fires when the event is marked completed — you fill in 4 fields and publish.

Judges are the operational backbone. Aim for 3–5 trained judges per club, rotating monthly.

Source pools: local debate alumni (LinkedIn search "high school debate" + city), Toastmasters chapters, law firms, university debate coaches, retired professors.

Train: one 30-minute video onboarding. They watch one event, then judge their first event with a senior judge. By month two they're solo.

Pay or recognize: SuperDebate covers travel/dinner; named recognition at the event; LinkedIn endorsement. We don't pay cash for judging.

Three tiers — $2,500 Event, $10,000 City, $50,000 Founding Partner. The /sponsors/one-pager is the hand-out.

Best-fit categories: law firms, leadership/exec coaching, public-speaking firms, coworking spaces, universities, leadership-development companies, local family offices, and (with Matthew) Real American Beer.

Pitch in person where possible. Attend their event first if invited. Trade favors before asking. The first sponsorship is always a relationship; the next ten can be email.

Most attendees can be turned into competitors with one ask: "Pick a side on the next motion. We'll pair you with a senior debater for prep." That works on roughly 1 in 5.

After their first debate, ask if they'll judge the next one. After their first judging assignment, ask if they'll moderate.

The pipeline: audience → competitor → judge → moderator → ambassador. Most ambassadors come from this exact ladder.

Publish the recap within 48 hours of the event. Non-negotiable. After 48 hours the energy is gone and the asset is dead.

Recap minimum: hero photo, 4 paragraphs, 2 embedded clips, sponsor logos, attendance number, link to next event.

The auto-recap workflow drafts the post when the event is marked completed. Fill in the body, pin clips and photos, hit publish.

The closing line at every reactivation event: "Three asks before you leave. One — RSVP for next month. Two — sign up to judge or compete. Three — if you believe in this, become a Founding Member tonight. Hundred bucks. Status is permanent. Your name goes on the wall."

Have someone manning a laptop near the door with /founding-member open. The conversion happens at the event — not later.

Post-event: send the broadcast email to attendees with a UTM-stamped link to /founding-member. About 20% of in-room conversions happen post-event.