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5 August 2011

EUDC Council - Text of the Invitation

Here's the full text of the invitation - I kept on getting notes that it did not go through the facebook group even after the second attempt. Please pass it on...

Best,
Jens


_____


EUDC Council
Invitation for pre-Council and Council in Galway

Dear EUDC Council delegates,

this is the invitation for both pre-Council and Council in Galway.

Best, and see you really soon,

Jens



Below, you find information on the basic points:

1. Meeting times
2. Issues (Agenda)
3. Postponed issues.

Before that, a few remarks:

a. If you are not a country delegate or VP anymore, please do two things: (1) Let me know at jhbfischer@gmail.com, and (2) please forward this information to your new country delegate or VP.

b. As far as my information goes, the following countries are present in Galway (in alphabetical order):

Austria, Croatia, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Macedonia, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales

Should we be missing anyone, please also let us know.

c. If you have anything to add to the points below, please let me know at jhbfischer@gmail.com - and I will happily add this to the agenda.

d. Please note that any motions for Council need to be in WRITTEN form, and enough copies present on site for all delegates. Also, we will pre-announce discussions times for all agenda items. Obviously, Council has the power to prolong these discussions, but we take the prerogative of speeding things up a bit.

e. Documents (reports etc.) will be available for download by tomorrow.


So here we go:

1. Meeting times

The schedule for EUDC has been posted here:
http://www.galwayeudc2011.ie/tournament/schedule

Currently, pre-Council to sort out eligibility and other vital questions for the competition is planned for

Sunday, August 7th (Arrivals day) at 7 p.m. and will not last more than an hour.

Bid presentations and Q&A are planned for Monday, August 8th, 9 p.m.

Council is planned to begin on Friday, August 12th, at 8.30 a.m.

PLEASE NOTE: These times may be subject to change, please look out for notices at registration.

2. Issues

Currently, these questions are scheduled for discussion:

- Who should host EUDC 2012?
- Who should be the Committee members for next year? The way it stands, currently the positions of President, Registrar and Secretary are up for election.
- Should we move to a two years in advance bid cycle?
- Should Council advise or mandate that Committee members receive sponsorship for attending Euros?
- Do we need changes in the ESL rules?
- What are our agenda items for Worlds?
- Reports

3. Postponed issues

Unless this is moved by anyone, we will not be deciding or officially discussing the previously announced Constitutional overhaul. The reason is simple: The WUDC constitution also faces grave changes, and since it is our standing policy that Euros follows Worlds, we would be doubling the work if we decided anything this year. Also, it will save us a whole lot of work.

Invitation for pre-Council and Council in Galway

Dear all,
I sent out the invitation for pre-Council and Council in Galway through the dedicated Facebook group. Your country delegates should have received it. Still, it would be nice if you could ask them if they did; if not, they should join the Facebook group "EUDC Council", and let us know whom they are representing.

According to the registration desk, the following 23 countries will be represented in Galway: Austria, Croatia, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Macedonia, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales

To recap what that long message says:

Pre-Council is scheduled for August 8th, 9 p.m. Here, eligibility issues and the bid presentations will be heard and discussed. Council is scheduled for August 12th, 8.30 a.m.

Please note that these times may be subject to change. In particular, pre-Council might be moved to arrivals day, August 7th. This will be announced at registration, please keep you eyes peeled. Thank you!

Sorry if you receive this message multiple times, we don't want anyone to miss out on the endless joys of Council...

Best, and see you really soon!

Jens

DLSU Worlds Adjudication Workshop‏

Good day,

We would like to invite you to the DLSU Worlds Adjudication Workshop, a two-day event on August 26 & 27 2011 at De La Salle University.

The said workshop aims to enhance and strengthen the pool of Philippine Adjudicators in preparation for De La Salle Worlds and other local and international tournaments. The workshop will be headed by Ms. Lucinda David, the Co-Chief Adjudicator for this year's World Universities Debating Championships.

This is open to registered adjudicators in DLSU Worlds, AND to individuals who want to learn more about the art of judging a debate. Registration fee for the workshop is 300 pesos per individual.

Interested individuals and institutions may contact us by sending me an e-mail at gabriel.pavico@dlsuworlds.com or by calling us at 524.4611 local 376.

Thank you very much, and I hope to see you soon!

Regards,

Gabriel Romeo Ferriols Pavico
Project Coordinator
De La Salle Worlds 2012
+63.917.592.5592
+63.2.524.4611 local 376
http://www.dlsuworlds.com/ 

Results & Report of the 1st China National High School English Debating Championships

The 1st China National High School English Debating Championships 2011 was held from 23rd to 29th July at the prestigious, century-old Jinling High School in the ancient city of Nanjing, China. A total of 32 high school teams from 6 Chinese cities, Nanjing, Chengdu, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Macau and Hong Kong competed in 8 World Schools Style Preliminary Rounds from 25th to 27th July. 12 teams advanced to the Pre-Quarter Finals on 28th July.




In the Grand Final, Team Pointless from Hangzhou Foreign Languages School from Hangzhou City, comprising Kevin Wang, Li Shu and Eunice Yu, defeated Team Ying Wa College from Hong Kong on a 5 to 2 majority vote. The Best Speaker of the Grand Final was Kevin Wang of Hangzhou Foreign Languages School. The debate motion for the Grand Final was "This House believes Western Governments should assassinate dictatorial leaders who use violence against their own people to stay in power."



The Best Speaker of the Tournament was Ms Fernanda Lai of Diocesan Girls' School from Hong Kong.



I would like to thank the following key people for making this inaugural event a smoothly organised one full of excellent debates and great fun for the 100-odd Chinese high school students:



Conveners: Ms Winnie Wang, Mr Benjamin Chen and Ms Tang Meng

Deputy Chief Adjudicators: "TJ" Thepparith Senamngern, Nicole Ng, Zheng Bo, Christy Bradley

Registration Directors: George Chen and Elliot Shi

Invited Independent Judges: Ms Faith Raagas, Ms Smile Deng, Ms Sufey Chen, Ms Kan Ma, Mr Raymond Lio, Ms Athena Liu, Ms June Fang, Ms Wang Ying Chong Grace, Ms Maria Qu, Ms Kata He, Ms Wang Yihan, Ms Kathy Zhang, Mr Tom Tung, Mr Diego Fang, Mr Low Kim Heng, Mr Nicholas Huang, Mr Tan Qi, Mr Neo Shao, Ms Nicki Liu, Mr Ted Cheng, Ms Rowena Wu, Mr Noah Wise



The full Results of the event and the Debate Motions are below:



12 Breaking Teams:

1. Avada Kedavra (Semi-Finalist)

2. Straight Man! (Semi-Finalist)

3. Pointless (Champion)

4. YingWa (Finalist)

5. Ciborium (Quarter-Finalist)

6. Muhammed Ali Hussein (Quarter-Finalist)

7. Nirvana (Quarter-Finalist)

8. CR Winner (Quarter-Finalist)

9. Accelarator (Pre-Quarter-Finalist)

10. Wingardium Laviosa (Pre-Quarter-Finalist)

11. The Catalyst (Pre-Quarter-Finalist)

12. Decepticon (Pre-Quarter-Finalist)



Best Speakers of the Tournament:

1. Fernanda Lai(DGS), HK, Avada Kedavra

2. Carrie Li (HFLS) Avada Kedavra

2. Sally Feng (HFLS) Straight Man!

4. Kevin Wang (HFLS) Pointless

5. Amy Wu (HFLS) Straight Man!

6. John Ye (HFLS) Straight Man!

6. Eunice Yu (HFLS) Pointless

8. Li Shu (HFLS) Pointless

9. Phyliss Qian (HFLS) Avada Kedavra

10. Alex Leung (Ying Wa College), HK, YingWa



5 Special Awards:

1. Most Enthusiastic Debater Award: Hammer An, (Nankai High School), Debatepedia

2. Most Stylish Debater Award: Alex Leung, (Ying Wa College, HK), YingWa

3. Most Humourous Debater Award: Joe Johnson, (JLHS), Three Stupid Idiots

4. The Spirit of Debate Award: Gollum Yang, (CFLS) Bald Lovers

5. Best Teammate Award: Caesar Gao, (NFLS) CR Winner



Debate Motions:



Round 1

This house would ban advertisements that use gender stereotypes.

Round 2

This House believes that university students should pay the full costs of their education.

Round 3

This House believes that environmental protection should come second to economic growth in developing countries.

Round 4

This House believes that animals should not be used as objects of sport and entertainment.

Round 5

This House would allow citizens to sell their organs.

Round 6

This House would require that students in all high schools (secular, religious, public, private, etc.) learn the beliefs of people of all major faiths, including those of no faith at all (atheists/agnostics).

Round 7 (Silent)

This House would require users of online social networks to disclose their real identity.


Round 8 (Silent)

This house believes that prisoners should have the right to vote in general elections held to form a national parliament.

Pre-Quarter Finals

This House believes that all countries should give up the use of nuclear energy.

Quarter-Finals

This House believes that the Arab World should stop selling oil to France until it removes its ban on the wearing of the Islamic Female Head Dress (Burqa) in Public.

Semi-Finals

THW allow school boards to fire teachers whose class consistently underperforms in standardized tests.

Grand Final

This House believes Western Governments should assassinate dictatorial leaders who use violence against their own people to stay in power.



The Full Tab of the Championship is found at:



http://debateclub.cn/minisites/CNHSDC2011-FullTab/index.html



cheers,





Loke Wing Fatt

Chief Adjudicator & Overall-in-charge

1st China National High School English Debating Championships 2011

President



Society for Associated Inter-Tertiary Debaters (SAID)

Singapore

Website: saidsg.wordpress.com

Hart House IV Invitation

On behalf of the Hart House Debates Committee, it is my pleasure to formally invite you to the Hart House IV, taking place on October 14th – 16th.

Debating
All debates will be in standard British Parliamentary format, using Worlds speaking times (7 minutes per speech). All resolutions will be tight-link, with our very capable CAs ensuring a wide variety of topics are debated. There will be a hard cap of 80 teams.

There will be five preliminary rounds, with rounds 1-3 being open adjudication. If there are 80 registered teams, then we will break to quarter-finals. Otherwise, the top 8 teams will break to semis.

Awards will be given to the top 8 teams, top 10 speakers, top novice team, and top novice speaker.


Adjudication
The Chief Adjudicators of this year’s tournament are Steven Penner and Sam Greene. In the past year alone, Steven was the CUSID National Champion and British Parliamentary Champion. Steve has twice won the Seagram Cup, and has been a Chancellors semifinalist and Winter Carnival quarterfinalist. Sam’s accomplishments include CUSID British Parliamentary Champion, Central Canadian (Leger Cup) Champion, Nationals Semifinalist, National, North American and Central Novice champion, Guindon and Chancellors semifinalist.


In addition to our highly qualified Chief Adjudicators, Hart House has access to an incredibly deep judging pool. Between the Hart House debating club, Hart House alumni and other debaters in Toronto, we have multiple National and North American debating champions, as well as numerous members who have broken as judges or adjudicators at previous worlds. We're confident that we can provide quality judging in every room.


The judging requirement will be n/3, rounded down. If a team is unable to fulfill their judging requirement then this can be waived at the discretion of the Chief Adjudicators. We strongly encourage those teams who feel like they need a waiver to contact us, rather than sending an adjudicator who may be uncomfortable judging.


Equity and Accessibility
The equity officer for this year's tournament is Gemma Stanton-Hagan. An equity policy will be posted by October 1st.


Food and Socials
Debaters and judges will be provided with a bag dinner on Friday evening, breakfast and lunch on Saturday, and brunch on Sunday. Our traditional formal banquet will be happening on Saturday evening. If you require special dietary requirements (veggie, vegan, halal, kosher, allergies) then we can make arrangements for you if we're notified by October 9th.

There will be socials on both Friday and Saturday night, as well as an informal social for those arriving on Thursday. Every effort will be made to make the socials novice friendly.


Accommodation
We will be negotiating a hotel deal in the next few weeks. Details to follow.

For those who wish to billet, billeting is allotted on a first-come, first-serve basis.


Registration
Registration is $150 per team, and $70 per adjudicator, all prices in Canadian dollars. Registration begins September 1st, and ends October 5th. All schools must have paid in full by October 7th.

Registration and payment will be done online. Details to follow in late August.

Teams who must travel a significant distance (ie. those outside of North America, or those with abnormally high travel costs) can request that their registration be waived. We will consider these requests on a case-by-case basis. Please make this request during registration.

There is an initial school cap of 6 teams, which will be lifted on October 1st.

Hope to see lots of you there! If you have any questions, please contact the Tournament Directors, Deirdre Casey and Allie Allison, at harthousedebate@gmail.com.

4 August 2011

Leeds pull out of bid to host 2012 Euros.

*A message from the team at Leeds EUDC*
After much consideration we decided last week that we were unable to bid to host the European Universities Debating Championship in 2012 and we will not be requesting council to consider our bid at Galway.

This was not an easy decision to make and many arrangements and plans were at an advanced stage but there were several crucial components of the bid that were underdeveloped and at this point in time we are unable to move ahead with bidding for 2012. Many people in Leeds and on the prospective A-team did a lot of hard work to organise and promote the bid and we are hoping that that Leeds can bid again in 2012 for 2013.

As anyone who was at the Leeds IV this year will tell you Leeds put on strong, well run tournaments but at this moment it time we are unable to put our bid to EUDC Council.

We are sorry for announcing this now but it was our intention to present at council and we therefore worked hard to get the bid ready for this year but in the end were unsuccessful. On a personal note I could not have had a better prospective adjudication team and if any of you are running a tournament anytime soon I hope that you consider Catherine Murphy, Rob Honig, Maria Kesa and Harish Natarajan for your adjudication team.

Thank you also to the many other people outside Leeds, including Harry, Anna and others, who agreed to be part of the project this year. Hopefully we will be back and stronger than ever for next year.

Many thanks
Fred Cowell
Prospective CA Leeds EUDC 2012

3 August 2011

DLSU Worlds 2012: Confirmation of Application

Dear World Debating Community,
 
Thanks very much to those who have applied to the WUDC Independent Adjudicator application process. This message is to let you know that we have now responded to all those who have applied to acknowledge receipt of their applicaiton. That means: if you have not heard back from us, we have not received your applicaiton. We do not anticipate that this should be the case for anyone who has applied following the instructions at www.dlsuworlds.com, but wish to take every precaution possible in an important process. Should you think you have applied but not have heard from us, please get in touch withsam.block@dlsuworlds.com.
 
Many thanks,
 
The Adjudication Team
DLSU WUDC 2012