e-mail from Ian Lising

e-mail from Ian Lising, Chairman of the World Debating Council.

Dear All,

I hope this email finds you in great health and spirits. With one month to go before we get to see each other once again in Dublin, I wanted to email everybody and give you an initial report of what will be discussed at Council this year. To that end, I have attached the initial agenda for the pre-Council meeting on 28 December 2005 and the formal Council meeting on 1 January 2006.

1. WORLDS 2005 MINUTES

Thank you for your kind patience on this matter. I have been repeatedly assured by Mr. Sarfaraz Ahmed (World Council Secretary) that the minutes are soon to be completed. I trust that he will be able to release this at his earliest convenience.

2. WORLDS 2006

I wanted to take this time to thank the UCD team led by Ciaran Lawlor. If the job that Philip, John and Pamela have done so far is an indicator of things to come, then we certainly have a great Worlds to look forward to.

3. WORLDS 2007

I had the great pleasure of joining Amanda Wolthuizen and Jeremy Brier in Vancouver to help out with the CUSID BP tournament. Teddy Harrison and Kevin Massie have done wonderful things in preparation for their event and I am sure that you will all enjoy the fruits of their labor.

4. WORLDS 2008

Okay, here's the bad news. After 3 months of working with 3 potential bidders, the last remaining one officially pulled out this weekend. So as it stands now, Worlds 2008 is in peril.

I am hereby commissioning the Worlds Regional reps (IONA, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and the Americas) to begin a hard feasibility search for potential hosts within their spheres of influence.

Let's be realistic. Worlds has become a complicated and difficult undertaking. But at the end of the day, it is a week-long debating tournament. The goal is not to outdo the previous year (which UCD & UBC seem to make extremely difficult), but to run an efficient and accessible event for us to all experience.

I know that realistically, the lead time for this is relatively short but then again, this is as much time as I have been given.

Thanks very much for your kind attention. I look forward to receiving word from the potential bidders.

Cheers,
Ian

Agenda for World Council 2006 Dublin, Ireland

Preliminary Council Meeting 12.28.2005

Distribution of Meeting Minutes from Council meeting of Worlds 2005
- Roll Call
- Delegate Names
- Voting status

Institution review
- N-1 Review

Speaker Review
- 4 year rule
- ESL participants

Distribution of 2008 Bid Materials

Council Meeting 01.01.2006

Roll Call
- Delegate Names
- Voting status

Worlds 2005 Minutes
- Vote to accept minutes

MMU Report & Accounts
- MMU Rep to report on Tournament
- MMU Rep to present final accounts

UCD Report & Accounts
- UCD Rep to report on Tournament
- UCD Rep to present initial accounts

UBC (Worlds 2007) Bid Defense
- Bid Defense Presentation
- Questions from council members
- Vote to Confirm UBC as 2007 hosts

Bids for Worlds 2008
- X & Y present bids (order to be determined by coin toss)
- Questions from Council Members
- Vote on hosts for Worlds 2008

Lunch Break

Discussion on Single University-Multiple Debate Union/Societies, Multiple Colleges-Single Debate Union/Societies

Discussion on Adjudicator Caps

Committee Reports
- Chair
- Registrar
- Secretary
- Women�s Officer
- Equity Officer
- Regional Reports

Constitution Review
- English as a Foreign Language Championship

Other Business

2007 World Executive Committee Elections

END