NSU All Asians update

Dear All,
I am proud to announce on behalf of the organizing committee of 15th All Asians that we are all set and ready to go. It's been a while that I haven't updated any information and my organizer tells me it's time for the monthly update. I am about to make fewimportant announcements and apologize in advance for any sort of inconvenience that you might face for our change in decision. Just to make you read the entire mail I decided not to write one of those usual boring formal mails.

In the last few months, we did few surveys and I would like thank everyone for their feedback. Well, we tried to incorporate all your suggestions (almost all of them!) We know this is the first time any Asian debate championship (be it AUDC or All Asians) is coming to South Asia and being very proud and sensitive about our national pride (we are sensitive about particular issues! Read sub-continental history! Read `Bangladesh's history'), we want to showcase the best possible All Asian Debate Championship, with properaccommodation, variety of food, not-too-decent socials (!) and most importantly, top quality judging and debating.

We have had few questions regarding our adjudication inexperience and hence selected one of the best DCA panels ever. (C'mon! With Jason, Adiba, Jess and Sidharth on board, I can claim this is one the best, if not, the best! I am leaving a space for your opinion. :D ) We are honored that Dr. Snider, having directed dozens of debate tournaments in different parts from the world, is flying in all the way from Vermont, USA to be our TAB Director. (I heard he's bringing a box full of cheese, if anybody isinterested. He's from Vermont, guys! ) I see tons of mails flowing back and forth within our adjudication panel and the only reason they are doing this is to ensure top quality judging. I am sure you have seen the result in Sidharth's mail couple of days back. For the first time, we are going to have a general briefing round followed by special briefing round by having all the adjudicators divided in 4-5 groups and being trained/briefed again by the top adjudicators ofAsia. Through these focused groups, we hope all the adjudicators will have a much better idea (and we will face less complains. I didn't say `no' complains…that'd be too ambitious)

We have nothing against AUDC. In fact, we were not even in the picture when the split happened. We wish Latif Bhai (I feel so proud to see a fellow Bangladeshi being the CA in another tournament) and his team a great success. But I realized no matter how much we try, the hardcore AUDC people will not come to All Asians, not yet. (Our database and the teams that registered for AUDC clearly shows the split is still in effect…more than in mind that in reality)

But still, we are in a compromising mood. We are trying to have a structured adjudication system so that the ground on which the split happened gets nullified. To show our full support to the unity in Pattaya Declaration, and most importantly, to see the Asian teams going up the ladder in contrast to this year's performance in the Worlds we don't want to go into a direct clash with AUDC. We are pulling our tournament by two days.

The revised schedule is May 7-13, 2008. There are flights available from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur on 13th and 14th of May, if anyone wants to fly from Dhaka.

(A) Regarding our ACCOMMODATION, we will not accommodate you in Hotel Sarina, as mentioned earlier. In fact, we will accommodate you in Pan Pacific Sonargaon. Yes, you heard it right- it's Pan Pacific, which means internationally approved 5-star quality With the same rego fee, now you are going to stay in a better hotel, in fact, one of the largest and best hotels in Dhaka. http://www.panpacific.com/Dhaka/Overview.html

(B) Our BANK ACCOUNT is up and you can start paying now.
Accounts name: NSU ALL ASIANS

Accounts number: 103.110.13886
Bank name: Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited

Banani Branch

Plot# 75, Block# B

Kemal Ataturk Avenue

Banani, Dhaka-1213
Swift Code: DBBL BD DH 103

The Bank must receive your university name in clear writing.

(C) For mutual benefit, we are EXTENDING THE DEADLINE for paying registration fee.

Registration until April 21st, 2008.
160 USD per person (for debaters and adjudicators)

190 USD per person (for observers)

Late Registration (April 22nd –May 5th, 2008)
185 USD per person (for debaters and adjudicators)

215 USD per person (for observers)

Please note that once we receive your registration fee, we will ask for your details so that our foreign ministry can send letters to Embassy of Bangladesh in your respective country for smooth processing of your visa.

(D) We are increasing our TEAM CAP per institution from 3 to 5. However, the total team cap of 120 will remain same. ADJUDICATORS CAP will be minimum: n=1 and maximum: N= n+ 5, n being the number of teams.

So much of information in one mail! If you have any more queries, please visit http://www.nsuallasians.com/ We also have a facebook account where you can ………do facebooking!
FB Group: NSU All Asians Inter Varsity Debating Championship 2008

Get moving, fast.

And See you in Dhaka!
Zunaed Rabbani

Convenor,15th All Asians.