Phase 2 of registration for EUDC

Here an update on the latest phase for those looking to registration for Europeans.

Dear debaters,
As you all probably know and many of you anticipate, registration to EUDC 2008 Tallinn is about to move to Phase 2. The new wave of registrations begins on Monday, 31 March, at 12:00 GMT. Below you will find a description of how Phase 2 works. Please note that due to the massive interest in registration we have been compelled to make a few modifications to the registration procedure. Therefore we found it necessary to give you a rather detailed overview of the registration procedure, to make everything very clear and registration as easy as possible.

So:

Phase 2 opens on Monday, 31 March, at 12:00 (lunchtime) GMT. There are 61 team places available for debaters and 42 places available for adjudicators. These numbers include the 40 team places that we initially saved for Phase 2, as well as the places of those teams and judges who registered during Phase 1, but have dropped out for various reasons (sadly, most cancellations were made due to failure to pay the registration fee on time).

Registration of teams: In Phase 2 each institution, regardless of whether they have any teams already registered or not, is allowed to register only 1 additional team. It might be that for some institutions this is their 1st team and for some it is the 3rd team. Even if your institution has not registered before, you still get only one place.

Also a waiting list of institutions (!) will be created. After the team cap of 160 is filled, registrations continue, but teams will be assigned places below the line according to the time of registration. The waiting list is open for institutions who have not been able to register their team in Phase 2. This means that an institution who already has 3 teams registered, can not put their 4th team on the waiting list. Also institutions who did not register in Phase 1, but registered their one and only team in Phase 2, are not able to put their 2nd team on the waiting list.

Registration of adjudicators: In Phase 2 it is possible to register only n-1 adjudicators. This means that if an institution already has 2 teams and 2 (or more) judges registered and they will register another, 3rd, team, they will not be able to register any more adjudicators because according to the n-1 rule an institution is required to provide exactly and only 2 judges. If you have for example 2 teams and 1 adjudicator listed, then you are able to register another team as well as one additional adjudicator – in fact, you are even obliged to register the second adjudicator because of the n-1 rule. In addition, the strict application of the n-1 rule means that those institutions, who are now about to register their first (and only) team, are not able to register any adjudicators. Please do your maths to find out if your institution is allowed to register another judge or not. Please note that the registration system will also be counting, so you will be barred from registering additional judges if their participation is not required by the n-1 rule.

This limitation is absolutely necessary because of the massive amount of adjudicators that registered during Phase 1. As we did not expect so many judges to register already in Phase 1, we are compelled to disallow registration of independent adjudicators in Phase 2. We accept n-1 adjudicators, because their registration is a necessary prerequisite for registering the teams. A waiting list is created also for adjudicators.

Registration procedure: Other than that the procedure is the same as in Phase 1. Again, you are asked to register using the registration form found on our homepage http://www.eudc2008.eu. After filling out and submitting the form, an automatic invoice will be generated. If you choose to pay by credit card, you NEED TO enter your credit card details immediately. If something happens during the registration and you are for some reason unable to do this, you should contact our Payments Coordinator Piret Poopuu at piretpo@..., who will instruct you further. If you wish to pay by bank transfer, please save or print the invoice and then proceed to pay in your chosen bank. All the payment details for the transfer can be found on the invoice, in case of additional questions please, again, contact Piret. The login passwords you have been given are not meant for paying and can not be used for this, so please do not try to login at our homepage with the given password to make the payment.

Registrants will then have until 13 April 2008 to pay the participation fee of 210EUR per participant. Subject to an eligibility check on institutions, we will confirm their places after payment is made and received. Please make sure you forward the invoice and the payment request to the payers in due time and also check that they make the payment in due time. Otherwise you may be in trouble once the payment deadline approaches (as we experienced during Phase 2). If you are not sure the payment reaches us by April 13th, please send us a document confirming that the bank transfer has been made (copy of the payment order, confirmation letter from the bank etc.). If you pay by credit card, please make sure that your credit card limit is sufficient for us to debit the money from your card.

After the general team cap of 160 is filled we will close the registration and a waiting list is created. If any of the registered teams, whose participation has not yet been confirmed, should drop out, teams will be pulled up from the institutional waiting list according to their registration time. The same applies for judges after adjudicator cap of 120 is reached. You are on our final list of participants only when your status has been changed from Registered to Confirmed.

If any team places remain available and there are no more institutions on the waiting list, we may make an open call once more, so that any remaining team places will be assigned to institutions on a first-come-first-served basis (even institutions that have 3 teams already).

In case of any questions regarding the registration procedure, please contact our Communications Director Maarja Teder at info@.... But before sending your question, please check our homepage - the FAQs section and the Q&A and other posts under Info for participants. We have already answered a lot of questions during the past weeks and earlier, many of which are of use also during Phase 2, so we would greatly appreciate if you tried not to ask questions that have already been publicly answered.

We have also received a few important questions, which are answered below for everyone to read and take into consideration.

Questions & Answers

Q: What does it mean that only n-1 judges can register during Phase 2?
„I registered as an extra adjudicator for my university during phase 1. During phase 2 my university hopefully plans on sending another team along with another adjudicator who is on the waiting list. Does the fact that I have registered myself as an adjudicator (because with my name on the list the university already has two judges) will prevent my university from registering another judge during phase 2? Is there any way to guarantee that my status as an extra judge will remain even during phase 2 or is there a possibility to shift my status from an institutional adjudicator to an independent adjudicator?"

As we have announced, in Phase 2 we are unfortunately not able to allow registration of independent adjudicators and extra adjudicators above the n-1 rule. However, the independent and extra adjudicators, who have registered in Phase 1 and paid the participation fee, will remain enlisted. The limitation concerning adjudicators that was described above affects only new registrants.

We are not able nor willing to change the status of any participants registered so far. The situation described in the question above will lead to the consequence where your institution is not able to register any more judges. We suggest that you remain on the list and after consulting with representatives of your institution decide whether you wish to remain on the list yourself or simply concede your place to the other judge (since the names of participants can be changed during Phase 3). In this case you can simply substitute your name with his/hers and you will have to settle your accounts (participation fee) between yourselves. Another option is that you delete your registration in general, but we do not suggest this, as there are very few adjudicator places available, so you may lose your place altogether. In case you don't inform us of a different choice, the 2 judges registered so far are the only ones who can participate.

We hope that you understand our decision to limit the registration of judges. We were very surprised to see such great interest in our event on the part of judges, that is why we did not deem it necessary to impose any limitations in Phase 1 (and initially neither in Phase 2). However, as 100 judges registered in Phase 1 – whereas the general adjudicator cap is 120 – we see no other option. This is the only way to guarantee that institutions that will be registering their team in Phase 2 will not be prevented from doing so because of the impossibility to register the required n-1 adjudicator.

Q: How do I get the password for login later?
During registration, please enter your correct personal e-mail address at the appropriate place on the form, because the password sent to you is personal. Make sure to enter a correct (!) address in the correct blank, otherwise you will not get the password.

Good luck to everyone with registration! As the 120 places in Phase 1 were filled in only ca 50 minutes, there is probably no time to waste after registration opens this time either.
With best regards,
EUDC 2008 Tallinn
http://www.eudc2008.eu