Update on AUDC 2009

Here is the latest update on the AUDC 2009 Championships. CSB cannot now step in to host the championships at such short notice so the vote has changed to a straight yes/no on EWU continuing to host while there is also a call for anyone interested in hosting the 2009 tournament.

Also and equally as important they are still some way short of reaching the required Quorum of votes. If you are reading this from an Asian University affiliated with AUDC or All-Asians then please check with the head of your society if they have voted.


Dear Friends,
CSB officially met with their school administration today and apparently there has been a misunderstanding. While CSB's Office of Student Affairs has full support for CSB's bid in 2010, they are uncomfortable with the idea of hosting a tournament in 2009, much less with such short notice.

For this reason, Options C & D are no longer available.

What we now have to vote on is this:

1) Do we want the tournament to be hosted by EWU this May?
You may either vote YES/NO.

It is important for us to vote on this even without the existence of a clear alternative because the EWU VC has given us a deadline for choosing the EWU in May option. After all, they still have to continue preparations and they need every single day they can get if they only have a month left for organization.

While the vote is on-going, we would like to open the floor for interested hosts for this year's tournament. If you would like to bid, kindly send an e-mail to me (hunichi@yahoo.com) and Jason Jarvis (debatekorea@gmail.com) and attach all pertinent details with regards to the tournament you are planning: schedule, intended reg fee, debate venues, hotel, etc. Most importantly, do get a signed letter of authorization from your school and attach it to the e-mail as well. This is to ascertain school support and to avoid confusion later on.

If and when we do receive such bids, the Exco will publish them in the e-groups so that institutions may start their deliberations. But for now, the most pressing concern is, do we want EWU to host in May or not?

The deadline that we've been given by EWU VC was tomorrow, Wednesday. This was already an extension from the original deadline of Sunday. I have asked Latif to request the VC for another extension, so we should know when the deadliest deadline is.

I have also request Latif to ask the EWU VC what will happen in the event that 60 teams are not reached by April 15. Latif has been kind enough to contact the EWU VC on Exco's behalf-- but please do not misunderstand, this does not mean Latif is related to the EWU bid in any way. He is just communicating with the EWU VC in behalf of the exco. I will update you as soon as we have a reply from the EWU VC.

Currently, we have received 17 votes from 8 institutions. Quorum in the AUDC Union for this year is 34 votes or 21 institutions. We still have a long way to go to reaching quorum, so please cooperate and send in your votes. It will also be a big help if you help the exco remind other institutions in the Union to vote as well. If you are a member of the AUDC Union, kindly e-mail all your votes to me, hunichi@yahoo.com with " VOTE" as title (i.e. UPM Vote or NLSIU Vote). If you are a member of the All Asian Debate Community, kindly e-mail your votes to Jason, debatekorea@gmail.com. All e-mails received through my personal address will be forwarded to the exco for tallying.

As always, thank you all.
Sincerely
Estelle Osorio
Chair, AUDC Exco