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29 January 2011

LSE Open (Call for Judges)‏

Would you like to judge great debates, enjoy amazing socials, and get lots of free food and alcohol?


Being an Open at which many experienced judges will be debating , the tournament requires a large number of volunteers to act as qualified external judges.

Looking at our tab, we are confident in predicting that this tournament will see some of the most competitive debates of the term. We are very dedicated to bringing in as many qualified judges as possible.  We are thus very grateful (a gratitude expressed largely in free liquor) for all those who will come out and judge.

Please contact us in advance, either on facebook, by joining the event "judging at the LSE Open" ( http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149897958397311&ref=ts) of my emailing John.ashbourne (at) gmail.com or A.A.Kazi (at) LSE.ac.uk.

Looking forward to seeing you all in February,

John Ashbourne & Anser Aftab

28 January 2011

Video of WUPID final

Videos of the Grand Final of GEMS WUPID 2010 (held just before Christmas) are now available on YouTube.  There was some discussion about the result on the post about the final so you can now view the final and decide if you agree with the adjudication.

You can view them at http://www.youtube.com/user/soulbear89 or find more information at http://thedebatingnews.wordpress.com/

USU 2011 Announces Adjudication Team‏

We received a huge number of high quality applications to serve as members of the CA team for this year's USU in Vermont. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for applying and for their patience while we finalized our line-up. We are delighted to announce that our team will be as follows:

Stephen Boyle - CA
Stephen was an accomplished debater who broke twice at Worlds, was a runner up and twice finalist of the Oxford IV, a winner of the Irish Times, the Yale and Hart House IV's and the Bristol Open and a Gold Medallist of the Literary and Historical Society in UCD. He has judged the finals of both Euros and USU and was a semi-final judge at this year's world championships. He will serve as a DCA of Belgrade Euros 2012 if they win their bid to host the competition.

Adam Goldstein - DCA
Adam was an incredibly successful debater both in the WUDC and American parliamentary format. In WUDC he has broken twice at Worlds, was the top speaker at the Oxford IV, a winner of the Cambridge IV and the top speaker at the Yale IV. In American Parliamentary, he won the North American Championships, the Harvard Tournament, and was Finalist or better at no less than thirteen other tournaments. Adam is also an immensely experienced judge, and served on the final panel of this year's main break at Worlds.

Anish Mitra - DCA
Anish has been one of the most consistent performers on the American debating circuits for some years. He is winner of five American Parliamentary tournaments, including the APDA national championships. He also has an incredibly impressive WUDC record, which includes reaching the Semis of Worlds, the finals of USU and the semis of the Oxford IV. He has served as judging director of the APDA national championships, and three times as judging director of the Stanford Tournament.

Mary Nugent - DCA
Mary is one of the most experienced debaters and judges from the IONA circuit. She is winner of the UCL Open, the London IV, Oxford Women's and the Cardiff IV. She had judged the finals of Worlds, the Cambridge IV, the LSE Open and several other competitions. Mary will be familiar to several US schools having been selected for the prestigious English Speaking Union tour of America last year.

Shamila Parmanand - DCA
Sharmila has an impressive pedigree as a speaker, having broken at Worlds, reached the final of Australs, having also been in the semi finals twice. She is a three times winner of the AUDC tournament and a winner of the Philippine national championships. She has since focused her attention on judging. She had judged the Worlds final, served as a DCA of both Australs and UADC and most recently was appointed CA of Worlds 2013 which will be held in Berlin.

Sam Natale - ACA
Sam will serve as assistant to the chief adjudicator, and will be responsible for liaising between the adjudication team and the org comm for the tournament. He is the most successful WUDC debater in UVM's history, having reached the final of WUPID and breaking at Worlds, as well as reaching the semi finals of USU, and being top speaker at over ten regional tournaments in the North East. He was an invited judge at the Chinese national championships and was a DCA at the BIND championship.


--
Alfred C. Snider aka Tuna
Edwin Lawrence Professor of Forensics, University of Vermont

27 January 2011

De La Salle WUDC 2012: Feedback on DCA Applicants from Africa

Dear World Debating Community,

We are writing to open the feedback process for DCA applications for the Middle East and Africa debating region. Particularly because of the high quality of applicants, it is more important than ever that we receive as much feedback as possible on candidates. Feedback will form a very significant part of decisions about DCA appointments.

We encourage all members of the international debating community to give feedback on any candidates they have any familiarity with. This includes those who are themselves candidates. Unfortunately, anonymous feedback cannot be taken into account; this is simply to ensure we know each piece of feedback is from a separate unique individual. All feedback is, however, entirely confidential, and will be seen only by the Chief Adjudicators.

We are seeking feedback on all aspects of candidates’ ability to do the DCA job. As well as feedback about ‘how good’ candidates are, feedback on candidate’s particular strengths and weaknesses are valued, as they help build a good all-round team. All feedback should be sent to both sam.block@dlsuworlds.com and lucinda.david@dlsuworlds.com, and should include the word ‘Feedback’ in the subject-line. All feedback must be received by 1200 GMT on the 4th of February.

The candidates are:

Kimera Chetty
Joe Roussos

Finally, if you believe you have applied to be a DCA but do not see yourself on the list above, please do get in touch.

Once again, please do send in your feedback; it will make a real difference to this process.

Many thanks,

Sam Block and Lucinda David
Chief Adjudicators
De La Salle WUDC 2012

25 January 2011

McGill's Winter Carnival Results 2011

The 61st McGill annual Winter Carnival North American Invitational was held this weekend.  It was won by a Hybrid team of Brent Kettles & Joshua Seely-Harrington.

Champion: Hybrid (Brent Kettles/Joshua Sealy-Harrington)
Finalist: Hybrid (Monica Ferris/Stephen Boyle)
Semifinalist: Hybrid (Jake Liang/Sohpie Macintyre)
Semifinalist: Hart House (Sam Greene/Deirdre Casey)

Quarterfinalist: Alberta (Iain Ireland/Robert Lees-Miller)
Quarterfinalist: Hybrid (Andrew Monkhouse/Andrew Choat)
Quarterfinalist: Hybrid (Steve Penner/Romeo Maione)
Quarterfinalist: Hart House (Josh Stark/Louis Tsivilis)

Top Speaker: Stephen Boyle
Top Novice Speaker: Louis Tsivilis
Public Speech Champion: Nisha Patel

Update: Initially the post had the results of the final the wrong way around.  I've now fixed that.

23 January 2011

2011 FLTRP Cup‏

The Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP), organizer of the most prestigious English language debating tournament in China, invites you participate as a guest adjudicator at the 15th FLTRP Cup National English Debating Championship. The FLTRP Cup will be held May 7-17, 2011 at the FLTRP’s Convention Center in Beijing.


To apply to be an adjudicator, please visit:

http://www.chinadebate.org/

Last year, the FLTRP Cup made a successful transition to the British Parliamentary format, the style of debating employed by the World Universities Debating Championships. This transition was critical to connecting Chinese universities to the world of international debating and required the cooperation of volunteers willing to contribute their experience as adjudicators to the effort. We had an outstanding group of adjudicators attend, including Jess Prince (Canada), Sam Greenland (Australia), Josh Martin (USA), Stephen Boyle (Ireland), Lars Duursma (the Netherlands), Uri Merhav (Israel), Loke Wing Fatt (Singapore), Filip Dobranic (Slovenia), Jason Rogers (Canada), Justice Motlhabani (Botswana) and Monica Ferris (Canada) just to name a few. To continue the progress made last year, we are even more committed to bringing qualified adjudicators to this year's tournament.

Though the competition is open only to Chinese university students, there is a great need for skilled adjudicators to ensure that the standards of the BP style are upheld. To encourage you to participate in this effort, the FLTRP is sponsoring an incentive package for all qualified adjudicators with significant BP experience who agree to adjudicate at the 15th FLTRP Cup. All qualified adjudicators will receive:

· Scheduled transfers from Beijing airport to the FLTRP Convention Center (May 7)
· Hotel at the FLTRP Convention Center (May 7-14)
· All meals while at the Convention Center (May 7-14)
· Transfer to downtown Beijing (May 14)
· Hotel in downtown Beijing (May 14-17)
· Tours of major sites like the Great Wall & Forbidden City (May 15-16)
· Some meals while in downtown Beijing (May 15-16)
· Transfers to airport on May 17

Additionally, we will offer partial air travel subsidies to select qualified adjudicators.

The FLTRP Cup is the oldest, largest and most celebrated intercollegiate debating competition in China. Since it’s inception, the FLTRP Cup has been a major sponsor of intercollegiate debating in China and is on the forefront of promoting open discourse and intellectual exchange among the best and brightest of Chinese college students.

Questions may be directed to steve.johnson.alaska@gmail.com or to fltrpcup@gmail.com.