Vic Australs 2012

Official Registration Policy

The following outlines the formal registration policy that we will be using for Australs 2012. Please note the disclaimer and contact us if you have any questions. Read the whole document. There may be a quiz. As a final point of introduction: I will unashamedly use real institutions in my examples. Deal with that.

You may not request this document in either of the other two national languages of New Zealand: Te Reo Maori or New Zealand Sign Language.

Disclaimer

The registration team reserves the right to change any of the rules below at any stage. Changes will only be made if absolutely necessary, will be minimal, and will be posted on the Australs 2012 website.

Dates and deadlines

The dates for the different phases are:

Monday 5 March 8pm NZDT: registration opens

Friday 16 March 11:59pm NZDT: registration closes

Monday 2 April: ½ payment due

Tuesday 1 May: full payment due

Wednesday 2 May: individual registration opens

Friday 19 May: individual registration closes

Registration

Registration is to be done by an institution representative through a form on the Australs 2012 website. A mock copy of this form will be published in advance so that people know what information they will need to provide.

The team cap per institution during the registration phase (5 – 16 March) will be 2. Every institution who registers within that period is guaranteed up to 2 teams. We expect institutions to be definite by the registration phase on how many teams they initially register (0, 1 or 2).

Institutions will also be asked how many teams maximum they would like to send to Australs, in the event that there is space under the team cap once all institutions have been allocated their initial spots of up to 2. This maximum number may be changed later, and doesn’t oblige the institution to send that many extra teams. See more information on waitlist teams below.

Institutions must also follow the rules of the Australian Intervarsity Debating Association (AIDA) as set out in articles 22, 23, 24 of the AIDA Constitution. The Association will publish these for you. Be especially aware that your debaters must be enrolled to study at your institution and note the affirmative action requirements set out by AIDA.

Waitlist teams

The time of registration within the registration period will become a ranking for the order that institutions will be offered extra teams on the waitlist. Directly after the registration period closes the waitlist will be used to offer subsequent spots to institutions, as well as any time a team pulls out or misses a payment deadline.

The waitlist will be traversed top to bottom, offering one team to each institution that still has fewer than their nominated maximum number of desired teams. Once at the bottom of the list the first team will be next to be asked again. Institutions may change their desired maximum at any stage but will always have to wait for the next time they are reached on the waitlist. This means that an institution will always have a ranking, even where they have their maximum teams. Such an institution can increase their desired maximum and become active to be asked next time they are hit.

For example:

… Rank 12: Monash wants a maximum of 6, has 3 Rank 13: Sydney wants a maximum of 2, has 2 …

If Sydney get in touch and want to up their maximum to 6 then on a second run through the wailist Monash is offered a fourth team and Sydney are next offered a third team. Sydney didn’t get offered an extra team on the first run through as they had indicated that they were at their desired maximum.

There will be no preference given to institutions on the waiting list which don’t have two teams. For example if Auckland doesn’t register by 16 March and a week later asks me to be registered, they will be put at the end of the wait list ranking. They will be offered a first team after the last initially registered institution has been offered their third (assuming that last institution has a desired maximum of more than two teams).

Any institution offered a spot has one week to confirm whether they accept that team before it will be offered elsewhere. The offer will be sent by email to the institution representative who registered, and the week will count from the date of sending. It is up to the representative to check his/her emails. From one month before the tournament the registration team reserves the right to contact representatives by telephone and force faster acceptance of extra teams.

Institutions have two weeks from the day of acceptance to fully settle payments for their new team unless that would mean paying earlier than one of the original deadlines, in which case the original deadline is used. This will also include payment for one extra adjudicator to match their new n-1

requirement, except where an adjudicator moves into the contingent who was previously registered as an affiliated independent.

Adjudicators

Institutions must register exactly n-1 adjudicators, unless they send only one team in which case they may choose to bring one adjudicator. N-1 means one fewer adjudicator than the number of teams sent. Institutions wanting to send more adjudicators need to ask their adjudicators past n-1 to apply to attend independently. Such independent judges will still be affiliated to the institution. They will be announced as breaking from their institution and naturally will be conflicted from seeing them.

This means:

1 team = 0 or 1 adjudicator(s)

2 teams = 1 adjudicator

3 teams = 2 adjudicators

and so on. Any institution that registers for 0 teams and 0 adjudicators will be frowned upon. That is unlikely to be of consequence to them at the tournament.

Members of the adjudication core do not, and cannot, count as an adjudicator from any institution.

Independent adjudicators

Institutions with more than n-1 adjudicators wanting to attend Australs 2012 should have their extra adjudicators apply to attend independently. Independent adjudicators need not be from a particular institution, and may be from anywhere in the world (bump: Woolgar, Jones). There will be a separate registration form for independent adjudicators.

On the independent form adjudicators may choose to enter an institution to be affiliated with. Adjudicators who choose an institution will be known as ‘affiliated independent adjudicators’. These adjudicators will be identified as from an institution and expected to pay registration with that institution. However they will have no bearing on n-1 or affirmative action for that institution (see more detail under ‘Final adjudicator note’ and ‘Adjudicators, contingents and affirmative action’).

When filling out the independent adjudicator form, applicants will be required to prove their competency to adjudicate. The registration team reserves a right of complete discretion on who they accept, and may ask for more information or arrange to speak with an applicant. The standard is set by the registration team in consultation with the adjudication core. It will be applied fairly and equally to all applicants. Promise.

The status of independent adjudicator does not in any way promise funding. Nor does it promise that you will be seeing better debates or performing better on the adjudication test than other adjudicators.

Final adjudicator note

For the avoidance of doubt I will make things clear and put them very bluntly. Your n-1 adjudicators are not assessed (or your first adjudicator if sending only one team); all others are. There is a separate form for them to fill out. Every time you are offered a new team you must bring one more adjudicator but you also gain one more not assessed adjudicator spot. It is fine if you wish to move someone who was an affiliated independent into your n-1 spots to support n-1 for that new team.

An adjudicator may be denied as an independent adjudicator but still make up one of your n-1 spots. You may wish to think of these as ‘free’ or ‘non-assessed’ adjudicator spots. An adjudicator who has been denied independent status may even become part of a previously full squad when you are offered a new team and so need a new adjudicator.

Finally: having said all of this, do not let your adjudicators be daunted by the independent application process.

Adjudicators, contingents and affirmative action

The AIDA constitution provides (among other things, including more specific n-1 rules):

23.1 A third of all debating contingents must be female.

23.7 A debating contingent is to be comprised by debaters and only by as many adjudicators as required to satisfy the n minus one rule.

We will define your contingent as all teams plus the specific n-1 adjudicators. These n-1 adjudicators will not have applied for independent adjudicator status, or will have moved from independent status into n-1 at a later stage after waitlisted teams have been accepted.

For example:

 Victoria has three teams and six adjudicators

Two of those adjudicators are (and must be) n-1 adjudicators

The other four adjudicators are affiliated independent adjudicators

Victoria’s contingent is defined as the three teams and the specific two ‘n-1’ adjudicators. Victoria cannot use an affiliated independent to count as part of the contingent in place of one of the n-1 adjudicators for the purposes of meeting the affirmative action requirements.

If you are only sending one team but also the allowed one adjudicator (the exception to strict n-1 limits) then your adjudicator doesn’t count towards your affirmative action requirements. I.e. if you send one team it must have at least one female debater and if you send one judge their gender is irrelevant for affirmative action.

To clarify an AIDA rule: you cannot round up to having one third of your contingent as female. If your contingent ends up as five teams and therefore four n-1 adjudicators (19 people total) then you need at least seven female contingent members, not six. Note that you would also need to meet all other AIDA rules, including that one third of your top three teams need to be female debaters.

Observers

Campuses may send observers. They have no bearing on any AIDA requirements including affirmative action or n-1. Observers have a 33% higher registration fee. This is to compensate for the fact that many sponsors are only willing to sponsor participants in the tournament.

Payment

The payment dates above are not flexible and they are non-negotiable. Failure to pay on time will result in teams being offered to the waitlist. In cases of extreme emergency I will consider written explanations, preferably in advance, for why you cannot pay. Note though that teams from Christchurch and Japan succeeded in paying on time in 2011.

Remember that international transfers take time to clear. Pay before the payment deadline. If the money isn’t in our account on time but you can provide proof of transfer from the week before then you will be accepted as having met the deadline. There may be a prize for the institution that plays the currency markets the most skilfully.

It is the responsibility of attending institutions to take on fees for currency conversion and international transfers. We will count you as having paid the amount that enters the Australs 2012 bank account. The registration fee is $750 New Zealand Dollars per debater or adjudicator. The fee for observers is $1000 New Zealand Dollars. Details of the bank account to send registration to will be sent to the institution representatives after the registration phase closes. Those details will also be posted on the Australs 2012 website.

Teams who have underpaid or overpaid will have their accounts settled in New Zealand Dollars on the registration day of Australs 2012. All teams from an underpaying institution will be ineligible to compete in the main break or the ESL break until they have settled their debts. Being ineligible to compete in a break round does not advance a team to the next break round. Cheeky.

Payment is non-refundable. We use it to pay in advance for the tournament to be run. If you do not make it to the tournament you will not be refunded.

Contact

If you have any queries or need clarification please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sebastian Templeton

Registration Officer, Australs 2012 Vice-President (New Zealand), AIDA

registration@australs2012.com