Looking for a dream job?

From various mailing lists:

As many of you may know, the University of Vermont has a very active debate program. We do policy debate (USA) as well as WUDC debate (regional, national, international).

For the school year beginning in the Fall we may very well be seeking a trainer to work with our WUDC program. We seek contact now with interested candidates.

Such a person should:

• Have a masters degree
• Be able to teach basic public speaking
• Have substantial and demonstrable WUDC format knowledge and success
• Be willing to live from Sept-April in Burlington, Vermont (one of America's most beautiful cities
• Be willing to work with large group of WUDC debaters
• Be willing to travel to regional and international tournaments (all expenses covered)

In return, the position would offer:

• Substantial payment for debate training (1/2 time)
• Substantial payment for teaching two sections of public speaking, two in fall and two in spring (1/2 time)
• Lovely office and administrative support
• Assistance locating affordable housing

We are anxiously seeking an experienced trainer, and realize that this person may well come from outside th USA. Our university will lead the work visa process.

Please contact me for precise details and provide a curriculum vita and a list of references.

Alfred Snider
-- Alfred C. Snider aka Tuna
Edwin Lawrence Professor of Forensics
University of Vermont
Huber House, 475 Main Street, UVM, Burlington, VT 05405 USA
Global Debate Blog http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com
Debate Central http://debate.uvm.edu
World Debate Institute http://debate.uvm.edu/wdi
World Debate Institute Blog http://worlddebateinstitute.blogspot.com

Team Qatar on BBC4

From: Britishdebate

If you are looking for some entertainment/amusement in a couple of weeks time and couldn't make it to the London or New York premieres, "Team Qatar", a documentary film which takes a look at some of the work that Alex Just and I have been doing out in the Middle East over the past 18 months, focusing on the Qatar National team, will be showing on BBC 4 at 10pm on Monday 11th May.

The film (directed by Tribeca returning director Liz Mermin) follows the first Qatari national debating team, one of the elements ofQatarDebate, a national debate and civic engagement organization for Qatar which Alex and I set up in September 2007, through their training in Doha, London and New York, to the World Schools' Debating Championships in Washington DC.

Amongst other things, the film offers a perspective on debating in the Arab World, an insight into the event that is WSDC and coaching a new WSDC team, and an unusual look at the perspectives and views of youth in the MENA region.

The film premiered at the Tribeca festival in New York on Saturday and Robert De Niro & Sheikha Mayassa Al Thani were both at our launch event. If star-power/name-dropping still hasn't convinced you, you can find more details below:
Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJf0YUlEqIITribeca
Film Profile - http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/Team_Qatar.html
Review in 'The National - http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090427/ART/704269982/1082/ART

For more details on QatarDebate, check out http://www.qatardebate.orgor become a fan of 'QatarDebate' on Facebook.

Best wishes,
Andrew

Update from Koc

To the global debating community,

It gives me pleasure to launch officially the website of the Vehbi Koc World Universities Championships 2010 at http://www.kocworlds2010.com/. We have gone through a period of testing which has shown up some issues, such as site registration, which we have now solved. Before I highlight some of the most important aspects of ongoing work, I want to take this opportunity to ask every member of our debating community to go to the website and ensure that you can access the page. Different countries around the world have different access issues and we need to solve this before registration kicks off in June. If you do have problems, can you send a mail to our Registration Officer, Hasan, at h.s.arik@kocworlds2010.com. Now to some important announcements.

Registration
You will notice that the timings of the different phases of registration remain in line with previous rounds of the Championships. One major change, and something we flagged at Council, is the introduction of a compulsory pre-payment at Phase 2 of registration. This is a direct response to challenges faced by Cork last year where demand for places at Phase 1 massively exceeded supply, only for over 100 teams to drop out when payment was demanded. This meant that many teams were only able to purchase flights one month in advance of the tournament, massively increasing their costs. We have decided to follow the model set by Monash for Australs and will expect institutions that register to make a financial promise to us. If they do not, we can pass on their places to others in good time for them to buy flights. We realise after some discussion with debating clubs that some institutions can only pay for tournaments in single installments and so will offer such clubs the opportunity to pay their entire balance in Phase 2 of registration if they so wish.

One further note is that the exact time of Phase 1 of registration on 22nd June 2009 may go back by one hour due to concerns raised from the East Coast of North America that they will need to stay up until 3am in the morning. This will mean that IONA registrations need to be made at 7am but unless we receive significantly negative feedback, we think this is a fair compromise. Worlds is so global that finding a time that is suitable for everyone is nigh on impossible - compromise is all we have! We will let you know in good time if such a change occurs.

Transport
Although Antalya is served by many direct flights from Europe, it is likely that most of you will need to purchase flights that route through Istanbul or Ankara. We would advise that you compare flight prices for Istanbul or Ankara returns with Antalya transfers bought separately with transit flights for both price and suitability. We have a comprehensive list of companies that fly or drive to Antalya on our website so that you can make your plans well in advance.

Budget and Accommodation
Those of you in Council will remember that we had some budgetary problems at the time of our ratification. We are pleased to announce that we have renegotiated with many of our suppliers and that our budget is now in far better shape. We will be staying in the hotel outlined in our original bid delivered at Council in Thailand, 2008. However, as indicated in Council in Ireland, 2009 we will need to charge registration at 390€ per person to cement our budgetary position.

Adjudication
We have set aside funds, as promised in both 2008 and 2009, to offer registration waivers and some flights for independent adjudicators. Our Deputy Chief Adjudicators will be in charge of this process for each of their regions and will be allocated a budget to organise judges from their region. If you are an independent judge, we would ask that you get in touch with your regional DCA. We should note that decisions regarding funding will reside with the DCAs and will be based on assessment of your CVs and suitability to Chair at the tournament. Our aim is to have 120 outstanding chairs through both the n-1 and independent pools so that we have flexibility in judge allocation and regional representation.

For now, that is everything that we would like to announce. We look forward to welcoming you in Turkey this December. We also look forward to an exciting few months of registration.

Warm regards,

Fatih Mehmet Inal and Suleyman Onay
Co-Convenors of the Vehbi Koc Worlds Universities Debating Championships 2010

PIDC 2009 Results

Warmest greetings! Here are the results of the Philippine Inter-Collegiate Debating Championship 2009, the largest and the most prestigious national tournament in the Asians format, held at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, last April 15-20, 2009:

Champion: UPD A

Finalists: UPM A, UPD A

Best Speaker of the Finals: Claire Jiao (UPD A)

Motion for the Finals: This house celebrates the rise of political activism in public universities.

TOP 10 SPEAKERS:
1. Yang Villa (UPD A) tied w/ Claire Jiao (UPD A)
3. Raymund Vittorio (UPD A)
4. Ely Zosa (ADMU A) tied w/Pauline Gairanod (ADMU C) and Carol Tan (UPM A)
7. Anna Arcellana (UPD B) tied w/Lee Edson Yarcia (UPM A), Ces Gotamco (ADMU D), Robert Totanes (UPM A) and Gica Mangahas (ADMU A)

TOP 10 ADJUDICATORS
1. Estelle Osorio (DLSU)
2. Angelo Kalaw (UPD)
3. Joeven Castro (FEU)
4. Bernadette Angangco (ADMU)
5. Marc Batac (UPD)
6. Robin Sebolino (DLSU)
7.Jayson Maulit (SBC)
8. Pam Chan (ADMU)
9. Jeross Aguilar (ADNU)
10. Mikee Sevilla (UPD)

The Philippine Inter-Collegiate Debating Championship 2009 Board of Directors would like to thank all the institutions that participated in the tournament this year.

The John Smith Memorial Mace

The 55th Final of The English-Speaking Union John Smith Memorial Mace took place on Friday evening at The Signet Library, Edinburgh. The motion before the House was 'This House Believes That Development Aid To Africa Does More Harm Than Good'.

The five judges were:

- Alan Merson (Chair)

- Nick Pacheco

- Beth James

- Ciarán Lawlor

- Sam Block

The draw was:

1st Prop - Ireland (Represented by Trinity College Dublin, College Historical Society - Josephine Curry and Shane Farragher)

1st Opp - England (Represented by The Oxford Union Society - Jonathan Leader Maynard and Alex Worsnip)

2nd Prop - Scotland (Represented by St. Andrews University - Tom Cahn and Daniel Berman)

2nd Opp - Wales (Represented by Cardiff University - Matthew Clarke and Craig Sutherland)

The winners were The Oxford Union Society. The Kenneth Harris Memorial Prize for Best Speaker went to Josephine Curry of Trinity College Dublin.

Before the debate, The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, The Rt Hon George Grubb and the Minister for Skills and Schools, Keith Brown MSP, addressed the audience - over 100 people attended the debate.

The John Smith Memorial Mace is generously sponsored by Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based Investment Management firm.

Best wishes,

Rob