DLSU Worlds Online Registration‏

Dear World Debate Community:
It is my honour to inform all of you that the De La Salle Worlds 1st Phase of registration shall open on April 1, 2011 (Friday) at 10AM PST (+8GMT). Registration will be done online in http://www.dlsuworlds.com/. For Information about how it will work, kindly visit the Registration FAQ at http://www.dlsuworlds.com/faqs.html#registration. I advise all teams to read the registration FAQ before the actual start of the First Phase of Registration to make sure that everyone understands how the registration system will work.

Important note from Colm: Time zones mean some teams will be registering on the night of Thursday March 31st their time.  Do not just read 1st April and leave it at that.  To check out the time in your local area visit http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/



The First Phase of registration is described below:

What is the First Phase of Registration?
This stage requires each institution to disclose the number of teams and adjudicators that they will be sending. Contact details will also be required. Registration is on a first come, first served basis.

How do I register?
Online Registration will take place on April 1, 2011 on http://www.dlsuworlds.com/.

How will I know what to do during Online Registration?
There are some screenshots of the registration process which can be viewed at http://www.dlsuworlds.com/faqs.html#onlineregistration

What time does registration open?
Registration opens at 10am Philippine Standard Time.

What is the time in the Philippines relative to the time where I am?
As a reference, the Philippines is eight (8) hours ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time, meaning, the Philippines is GMT +8.

How do I know if my institution was successfully able to register to WUDC 2012?
The Registration team and the Organizing Committee will release an official list of institutions that were successfully able to register for WUDC 2012.

What happens if I am unable to secure a slot in the first 300 teams of WUDC 2012?
Teams that register past the 300 mark will automatically be put on the wait-list. But, wait! Don't fret! As you very well know, WUDC 2012 promises to host 400 teams. The remaining 100 teams will be set aside for special circumstances, as promised in the bid. The last 100 teams will be awarded to institutions/teams with the following prioritization:

1. Countries that are not represented in the first 300 slots;
2. Institutions that are not represented in the first 300 slots;
3. Consistency of participation in previous WUDCs; and,
4. Top of the wait list.

Should you have questions, please feel free to contact the Registration Head, Crystal Francisco, at crystal.francisco@dlsuworlds.com.

Thank you and we are excited to see you all here in Manila!

Cheers,
Dino de Leon
Convenor, De La Salle Worlds
Claretiano. Lasalliano. Filipino.
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

IDEA Debate Live-Streaming

As part of a continuing effort to bring debate to as wide of an audience as possible, the media team at IDEA will be live-streaming three debate tournaments this April in the United States.

Each of these tournaments will be streamed in real time, and the video archives will be available for subsequent viewing. Our Twitter feeds will include live updates as the events unravel. All of this is free of charge, so we hope you enjoy the opportunity to watch high-quality debates without having to travel!

As for the schedule...

*United States Universities Debate Championship 2011*
Burlington, Vermont
April 1st - 3rd
http://www.idebate.org/streaming/usu2011/

*HWS / IDEA Round Robin*
Geneva, New York
April 8th - 9th
http://www.idebate.org/streaming/hwsrr2011/

*Campeonato Norte Americano de Debate (debates in Spanish)*
Ithaca, New York
April 7th - 10th
http://www.idebate.org/streaming/cnad2011/

We will email more updates as they become necessary.

Thanks,

Alex Dukalskis
Executive Director
International Debate Education Association (IDEA), United States
http://www.idebate.org/
http://idebate.blogspot.com/

Israeli Open Championship Results

The Israeli Open Championship (in Hebrew) was held this weekend at the University of Haifa.


Winners: Naty Peral and Rannen Nicola (i, Robot).

Best Speaker: Maya Bousri (IDC A)

Finalists:
OG: Rannen Nicola & Naty Peral (i, Robot)
OO: Itsik Zarfati & Maya Bousri (IDC A)
CG: Mila Finkelshtain & Meir Yarom (Great Expectations)
CO: Omer Nevo & Sella Nevo (Proofs from THE BOOK)

Final panelists were: Michael Shapira (CA) Anat Gelber, Yoni Cohen Idov, Uri Feldman (DCA), Yael Betzalel (DCA), Lior Hadas and Anat Zaidenberg.

Motions
1) This Knesset will cap rent in city centres.
2) This Knesset will allow familes with many children to sell babies to those who can no longer have children.
3) This Knesset will hold Israeli debating events on the Sabbath.
Semi: This Knesset will move the entire Isreali education system from Hebrew to English.
Final: This Knesset will forbid Israeli citizens from raising children in areas beyond the seperation fence.

BP debate job in Colorado

Colorado Christian University in Denver, Colorado is starting a British Parliamentary (BP) or Worlds Debate Team, and seeks a part-time Assistant Debate Coach to help coach the team and administrate the program from August 2011 through April 2012. The job description is attached. Depending on academic qualifications and teaching experience, the Assistant Coach may also be able to teach courses in public speaking, persuasion, argumentation, and debate for additional compensation (and under a separate contract).

This is a GREAT position for a former debater in between full-time commitments seeking to stay involved in the debate world and bolstering one’s income in a flexible, part-time position.

Please circulate widely and contact me for any further information.

Ryan T. Hartwig, PhD
Assistant Professor of Communication/Director of Debate
Colorado Christian University
rthartwig (at) ccu.edu

Overview:
The Department of Communication Studies at Colorado Christian University in Denver, Colorado invites applications for a part-time Assistant Debate Coach to help coach CCU’s new British Parliamentary (BP) or Worlds Debate Team. The part-time 9-month staff position runs from August 2011 through April 2012, and is eligible for possible annual renewal dependent on funding and satisfactory performance.

Responsibilities and Duties:
Primary responsibilities of the position are to assist the Director of Debate (and Head Coach of Debate Team) with all aspects of directing, leading, and managing CCU’s debate program, include training and coaching debaters, program administration, travel to local, national, and international tournaments, and participation in campus and community outreach. Weekly duties during the academic year include 10-12 hours per week participating and helping to lead debate team practices held up to twice a week, meeting individually with debate teams for coaching and mentoring, meeting with the Director of Debate, and assisting with the general administration of the debate program. The team will travel to approximately 6-8 out-of-state tournaments during the academic year, and participate (either as participants or judges) at another 5-7 local tournaments. The Assistant Debate Coach would be expected to attend all of those events with the team.

Depending on academic qualifications and teaching experience, the Assistant Coach may also be able to teach courses in public speaking, persuasion, argumentation, and debate for additional compensation (and under a separate contract).

Qualifications:
Minimum qualifications are a Bachelors Degree in a relevant field and demonstrated proficiency; expertise as a collegiate debater or as a debate teacher/coach at the high school or college level; and a familiarity with and ability to effectively coach British Parliamentary (Worlds) Debate.

Additional desirable qualifications include demonstrated effectiveness in coaching/directing a debate program, advanced graduate coursework in Communication Studies, and the ability to teach other courses in rhetoric, argumentation, and public speaking.

In addition, CCU’s debate team will debut in Fall 2011. Thus, the Assistant Debate Coach must take initiative, be a self-starter, possess an entrepreneurial spirit, and desire to build a nationally-recognized debate program.

Applications and More Information:
We will begin reviewing applications on April 1 and continue until the position is filled. Applicants should complete the Assistant Debate Coach application found on the following link: https://careers.ccu.edu/detail.asp?ccu463

For more information, please contact:

Ryan T. Hartwig, PhD
Assistant Professor of Communication / Director of Debate
Colorado Christian University
8787 West Alameda Ave.

Lakewood, CO 80226 303.963.3479 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 303.963.3479 end_of_the_skype_highlighting – rthartwig@ccu.edu

Eliminated debaters making the judge break?

Steve at Progymnasmata has an interesting article based on a mail from Paul Gross of the University of Vermont.  The proposal is to allow eliminated debaters to be considered for the judge break. You can read the full article here but in the meantime here is a comment I have posted to the article:



I can see the benefit on paper of doing this. I was DCA at a tournament where a former world champion was debating with a fresher and just missed the break. They would have been a great addition to the judging pool but we could not use them. However that said you would generally expect that the best debaters would be in the elimination rounds. Therefore if it is a small tournament (say 20 teams) you will find that half of the speakers will have made the break and the speakers you are left with may not add quality to the judging pool.



Tournaments which are large enough to attract a depth of quality teams that means many potentially good judges will miss the debating break are also tournaments that attract a good depth of quality judges. You need to make sure that breaking as a judge does not become a consolation prize for the 3-4 teams just outside the break. If this happens it reduces the incentive for people to come and judge the whole tournament. Why would you slog through 6-7 preliminary rounds as a judge only to be told we don’t want you in the break because debaters who failed to make the break are still regarded as better judges.


Also for many people adjudication is as competitive as debating. Having been CA or DCA at a number of large tournaments I can tell you the couple hours after the break are a rollercoaster of reactions. You will get some judges coming to you and thanking you for giving them a chance. However you will also get many judges who are angry and extremely disappointed at missing the break. Some take it to extremes and if they were judging a bubble final preliminary round you could not be certain that the judge break will not be a factor in their decision. If they have estimated that they are just hanging onto one of the last slots in the judge break would you trust them to eliminate a team that will probably then push them out of the judge break?


The proposal has some merit but I think it should be a potential option rather than a default option. Add the potential to call up an eliminated debater into the judge break to the arsenal of the adjudication team BUT it should be an exceptional event. If it becomes a regular event then I fear it will have an adverse impact.

Ohio holds it's first World's style tournament

The first Ohio Wesleyan tournament was held this weekend and was won by Vermont. This is the first Worlds style debate held in Ohio which has traditionally been dominated by the "Lincon Douglas" or "Policy" format and shows the increasing success of the parliamentary debating format. Michigan Flint were runner's up.


Final
OG: Grove City HP
OO: Michigan Flint FW
CG: Vermont GL
CO: Grove City DW

Motions:
Final: This House would put boots on the ground for regime change in Libya
Semi: This House would end our dependence on robots before it's too late. Room1
Rd6 This House would ban home schooling. Would this motion make sense in Europe? Just curious.
Rd5 This House believes that recent regime changes in Tunisia and Egypt will cause more harm than good.
Rd4 This House believes that China should end its one-child policy.
Rd2 This House believes that now is the time to abandon nuclear power.

For more info visit http://progymna.blogspot.com/

USU judge briefing.

The United States University Championships have posted a judge test for judges attending the upcoming championships.  The briefing is a copy of the briefing for Botswana Worlds but I'm sure there are lots of people may not have seen it so it is worth a look.  I have deleted the segment about the test itself because I'm sure they don't want lots of people filling in the test who do not intend to go to the championships.

Like major international tournaments such as worlds, we will be requiring all of our judges to take a judge test before round one. The test involves watching a debate as an online video and then rendering a decision as well as answering some questions about the format.


We urge all judges to review the judge briefing materials (we are glad to be using the excellent judge briefing document used for Botswana worlds, by permission) BEFORE they take the test. The judge briefing can be found at: http://debate.uvm.edu/dcpdf/BW2011JudgeBriefing.pdf


After that, judges should go to the JUDGE TEST at the USU 2011 website and watch the debate. http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/usu2011/Judge_Test.html


We will then use this data in judge assignment at the tournament, and will supplement it with feedback gathered from debaters and judges during the tournament.


If you are the contact person for your institution you need to inform all of your judges of this requirement and make sure that they complete the judge test. It is your responsibility to do this. If your judges fail to take the online test they may not cover your commitment at the tournament and you WILL BE CHARGED A HIRED JUDGE FEE at registration to cover your teams.


Many of the best debaters in America and the world will be at the tournament. They deserve competent judging and this is our attempt to make sure they get it. We appreciate your cooperation.