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8 November 2011

2012 Hart House North American Debating Championship Invitation


On behalf of the Hart House Debates Committee, it is our pleasure to formally invite you to the 2012 North American Debate Championships, taking place on January 27-January 29, 2012 at the University of Toronto.

Debating

We will have 6 rounds of preliminary debate (2 on Friday, 4 on Saturday), according to the CUSID/APDA MoU. We will break to octofinals, but this is contingent on our tournament reaching its cap. Our initial team cap will be 80 teams. As per the CUSID-APDA MoU, all members in good standing are eligible to send two teams to the tournament. If there are sufficient numbers, there will be a novice final.

Awards will be given to the top 8 teams, top 10 speakers, top novice team, and top novice speaker.

Adjudication

Richard Lizius has agreed to served as the CA for Hart House Norams. In addition as serving as North American DCA for 2010-2011 Botswana Worlds, Richard’s accomplishments include: KoƧ WUDC 2nd speaker and quarter-finalist, Cork WUDC 9th speaker and octo-finalist, North American Top Speaker, 2 time CUSID national champion and top speaker, and 2009 Yale IV champion and top speaker. Richard has an extensive knowledge of both the Canadian and American judging pools, and has served as CA for the Hart House IV three times.

Steven Penner will serve as Assistant Chief Adjudicator. Steve is a CUSID British Parliamentary National Champion, a two-time winner of the Seagram Invitational, HWS/IDEA Round Robin Finalist, and has broken at numerous CUSID tournaments. He has served as Chief-Adjudicator of the Hart House IV.

APDA will appoint a DCA shortly.

We intend on securing funding to subsidize as many qualified American and out-of-region adjudicators as possible. However, Hart House’s own legendary internal and Alumni judging pool will, on its own, provide international quality judging panels in every room. Toronto is home to multiple World, National, and North American debating champions, and a staggering number who have broken as judges or adjudicators at previous Worlds and North Ams.

We have a strong enough internal judging pool that we will not be imposing a significant n-judging requirement. The judging requirement will be n/3, rounded down.

Food and Socials

Debaters and judges will be provided with a dinner on Friday evening and breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday. Our traditional formal banquet will be happening on Saturday evening. If you require special dietary requirements (veggie, vegan, halal, kosher, allergies), we can make arrangements for you if we are notified by the Stage II registration deadline, December 15.

There will be socials on both Friday and Saturday night, as well as an informal social for those arriving on Thursday.

Accommodation

We will be negotiating three hotel deals and these will be finalized very soon. Details to follow.

For those who wish to billet, billeting is allotted on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Registration

Registration is $160 per team, and $80 per adjudicator, all prices in Canadian dollars.

Stage I of Registration begins on November 15 at 10am EST and will take place through < http://www.harthouse.ca/student-engagement/nadc_registration>

PLEASE NOTE: We will not consider registration attempts before the above time.

You'll receive a confirmation email within 48 hours of registering. If you don't, please contact us.

Full payment will be due by December 15. Credit card is our preferred form of payment, and due to policy constraints, is unfortunately the only form of payment that we can accept from American participants. Details of stage II registration will follow shortly.

Hope to see lots of you there!

Sam Greene & Jake Brockman,
Tournament Directors, NorAms 2012
jakelbrockman@gmail.com
sam.greene@utoronto.ca

7 November 2011

Hong Kong Debate Open 2011

The 2nd Hong Kong Debate Open 2011 was held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, from 28th to 30th October 2011.  A total of 64 teams from 12 Asian countries competed in this BP debate tournament.  In the Grand Final, HKU Team C, comprising Kevin Lau and Amanda Slocum, defeated HKU A, HKU B and Hogwarts A to emerge Champions.  The Best Speaker of the Grand Final was Amanda Slocum of HKU C, and the Best Speaker of the Tournament was Benjamin So of HKU A.  

The motion for the Grand Final was: "This house regrets the policy of assassinating terrorist leaders instead of bringing them to trials"

The Adj Core of Loke Wing Fatt, Sharmila Pramanand, Zheng Bo, TJ, Nicole Ng and Doriane Lau worked seamlessly with the very cooperative, efficient and patient Org Com members, comprising Helen Ng, George Chen, Kenneth Cheung, Samuel Chan, Angie, and Vinca Yau, to once again celebrate the growth of Hong Kong as an international debating hub in Asia.

The full results and motions of the events are below:

FULL RESULTS
Champions:
HKU C: Kevin Lau and Amanda Slocum

Grand-Finalists:
HKU A: Benjamin So and Sue Chen
HKU B: Fiona Chong and Jocelyn Heng
Hogwarts A: Liu I Wei and Nuanpan Ketumarn

Semi-Finalists:
Eureka: Chanel Chan and Gao Tian
P&S: Yang Fanhao and Feng Siyu
SouthPark Elementary: Tidarat Yingcharoen and Yuttana Saisangkagomon
Tiff & Pavan: Tiffany Chung and Pavan Hegde

MOTIONS:

Prelim Rounds

  1. This house would ban the participation of children in clinical drugs trials
  2. This house would abolish the minimum wage
  3. This house would ban religious organizations from establishing schools
  4. This house support the Occupy Wall Street Movement
  5. This houses would ban all approaches that seek to cure homosexuality
  6. This house believes that U.S.A should not veto the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations

Pre-Quarters

This house supports the use of drones (remotely operated unmanned armed attack vehicles)

Quarters

This house believes that companies should be held liable in their home countries for environmental damage in other countries

Semi Finals

This house would ban agencies that broker international marriages

Grand Final

This house regrets the policy of assassinating terrorist leaders instead of bringing them to trials

cheers,
Loke Wing Fatt
Co-CA, 2nd Hong Kong Debate Open 2011