Author: Mark Gabriel

3 nations bid to host WSDC in 2018

Three nations have submitted bids to host the World Schools Debating Championships in 2018. Links to their bid documents can be found below.

Bid to host WSDC 2018 in Zagreb, Croatia
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9L7sGPsbfwGNkxRZ0JoVXRLM2c/view?usp=sharing

Bid to host WSDC 2018 in Daejeon, Korea
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9L7sGPsbfwGNWExX3VMZDhLbWs/view?usp=sharing

Bid to host WSDC 2018 in Owerri, Nigeria
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9L7sGPsbfwGNXdRZ0t4eFVQV2c/view?usp=sharing

The decision as to where the 2018 World Schools Debating Championships will be held will be made by the WSDC Tournament Committee during this year’s WSDC in Stuttgart. One voting delegate from each nation participating in this year’s WSDC will be entitled to vote when the Tournament Committee meets in Stuttgart.

 

Draw for WSDC 2015

The draw for the preliminary rounds of the 2015 World Schools Debating Championships in Singapore has been completed by the Chief Adjudicators.

There are 53 participating nations. Since this is an odd number, only 52 teams will debate in each of the 8 rounds. 8 teams (drawn at random) will not debate in one of the rounds will make up for this by debating in the Bye-Round (or ‘Round Zero’). The Bye-Round will be held on Saturday 1st August (in between Round Six on the Friday and Round Seven on the Sunday).

A big thank you to the Chief Adjudicators and Paul Lau for their work on developing the draw for this year’s WSDC.

Best of luck to all the teams with their preparations for the WSDC 2015 debates!

Regards,

Mark Gabriel
Convenor
World Schools Debating Championships 2015, Singapore

Photo: by Mac Qin / License

Draw system & seedings for WSDC 2015

The Chief Adjudicators, with the assistance of Paul Lau, have been working out the system which will be used for determining the draw for the preliminary rounds at WSDC 2015.

The attached documents contain:

  • The team rankings which will be used for seeding the draw for 2015 (based on the performance of each nation’s team in the preliminary rounds over the previous 3 years)
  • The draw grid for how each team will be paired up against other teams over the preliminary rounds after the draw is conducted
  • A detailed explanation of how the draw system for 2015 has been created written by Paul Lau

Before the draw is conducted and finalised, we would like to ask all nations to have a look at the attached documents and let us know if you think there is anything in any of the documents which needs to be corrected.

If you have any feedback on the attached documents, please send your feedback to:

The WSDC Rules require the draw to be released at least 2 weeks before preliminary round 1 (i.e. by 14th July). However if it is possible for the draw to be finalised sooner than that, we may release the draw slightly earlier 14th July.

Regards,

Mark Gabriel 
Convenor
World Schools Debating Championships 2015, Singapore

Downloads

Grand Final motion for WSDC 2015

The Motions Committee for the 2015 World Schools Debating Championships in Singapore has now informed the organising committee that the motion for the Grand Final of this year’s championship. It is:

This House Believes that governments should provide a guaranteed Universal Basic Income

The motions for preliminary rounds 1, 2, 3 and, which are prepared rounds, were released earlier this week.

All other rounds (preliminary rounds 4, 6, 7 and 8, the octo-finals, quarter-finals and semi-finals) will be impromptu rounds for which the motion will be released only 1 hour before each debate begins.

Regards,

Mark Gabriel
Convenor
World Schools Debating Championships 2015, Singapore

Prepared motions for WSDC 2015

The Motions Committee for the 2015 World Schools Debating Championships in Singapore has informed the organising committee that the motions for the 4 prepared preliminary rounds of this year’s championships will be as follows:

  • Preliminary Round 1: This House would ban the use of zero-hour contracts 
  • Preliminary Round 2: This House would require defendants in criminal trials to be represented exclusively by public defenders 
  • Preliminary Round 3: This House supports academic tracking in primary and secondary education
  • Preliminary Round 5: This House believes that cities with significant immigrant populations should actively break up ethnic enclaves

The motion for the Grand Final will be announced within the next few days.

All other rounds (preliminary rounds 4, 6, 7 and 8, the octo-finals, quarter-finals and semi-finals) will be impromptu rounds for which the motion will be released only 1 hour before each debate begins.

The Motions Committee for the 2015 World Schools Debating Championships consists of the following individuals –

  • Members elected by the WSDC Tournament Committee:  Charlie Morris (England – Chairman), Branislav Fečko-Čegiň (Slovakia – Vice-Chairman), Hayah Eichler (Israel), Daniel de Kadt (South Africa) & Cindi Timmons (United States)
  • Members appointed by the host organising committee in Singapore:  Vernie Oliveiro (Singapore) & Samuel Myat San (Singapore)
  • Advisers appointed by the Tournament Committee Executive:  Joshua Park (Korea) & Claire Ryan (New Zealand)

Best of luck to all teams with their preparations for the preliminary round prepared motions!

Regards,

Mark Gabriel Convenor, WSDC 2015, Singapore

53 countries register for WSDC 2015 in Singapore

Registration of teams for the 2015 World Schools Debating Championships in Singapore officially closed on 11th February.

At the official close of registrations, 53 nations had registered a team: Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States, Wales and Zimbabwe.

In addition to this, the organising committee has given China permission to submit their registration later this week (their Team Manager is travelling without Internet access until tomorrow).

2 other nations have been in e-mail contact with the organising committee about registering but have yet to formally submit their registrations – Jamaica and Switzerland. The organising committee is currently communicating with these nations to determine their participation status.

Of the nations which competed in the 2014 championship in Thailand, only Chile has not submitted a registration for WSDC 2015. If anyone from Chile would like to register a team for the 2015 competition, they should contact the organising committee urgently at [email protected].

If any other nation not noted above also wants to register, they should also e-mail the organising committee in Singapore urgently.

In a small number of cases there have been 2 different organisations from a nation who have both registered a team. As the WSDC Rules allow only 1 competing team per nation, the WSDC Tournament Committee Executive is currently dealing with these situations and will make a decision as to which organisation from the nation will be permitted to enter a team in WSDC 2015. (The relevant organisations in the nations concerned have already been informed of this.)

Invoices for the 50% deposit registration fee payment will be sent out to registered nations at the beginning of March.

Regards,

Mark Gabriel
Co-Convenor
World Schools Debating Championships 2015, Singapore

Website: www.wsdc2015.org

Results of Motions Committee 2015 election

The postal ballot to choose the 5 elected members of the Motions Committee for the 2015 World Schools Debating Championships has now closed.

The WSDC Tournament Committee delegates of 31 nations cast their votes in the ballot. These nations were:  Argentina, Bangladesh, Barbados, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Kuwait, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United States and Wales.

Each nation was able to vote for a maximum of 5 candidates (though some nations chose to cast fewer than 5 votes). The votes for the 6 candidates were as follows:

  • Charlie Morris (England)  –  27 votes
  • Branislav Fečko-Čegiň (Slovakia)  –  25 votes
  • Hayah Eichler (Israel)  –  24 votes
  • Daniel de Kadt (South Africa)  –  22 votes
  • Cindi Timmons (United States)  –  19 votes
  • Zaynab Al Nasser (Kuwait)  –  16 votes

Therefore CHARLIE MORRIS, BRANISLAV FEČKO-ČEGIŇ, HAYAH EICHLER, DANIEL DE KADT and CINDI TIMMONS have been elected to serve on the Motions Committee for WSDC 2015. They will be joined on the committee by 2 members appointed by the host organising committee – VERNIE OLIVEIRO and SAMUEL MYAT SAN (both of whom are from Singapore).

Under the WSDC Rules, the Motions Committee will also have 2 further “Advisers” who will be selected by the Tournament Committee Executive at a later date. When the Motions Committee has chosen its provisional lists of motions for the prepared rounds and the impromptu rounds, they will share each of these lists with the Advisers. The Advisers will either approve the list or suggest that the wording or topic areas of certain motions should be reconsidered. If the Advisers recommend that any motions should be reconsidered, they will the take part in the Motions Committee’s remaining discussions as non-voting members.

The WSDC Rules require the Motions Committee to give the host the selected motions for the prepared rounds (4 of the preliminary rounds plus the Grand Final) 8 weeks before the first day of debates at the championships. The organising committee in Singapore will circulate the prepared motions to teams shortly after receiving them from Motions Committee.

Thank you very much to all the delegates who voted in the ballot and congratulations to the successful candidates. We look forward to some great debate motions at WSDC 2015.

Regards,

Mark Gabriel
Returning Officer

Registration opens for Singapore 2015

Mark Gabriel, Co-Convenor, writes:

Stage 1 of registration for the 2015 World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) in Singapore opens today (21st January) and will run through to 11th February. This is the initial phase of the registration process in which each nation which wants to send a team to the championship is be able register their team and delegation online.

The attached PDF document contains a guide to this phase of registration. The guide document explains the process and contains links to the online registration forms. Please read through the guide carefully before your nation begins registration of your team and delegation.

If, for any reason, your nation has difficulty opening the guide document or accessing the online registration forms, please e-mail [email protected] to let us know. We look forward to receiving the registrations of each nation which wishes to send a team to WSDC 2015 between now and 11th February.

If you have any questions about any aspect of the registration process, please e-mail the WSDC 2015 organising committee at [email protected].

Regards,

Mark Gabriel
Co-Convenor
WSDC 2015, Singapore

Motions Committee for 2015

A postal ballot to select the 5 elected members of the Motions
Committee for the 2015 World Schools Debating Championships opens
today and will close in 3 weeks’ time on 26th January.

There are 6 candidates for 5 elected positions on the Motions
Committee. The candidates are:

– Charlie Morris (England)
– Hayah Eichler (Israel)
– Zaynab Al Nasser (Kuwait)
– Branislav Fečko-Čegiň (Slovakia)
– Daniel de Kadt (South Africa)
– Cindi Timmons (United States)

(One further candidate – Crash Wigley from Wales – was also nominated
but has now withdrawn from the election.)

Information about each of the candidates can be found in the document
attached to this e-mail. The information in the attached document
includes the candidates’ personal statements and their responses to
the Exec’s request for them to submit 3 sample motions they have set
during the past 3 years.

VOTING PROCEDURE

Under the WSDC Rules, a nation is allowed to vote in a postal ballot
if the nation has participated in at least 2 of the past 3 WSDC
tournaments. Each nation may cast one ballot, and the ballot must be
submitted by the nation’s official delegate to the WSDC Tournament
Committee.

According to information given to me by the Tournament Committee
Executive, the nations which are eligible to vote in this postal
ballot and their official voting delegates are as follows:

1. ARGENTINA – Nicolas Gimenez
2. AUSTRALIA – Christopher Bisset
3. BANGLADESH – Rishad Sharif
4. BARBADOS – Carl Applewhaite
5. BERMUDA – Marisa Sharpe
6. CANADA – Tracey Lee
7. CHILE – Ana Tomassini
8. CHINA – Loke Wing Fatt
9. CZECH REPUBLIC – Matěj Pilát
10. DENMARK – Charlotte Ib
11. ENGLAND – Janine Ryan
12. ESTONIA – Kaspar Kelder
13. GERMANY – Christopher Sanchez
14. GREECE – Kallina Basli
15. HONG KONG – Emmanuel Reed
16. INDIA – Krishna Kumar Santhanagopalan
17. INDONESIA – Rachmat Nurcahyo
18. IRELAND – Ross McGuire
19. ISRAEL – Yoni Cohen-Idov
20. JAPAN – Masako Takahashi
21. KOREA – Roger Hatridge
22. KUWAIT – Abigail Bartholomew
23. LITHUANIA – Rokas Atkociunas
24. MALAYSIA – Iqbal Bazari
25. MEXICO – Mark Webber
26. MONGOLIA – delegate to be confirmed
27. NETHERLANDS – Menno Schellekens
28. NEW ZEALAND – Udayan Mukherjee
29. NIGERIA – Dare Oritu
30. PAKISTAN – Aisha Ahmad
31. PERU – Cristina Loayza
32. PHILIPPINES – Kip Oebanda
33. QATAR – Maja Cimerman
34. ROMANIA – Simona Mazilu
35. SCOTLAND – Irene McGrath
36. SINGAPORE – Mark Gabriel
37. SLOVAKIA – Andrej Schulcz
38. SLOVENIA – Bojana Skrt
39. SOUTH AFRICA – Luke Churchyard
40. SRI LANKA – Sanjit Dias
41. SWAZILAND – Mlungisi Dlamini
42. SWEDEN – Wissam Chalabi
43. THAILAND – Bird Joz
44. TURKEY – Miha Andric
45. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Grant Smith
46. UNITED STATES – Jeffrey Wunn
47. WALES – Martin Pollard

This list of voting delegates may not be fully up to date. If your
nation wishes to change your voting delegate for this postal ballot,
please e-mail me at [email protected] BEFORE your nation casts its
ballot to let me know of the new voting delegate. (Please also cc any
e-mails about changes in voting delegates to the Chair of the
Tournament Committee Executive, Beth James, at [email protected].)

Your nation’s voting delegate can cast their ballot online.

If your nation’s delegate has any problems accessing or casting their
votes at this webpage, please e-mail me at [email protected].

There are 6 candidates running for 5 elected positions on the Motions
Committee. Each nation’s delegate may vote for a MAXIMUM OF 5
CANDIDATES. (Voting for fewer than 5 candidates is permitted.)

The 5 elected candidates will work with the 2 appointed members of the
committee from Singapore (Vernie Oliveiro and Samuel Myat San) to
select the motions which will be debated at WSDC 2015.

If your nation wishes to vote in this election, please ensure that
your voting delegate casts their ballot by 26th January.

If you have any questions about the ballot, please e-mail me at
[email protected].

Regards,

Mark Gabriel
Returning Officer

Motions Committee 2015 candidates [PDF]