Proposal to reform the Worlds Break

Update 1st January 2011.  Given that council voted to expand the break to all teams on 18 points this morning it is fitting that I move this post back up the blog.  I haven't figured out the impact of the decision on how to tab future worlds and won't try until I hear exact details of what was passed at council.

You will also find more information on Andy Hume's Facebook post or in the current edition of the Monash Debating review

Here is an extract from a mail from Mai Mokhsein (UT MARA) National Delegate for Malaysia at Council which he sent to the malaysian_debaters mail list:

This message is purely informational in nature. The Worlds Council 2012 has just passed the constitutional amendment to expand the main break. ALL teams on 18 points will now make the main break, applicable to Worlds 2013 henceforth.

Proposal passed with a slim two-thirds majority with strong opposition from the European, Oceania & IONA region. All Asian nations were unanimously stout in holding their ground for expanding the break after a disproportionately long discussion that carried on from last year. Great turnaround as the initial straw voting indicated that we didn't have the necessary two-thirds majority to make the amendment.

Implementation of the new break policy:
1. The bottom 32 teams will compete in Pre-Octos, while high-ranking teams will get a bye.
2. If an odd number of teams make the main break, the room with the lowest-ranking team will have three teams advancing to the Octos.

Update Jan 2011: this is a post that was first published on 24th November. It concerns the proposal to expand the break which is currently being discussed at council. I have changed the date on it to move it back up to the front page of this blog so people can be more fully informed about the proposal. The first 17 comments date from November.

Shawn Briscoe and Steve Johnson have written a proposal to allow all teams with 18 or more points to break at the WUDC. They plan to submit it to Council in Botswana and have asked that it be posted here to promote some discussion.  If you want to contribute to the discussion you can post here or e-mail Shawn and Steve directly at steve.johnson.alaska@gmail.com or shawn.briscoe@uaa.alaska.edu.

Updates from Council

Via various posts on Twitter here are some updates on events at council. 

Berlin bid defense was passed by council.  Registration fee 400euro. 400 team slots. Registration at end of March.

The report on Botswana Worlds was rejected by council.

There were no firm bids for WUDC 2014. North South Bangladesh & London indicated their interest, but nothing binding.  A decision will be made in March.  Indonesia have been indicating their interest in bidding for 2015.

Council passed motion to adopt the 18 point open break system as proposed by Canada. Worlds will now break every team on 18 points. Partial double Octo-Finals will now decide the top 32.

New Committee:
Steve Johnson: President,
Eoin Kilkenny: Registrar,
Coulter King: Secretary,
Deirdre & Meredith Women's Officers,
Tasneem Equity

Proposal for Council

To World's Council Delegates
As you may have noticed on the agenda for tomorrow's Worlds Council there is a proposal to resurrect my old rankings (based on performance at the last 5 worlds) and officially sanction these as a World Rankings in opposition to my new system. 

I was aware that this was mooted but given that the agenda was only published today I have only got confirmation that this proposal is actually going before council.  Unfortunately I will not be at council.  I have e-mailed Jens and Simone on this issue but I'm not sure that they will get the mail at this late stage. 

Therefore I would like to ask delegates to propose that rather than starting up another World Rankings that instead council holds off officially sanctioning any rankings or starting an alternative for just one year.  That way I will have had time to work any kinks out of the new system.  I realise that there has been some discussion about the new system and I have been working on a version that takes this feedback into account.  There will be much more on this in the coming days & weeks.  Given that I published the old rankings for many years with no support from council (to be fair I didn't ask for any) I would like to think I deserve at least a year to prove that the new system works and is better.  Council worked perfectly well without officially sanctioning a ranking system up to now and another year will make little difference.  If after a year the new system is not accepted and is proven not to work then I will return to the old system and run it for Council.  Multiple world rankings will only confuse things especially for those outside debating who societies may be approaching for sponsorship etc.

So if any delegates are reading this I would ask you to propose and vote that council postpone any decision on rankings for one year.

Thanks
Colm

Agenda to WUDC council 1st January 2012‏

Dear members of council,

Below you will find the agenda for WUDC council tomorrow.
Our apologies for the late time we've sent this email. However, issues kept being added to the agenda which meant it wasn't complete yet. Unfortunately the University network of De La Salle does not allow any attachments to be uploaded to an email, so I am unable to provide you with addendums to this agenda. My sincere apologies.
We'll make sure to print copies of the addenda for the meeting tomorrow.

Kind regards,

Simone van Elk
Secretary WUDC Council Executive 2011

Agenda for WUDC Council on Jan 1st 2012

1. Welcome

2. Roll call (& voting status)                                                                            10 min

3. Ratification of the Botswana reconstructed minutes                                 5 min

4. Report Botswana - presentation                                                                5 min

5. Report Botswana - discussion & decision                                                 20 min

6. Report Manila - presentation                                                                       10 min

7. Report Manila - questions & discussion                                                      20 min

8. Motion 1 - guidelines for a reg system                                                        20 min

- short break -                                                                                                             15 min

9. Motion 1 - vote                                                                                            5 min

10. Bid defense Berlin - presentation                                                             15 min

11. Bid defense Berlin - Questions & Ratification by regional reps                15 min

12. Discussion on Future of Worlds                                                               15 min

Motions: Each issue listed below will be explained in 5 minute time frame and consecutively. We will then adjourn the meeting briefly so everyone can confer and then return to vote on each motion in turn.

13. Motions 1-8 - presentation

Motion 2 - continue historic worlds ranking                                                    5 min

Motion 3 - constitutional change tabbing of teams that are pulled up 5 min

Motion 4 - inscribe responsibilities women’s officer                                       5 min

Motion 5 - can the current host send teams to WUDC?                                 5 min

Motion 6 - WUDC to support organisation of WUSLDC                                   5 min

Motion 7 - adding WUDC rules as addendum to constitution              5 min

Motion 8 - clarification of N-1 rule                                                                   5 min

- lunch -                                                                                                          45 min

14. Motions 1-8 - voting                                                                                  10 min

15. Question regarding eligibility - England NUDC                                           5 min

We expect the topics listed below to take more time to discuss and/or decide on, so we’ve allotted more time.

16. Motion 9 - break reform to allow all teams on 18 points to break    20 min

17. Who should fund persons presenting bid defense and report?   20 min

18. Archives of WUDC                                                                                    10 min

19. Committee reports                                                                                     20 min

President, Registrar, Secretary, Women’s officer, Equity officer, Regional reps.                 

20. Elections                                                                                                    10 min

President, Registrar, Secretary, Women’s officer, Equity officer, Regional reps.

21. End

Addenda:

Report Berlin WUDC 2012

Proposal 18 point break

Motion 2 - continue historic worlds ranking

Motion 7 - adding the WUDC rules as addendum to the constitution

Question regarding eligibility - England NUDC

WUDC Debaters by Country

Dear Delegates to Worlds Council,

Article 22 of the Worlds Constitution specifies that country and regional representatives are responsible for verifying the eligibility of participants  entered to compete in the 2012 World Championships.  This verification concerns only whether the participants registered are legitimately enrolled at their university. 

Please contact Steve Johnson for a list of the the participants entered from your country.  Any concerns about eligibility should be addressed to the Council Executive at the contacts listed below:

Chair: Jens Fischer (jhbfischer@googlemail.com)
Secretary: Simone van Elk (simone.vanelk@gmail.com)
Registrar: Steve Johnson (steve.johnson.alaska@gmail.com)

The relevant provisions of Article 22 are provided below:

Article 22

1. Competitors who satisfy the requirements of this Article may compete in a team eligible to make the finals series a maximum of four Championships. This provision shall take effect from 6th January 1990.
2. During the academic year of the competition, competitors shall represent the institution at which they pursue at least half of their courses toward a particular degree.
3. Competitors shall be recognised by their university debating union or equivalent, or in the absence of such a body by the university administration.
4. Documented evidence of the participants student status should be received by the host nation prior to commencement of the Championships. Registration shall be considered in complete until such evidence is received.
5. Competitors must be enrolled students and must be attending classes or pursuing research in the university which they represent on the last day of term preceding the competition.

We would appreciate your immediate attention to this task so that any concerns may be addressed quickly.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Steve

Steven Johnson, Registrar
World Universities Debating Council

De La Salle Worlds - Take Me to Manila

Preparation for WUDC Council in Manila‏

Dear members of the WUDC Council,

With approximately ten weeks before we all meet in Manila, the purpose of this message is to pave the way for what hopefully will be a concise discussion at both pre-Council and Council, and to re-start the discussion on issues that we were unable to solve at our meetings in Gaborone. Also, it should inform you about recent news from Botswana, Manila and Berlin.

Also, this should serve as a kind request: If you have issues that you would like to discuss in Manila, please let us know well in advance. We obviously cannot (and will not try to) stop you from bringing up new issues at Worlds itself, but experience shows that such issues tend to be under-discussed. So in the spirit of a well-informed debate, please start your engines now.

We plan to send out the detailed agenda by Dec. 1st 2011. Therefore, we would like to request that any input you would like to have included in that invitation, including any policy proposal or maybe just some poetry, should be emailed to Simone (simone.vanelk@gmail.com) by November 25th. 

All the best, we hope for a productive discussion!

Jens Fischer (Chairman)
Steve Johnson (Registrar)
Simone van Elk (Secretary)


Disclaimer:
For reasons of simplicity, this document references other sources that are available on Google docs. We are aware that some countries ban access to gdocs. If you should have trouble viewing any of the links in this document, or the original document itself (in which case you are probably reading the pdf-version that has been distributed - the original can be found here: http://goo.gl/kBWlD), please inform Simone by email to simone.vanelk@gmail.com. She will then get in touch with you, and provide you with pdf versions of the other documents mentioned.


1. The contact list of delegates and others (as we know it)
Below, you find the list that was compiled at the Council in Botswana, and added to by us during the year. Please check it for errors. Also, if you find your own name on the list, but are not your country’s rep anymore, please send an email with the name of your successor and their correct email address to simone.vanelk@gmail.com. We will then update the corresponding google document accordingly (which can be found here: http://goo.gl/hcMDz).

Thank you!

First Name	Last Name	Representing	Status
Jens	Fischer	Chair	1 Committee
Steve	Johnson	Registrar	1 Committee
Simone	van Elk	Secretary 2011-12	1 Committee
Ahyoung	Kim	Council Equity Officer	1 Committee
Sonia	Loudon	Women's Officer	1 Committee
Adam	Goldstein	Americas	2 Regional Rep
Thepparith	Senamngern	Asia	2 Regional Rep
Jens	Fischer	Europe/ME	2 Regional Rep
Victor	Finkel	Oceania	2 Regional Rep
Arlan	Narvaez	Caribbean & Latin America	2 Regional Rep
Steven	Nolan	IONA	2 Regional Rep
Chris	Bisset	Australia	3 Country Rep
Weese	Leonhard	Austria	3 Country Rep
Md. Abir	Hasan	Bangladesh	3 Country Rep
Senwelo	Moupo	Botswana	3 Country Rep
Tumo	Mpatane	Botswana	3 Country Rep
Auyon	Siddiq	Canada	3 Country Rep
Xi	Li (Cecilee)	China	3 Country Rep
Domagoj	Baric	Croatia	3 Country Rep
Tom	Jackson	England	3 Country Rep
Anna	Karolin	Estonia	3 Country Rep
Louisa	Zhang	France	3 Country Rep
Marcus	Ewald	Germany	3 Country Rep
Jasmine	Tam	Hong Kong	3 Country Rep
Shobhit	Singhal	India	3 Country Rep
Invi	Atmanegara	Indonesia	3 Country Rep
Catherine	Murphy	Ireland	3 Country Rep
Hayah	Eichler	Israel	3 Country Rep
Carlton	Lowrie	Jamaica	3 Country Rep
Keita	Takayanagi	Japan	3 Country Rep
Ye eun	Kim	Korea	3 Country Rep
Masechaba	Nkcsi	Lesotho	3 Country Rep
Suthen	Thomas	Malaysia	3 Country Rep
Carl	Pesat	Namibia	3 Country Rep
Anne	Valkering	Netherlands	3 Country Rep
Victor	Baguilat Jr.	Philipphines	3 Country Rep
Ian	Lacey	Qatar	3 Country Rep
Veronika	Nikitina	Russia	3 Country Rep
Robert	Cooklin	Scotland	3 Country Rep
Milan	Vignjevic	Serbia	3 Country Rep
Aji	Abu	Singapore	3 Country Rep
Anna	England Kerr	Slovenia	3 Country Rep
Daniel	Kaliski	South Africa	3 Country Rep
Luang	P	Thailand	3 Country Rep
Suleyman	Onay	Turkey	3 Country Rep
Bongo Patrick	Namisi	Uganda	3 Country Rep
Kate	Falkenstien	USA	3 Country Rep
Alejandro	Garcia	Venezuela	3 Country Rep
Michael	Keary	Wales	3 Country Rep
Innocent B	Ncube	Zimbabwe	3 Country Rep
Colm	Flynn	Emeritus	4 Emeritus
Ray	D'Cruz	Emeritus	4 Emeritus
Ian	Lising	Emeritus	4 Emeritus
Omar	Salahuddin	Emeritus	4 Emeritus
Dino	de Leon	Convenor 2012	5 WUDC 2012
Sam	Block	CA 2012	5 WUDC 2012
Lucinda	David	CA 2012	5 WUDC 2012
Patrick	Ehmann	Convenor 2013	6 WUDC 2013
Douglas	Cochran	CA 2013	6 WUDC 2013
Sharmila	Parmanand	CA 2013	6 WUDC 2013
Joe	Roussos	Secretary 2010-11	7 Others
Duncan	Campbell	Chair 2010-11	7 Others
Logan	Balavijendran	CA 2011	7 Others

2. Our procedural wishes and ideas
It is our strong desire to keep both pre-Council and Council as concise as possible. Therefore, this is what we would like to request from all Council members:

If you wish to bring in a motion on any of the issues under discussion, please do these two things:

- Try to discuss them with other delegates BEFORE we actually go to Manila. The email list above should help you with that, and we will try to channel discussions into forums.

- We will only accept substantive motions or proposals IN WRITING. This make it much easier for the Secretary to record motions accurately and will facilitate discussion of particular questions.

We hope that all discussions will be productive, we still think that in Council itself it’s always hard to be innovative - please take some time to prepare before you attend the sessions. Thank you!


3. Botswana follow-ups
The minutes
Unfortunately, due to a computer failure we do not have the original minutes any more. We have tried to reconstruct what happened in Botswana, you find the reconstruction for download at http://goo.gl/ztEW1.

If you have anything to add or correct, please notify Simone by email to simone.vanelk@gmail.com. Since the minutes need to be ratified in Manila anyways, we will have time to discuss such issues there.

The Convenor and CA report
The Convenor and the CA of Botswana Worlds are in the process of writing up their reports, those will be made available with the full agenda by Dec. 1st.

There will be time in Manila to ask questions about these reports.


4. Preparations for Manila
Confirmation of Delegate Eligibility
Article 22 of the WUDC Constitution outlines eligibility criteria for delegates debating in the World Universities Debating Championships. In particular, the constitution specifies that Regional or Country delegates are to determine questioned eligibility for delegates from their jurisdictions. To facilitate this process, we have asked that the OrgComm provide a list of delegates registered to speak in Manila. We will circulate these lists to the relevant representatives when they are made available to us. We ask that the representatives review these lists to determine if any questions of eligibility exist. Questions about interpreting eligibility guidelines may be directed to the Executive and may also be brought to the attention of Pre-Council.

The Convenor and CA report
The Convenor and the CA of Manila Worlds are in the process of preparing their reports, those will be made available with the full agenda by Dec. 1st.

There will be time in Manila to ask questions about these reports.


5. Preparations for Berlin
The Convenor and CA report
The Convenor and the CA of Berlin Worlds are in the process of preparing their reports, those will be made available with the full agenda by Dec. 1st.

There will be time in Manila to ask questions about these reports.

6. Invitation for Bids for 2014
We so far have not heard of any bid proposals. Please let us know if you are thinking about bidding - we promise not to tell, but it would provide some peace of mind for us.


7. The main issues on the Council agenda
Again, we hope that all these discussions can be concise. We have added a non-binding short text for each of the issues, so you know what this is all about. If you care about any of these things, please start writing about it and discuss it with others.

1. Registration: Should council mandate the registration process? Does the process need reform? And if yes: What kind of policy would be best?

2. Break reform: Should we change the current system of the open break with 32 teams, and ESL/EFL-breaks with up to 16 teams? If yes: What kind of policy would be best?

3. Proposal for an eligibility committee: Should we form a committee that oversees eligibility of competitors before pre-Council? Simone van Elk is writing up a proposal that will be distributed together with the agenda on Dec. 1st.

4. Responsibility of the host: Is the host obliged to fund their adjudication core for the bid defense (a year earlier) and the report to Council (a year later)?

5. Discretion of the host: Is the host allowed to field teams at their own Worlds, if they so choose?