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28 August 2009

Some videos from the European Debating Championships

The guys at Achte Minute have posted links to some debates from the recent European Debating Championships.


From Achte Minute
  • EUDC 2009 Newcastle: There are now more videos up. There are now videos of an ESL quarter final, an ESL semi final and the ESL final, as well as more videos of the open semi final with Oxford and Tel Aviv A and the open final. You may find them here. (As we already reported the Debattierclub Stuttgart videos can be found here.)

25 August 2009

Koc Worlds 2010 Extension Clarifications


Following our last post, which extended the team cap of Worlds to 400 with some financial caveats, we received an extremely useful mail from Colm Flynn, a man who has helped run previous Worlds and sat on Worlds Council on innumerable occasions. In this mail, Colm asked for some clarifications about our policies to which our answers really should be in the public domain. We are really keen on running a Worlds that is open and transparent (and one where we get through Council with as little pain as possible). In that spirit, here are some clarifications about our policy to extend the team cap of Worlds from 360 to 400, charging 490 EUR per person for every team from 361-400 on our list.

First of all, we are ready to publish a list of the 360 teams from whom we have accepted registration. This includes all teams that registered successfully in Phase 1 and also paid their pre-payment. We deleted those teams that did not pay their pre-payment or did not contact us in any way to explain why they had not paid. All of these teams have been contacted to say that they have been deleted. A further four places opened up as the country spots held in Phase 1 were not taken up. We have decided to give one of these spots to a team from Venezuela who would be debating at Worlds for the first time as a nation.

The spots opened up by the deletions noted above were given to teams on the waiting list in the order that they appeared on our website. The waiting list stood at 112 in total but we have now invited the 69th team on that list, Yogyakarta State University, which was the 360th team to be included in Worlds. This leaves 53 institutions without a chance of debating at Worlds which is what led us to expand the cap. I hope that this makes the process of who is in the 360 and who is not quite clear.

One important clarification is purely financial and thus more important (or at least painful for us if we get it wrong). It is still eminently possible that teams who we have accepted in the first 360 teams do not pay their money in Phase 3 and are thus deleted from the tournament. If this occurs, we will refund the 100 EUR per person to teams in the order that they appear on the waitlist. For example, Moscow Aviation Institute are currently the 361st team. If one team from the 360 teams currently registered does not pay up, we will refund the extra money paid by Moscow Aviation Institute. This would happen after Phase 3 has ended and we can work out who has paid. Moscow Aviation Institute would then be considered in the 360 and their spot in the 361-400 places would be offered to the next highest team on the waiting list.

Once (and if) we have exhausted the waiting list, we will return to the top of the waiting list and offer spots in the 361-400 places to those institutions that wanted more than one team. This will again be based on order.

Our list of the 360 plus the updated waiting list will be on our website at www.kocworlds2010.com. You may notice one apparent anomaly in that some institutions are in the 360 list and the waiting list. This is because of the country policy and slow-internet policy that took one team from a larger registration. Invitations to join us in the 361-400 places will be sent out over the coming two days. Please follow the instructions in that mail or we will pass over you within five days.

The waiting list will close for good in a week i.e. 30th August 2009. This is your last chance to get on the list. Please contact h.s.arik@kocworlds2010.com if you want to get on. We are still accepting applications for independent adjudicators but it is very unlikely that we have any more spots left - we have already accepted 350 spots for adjudicators. Any such applications should go to c.okar@kocworlds2010.com.

We hope this clarifies matters. We would like to thank Colm for his help - without people like him, Neill, Ian and others, we would often be running blind.

Announcing our independent and additional adjudicator lists

We have received a vast number of applications to adjudicate as independents at the Vehbi Koç World Universities Debating Championships 2010. We have also received requests from some institutions to send more than their allocated n-1 adjudication slots. After careful consideration by the regional Deputy Chief Adjudicators, in conjunction with our Chief Adjudicator, we have identified those adjudicators or adjudicator spots to be handed out across the globe, and have decided to publish this list in the interest of transparency. We have also disbursed over 23,000 EUR to support adjudicators financially and tried to spread this funding in an equitable and open manner to every region of the world. We wish that we could have accepted more applications but there are a finite number of rooms at the hotel and we simply don't need more than 350 judges. As spaces open up, we will try to accommodate more adjudicators who are on our waiting list.

A total of 124 independent and additional adjudicators have been invited to attend Worlds this year. We anticipate that 10% of these invites will be declined and have factored this into our decision. If more adjudicators than that should decline their invitiations, we will invite further applications, and revisit those applications that we have been unable to accept at this time.

If you are an institution unable to meet their n-1 requirement, or have difficulties in affording flights for their adjudicators to Worlds, please do contact us as soon as possible. We are now eager to match you with people in this list (who have not received any of our funding) under a deal whereby you cover their registration fee, but not their flights. Please contact Can Okar with any such requests (c.okar@kocworlds2010.com).

We have published our list of adjudicators and institutions with additional slots at again at www.kocworlds2010.com. We are sure you will agree that this is a stellar list of extraordinarily talented individuals and institutions that have supported Worlds strongly in previous years. A well-adjudicated Worlds awaits.


Europe, the Middle East, and Africa

Alex Ward (England)

Anat Gelber (Israel)

Andrew Fitch (England/Australia)

Anne Valkering (Netherlands)

Assen Kochev (Germany)

Ben Gladnikoff (Israel)

Ciaran Lawlor (Ireland)

Daniel Bradley (England)

Daniel Grotsky (Germany)

Daniel Schut (Netherlands)

Daniel Warents (England)

Derek Lande (Ireland)

Dilay Kurtulus (Turkey)

Dirk Harlacher (Germany)

Eusebius McKaiser (South Africa)

Ewan McDonald (Scotland)

Fred Cowell (England)

Isa Loewe (Germany)

Jens Fischer (Germany)

Jessica Harvey-Smith (England)

Jolene Tan (England)

Julia Mikic (Croatia)

Kirsty Russell (Scotland)

Leela Koenig (Netherlands)

Mark Manson (England)

Mert Onen (Turkey)

Neill Harvey-Smith (England)

Nisan Su Aras (Turkey)

Oisin Collins (Ireland)

Özgen Dündar (Turkey)

Pamela Prendiville (Ireland)

Rhydian Morgan (Wales)

Rosie Unwin (England)

Ross McGuire (Ireland)

Sam Block (England)

Simone Van Elk (Netherlands)

Steve Nolan (Ireland)

Tarit Mukherjee (England)

Tiernan Fitzgibbon (Ireland)

Tim Saunders (Wales)

Tony Murphy (Ireland)

Uve Poom (Estonia)

Willard Foxton (England)

Two institutions applied for additional judges beyond their n-1 allocation. The Oxford Union Society receive six (6) adjudication slots in addition to their n-1 allocation. The Cambridge Union Society receive six (6) adjudication slots in addition to their n-1 allocation.

This means 55 additional EMEA judging slots have been authorised.

North America

Alex Campbell (Canada)

Cormac Early (United States)

Dylan Gadek (United States)

Jason Rogers (Canada)

Jess Prince (Canada)

Michael Baer (United States)

Mikey Kotrly (Canada)

Sabrina Grover (Canada)

A number of institutions applied for additional judges beyond their n-1 allocation although two were too late to be considered. Yale University receive six (6) adjudication slots in addition to their n-1 allocation. Northwest University receive one (1) adjudication slot in addition to their n-1 allocation.

This means 15 additional North American judging slots have been authorised.

Asia

Ah Young (South Korea)

Anupam Dhar (India)

Asif Newaz (Bangladesh)

Bo Zheng (China)

Chris Williams (Australia/Singapore)

David Ling Zhu (China)

Dino De Leon (Philippines)

Effie Wu (China)

Kelvin "Emu" Chong (Singapore)

Leloy Claudio (Philippines)

Logan Balavijendran (Malaysia/South Korea/Botswana 2011)

Loke Wing Fatt (Singapore)

Mabroor Wassey (Bangladesh)

Masako Suzuki (Japan)

Mizanur Rahman (Bangladesh)

Sani Mohd (Malaysia)

Shako Liu (China)

Sharmilla Parmanand (Philippines)

Siddarth Chauhan (India)

Thepparith Senamngern (Thailand)

Varun Varma (Singapore/India)

Vignesh Ashok (Singapore)

Vikram Balasubramanian (Singapore/India)

Wang Xin (China)

This means 24 additional Asian judging slots have been authorised.

Oceania

Alice Heathcoate (Australia)

Anna Garsia (Australia)

Chris Bishop (New Zealand)

Fiona Prowse (Australia)

Gareth Richards (New Zealand)

Julian Ensbey (Australia)

Naomi Oreb (Australia)

Sayeqa Islam (New Zealand)

Monash and Sydney have at least one (1) additional adjudication slot in addition to their n-1 allocation.

A further twenty (20) spots have been allocated to be spread around institutions from Oceania who wish to send more than their allocation of n-1 judges. This will be confirmed between those institutions and the Deputy Chief Adjudicator for Oceania.

This means 30 additional Oceanian judging slots have been authorised.


See you soon,


Fatih Mehmet inal

Co-Convenor of Vehbi Koc Worlds 2010