Draw videos online

Hi everyone,

The draw videos are now online! They are available at http://www.youtube.com/wsdc2010#g/p

I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the draw process. In particular, I would like to thank the draw supervisors -- Irene McGrath (Group A, Dundee), Sixto Ramos (Group B, Peru), Jess Price (Group C, Cape Town), Pardip Chopra (Group D, Calgary), Gaurav Keerthi (Group E, Singapore), Taimur Bandey (Group F, Lahore), Effie Giannakouri (Group G, Athens) and Chris Erskine (Group H, Doha) -- as well as Claire Ryan and Dr Hayat Maarafi for their welcome messages. Chris and I have been very happy with the entire draw process, and we are satisfied that all draw participants have followed the requirements of the "draw explanation" document that we circulated last week.

I would also like to thank Joshua Milch for the many hours that he has volunteered for editing and formatting.

We hope that you enjoy the videos!

Simon Quinn
Co-CA, WSDC 2010

The draw is now released

Hi everyone,


Greetings from Education City, Doha -- where, half an hour ago, the draw for WSDC 2010 was completed. The draw is attached as are the draw labels


As you know, the draw explanation, draw structure and pre-tournament ranking were released last week, expressed in terms of team codes. The selection of teams to match those team codes has been done in eight cities around the world, supervised by some of the most senior members of the WSDC community, and done in such a way that none of the people in those cities yet know any of the other draw results.


The draw video clips are currently being formatted and uploaded to YouTube. We will e-mail as soon as the link is available; given the file sizes, we expect this to be some time in the next 24 hours. The clips are great to watch, and we hope you will enjoy them!




Simon Quinn and Chris Erskine
Chief Adjudicators

Annual General Meeting and related documents

All,

The WSDC Ltd. charity's AGM will be held in Qatar at 9am on 16 February 2009, prior to the annual Council meeting. In this regard, please find attached the following:

1. The notice of the Charity AGM doc and the notice of the Council meeting including the agendas.
2. The Directors' report for your consideration (including Annexes A, B and C
3. A call for nominees for the position of Director for 2010-2013

Please note that each nation sending a team to Worlds in Qatar is eligible for membership of WSDC Ltd. The Directors will shortly confirm acceptance of those countries which have applied for membership since Athens and are participating in Qatar.

In the event that your country has corporate membership or has applied for corporate membership of WSDC, the governing documents require that you confirm the name of your authorised representative to the AGM in writing prior to the meeting. Please do this by sending an email message to the Director's nominated chair for the charity's AGM in Qatar, Asher Weill at debasher@netvision.net.il

Best,

Andrea Coomber
Chair, Board of Directors
WSDC Ltd.

Proposed rule changes for WSDC

Greetings everyone.

Here are the proposals for rule changes for voting at the Council meeting at Doha, Qatar on 18 February 2010.

Kind regards,


Claire Ryan
Chairperson
Executive Committee
WSDC Ltd

South Africa bids for WSDC 2012

Greetings everyone.

South Africa is bidding to host WSDC 2012. The bid is the only one received for 2012and will be voted on by the World Schools Debating Council at the Annual General Meeting in Doha.

I have great pleasure in enclosing the bid documents.
1. Intention to bid letter
2. Sponsorship letter
3. The bid document

Members of the South African organising committee will be present at Doha, will be happy to answer any queries and will make a presentation of their bid on the evening of 16 February 2010 before the vote takes place on 18 February 2010.

Kind regards

Claire Ryan
Chairperson
Executive Committee
WSDC Ltd

Important information on the dress code for Qatar

Dear all

Attached is a document outlining the appropriate dress code for the forthcoming World Championships in Qatar. We kindly request that all participants read it carefully and choose their attire for WSDC accordingly.

With thanks

Beth James

On behalf of the WSDC Executive Committee and approved by the organisers of WSDC Qatar 2010.

Blogging and twittering

I'll be blogging again from WSDC this year and tweeting/twittering as well.

See you on this site or @tautoru

All other bloggers and tweeters feel free to join in.

Prepared motions for WSDC 2010 now released

Greetings everyone.

On behalf of Qatar, the host of WSDC 2010, I hereby announce the the motions at WSDC 2010;
(a) for the prepared preliminary debating rounds (4 in total)
(b) for the Grand final.

First, I wish to thank the Motions Committee which has worked very hard in order to bring you the motions earlier than two months prior to the start of the championships.

The Motions Committee members are:
Chris Erskine (chair)
Sherria Ayuandini (Indonesia)
Taimur Bandey (Pakistan)
Russell Courts (Greece)
Jim McElroy (Ireland)
Loucia Isaac (Qatar)
Simon Quinn (Qatar)

And now.....the motions.

PRELIMINARY ROUNDS

(forgive the capital letters; the Motions Committee is not trying to shout, but the convention is to write motions in capitals)

THAT WE SHOULD SUPPORT MILITARY INTERVENTION IN SOMALIA

THAT EVERY COUNTRY SHOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO POSSESS NUCLEAR WEAPONS

THAT DOCTORS SHOULD REPORT EVIDENCE OF MARITAL ABUSE TO THE POLICE

THAT TERRORIST SUSPECTS SHOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL IN CIVILIAN COURTS


GRAND FINAL

THAT GOVERNMENTS SHOULD NEVER BAIL OUT BIG COMPANIES


Until the draw is announced, teams will not know whether they will be proposition or opposition for the 4 prepared preliminary rounds, so they should begin preparing both sides.

The remaining four preliminary rounds will be on motions announced to the teams one hour before the debate begins, as will all the break round debates (the octo finals, quarter finals and semi finals).


REGISTER BY 8 DECEMBER 2009.

Finally, I hope you have already registered for WSDC 2010 and if not, that you do it now. NOW!!! Places are at a premium and I understand that the deadline of 8 December 2009 will need to be enforced.

I understand that the cap is 40 member nations and 10 new nations. However, any extra new nations can fill any places that are not taken up by the 40.
So far an overwhelming number of new nations has registered but an underwhelming number of member nations/returnees.

I hope that people don't leave it too late. It will be sad if a dithering returnee nation leaves it until after 8 December in the fond hope that it won't matter, because it will.

Good luck, please register NOW - and happy preparing.

Kind regards,

Claire Ryan
Chairperson,
Executive Committee,
WSDC ltd