WSDC 1999: London, England PREVIOUS NEWSLETTER 29 July 1998 Dear All, There is nothing urgent required of you in this Newsletter - we are just updating you on our progress in preparing the World Championships to be held in London next February. First of all, a reminder of the essentials:
Tentative Timetable The costs of running any major competition are high and we must keep it as short as possible. To manage this we are only planning on giving you a day for your own sight-seeing (although your travel will be paid for), on the basis that many people will want to arrive early or leave late, or perhaps visit other parts of Britain or Europe. We will start debating very early on in the week but on the other hand will limit it to two debates per day. The timetable is therefore shaping up something like this:
Rule Change You will notice in the timetable that we are planning on holding Octo-Finals. After the discussion via e-mail and post that most of you took part in, a "postal" ballot was held on the introduction of an extra knock-out round, proposed by England and seconded by Singapore. New Zealand disputed the validity of such a ballot as strongly as possible, saying that it was unconstitutional and procedurally unfair. It also said that it would accept such a ballot as a fait accompli if a majority of countries entitled to vote took part, and if no other country objected to the holding of a postal ballot. This being the case, the ballot was conducted and the results were as follows: For Octo-Finals: Australia, Bermuda, Canada, England, Germany, Israel, Scotland, Singapore, USA, Wales Against: None Abstentions: New Zealand Others entitled to vote who have not yet replied include Argentina, Czech Republic and Pakistan. Given that a majority have voted, however, and a clear majority in favour, Octo-Finals will be held in London. To give the World Council a proper chance to discuss them, on the other hand, Australia will be tabling a motion to take them out again - this will therefore give the Council a chance to endorse or dismiss Octo-Finals verbally. It has also been complained that the discussion on introducing them was not fully open in that comments sent to England were not distributed to everyone. We have compiled all comments into a document and will happily e-mail them to anyone who asks. We do warn you that the document is 20 pages long (120K) in case your network will fall asleep! Information To Come The official entry forms, accommodation requests, adjudicator forms and disclaimer forms will be distributed in September. Motions for prepared debates will be released at the end of November. If anyone would be interested in submitting ideas for suitable topics (in strict confidence, of course) for the regular debates, we would be glad to have them. Rules and Adjudicators' Notes are available now on request. Some of you have already asked for them and should receive them shortly. All of this information, the Newsletters, and other developments will be posted soon on the World Championship website, which will be linked to the ESU homepage on http://www.esu.org. Countries Interested Below is the list of countries who are likely to participate so far, together with their contact names. If there are any amendments to be made please let us know! Likewise if there is a blank by your country, please indicate how likely your participation is at this stage.
Travel Both of the last two Championships have suffered from people being unexpectedly asked for visas to travel to the tournament. Not many countries will need visas to enter Britain but we stress that it is your responsibility to find out whether you do! We are happy to write letters of recommendation if that would help you acquire visas or funding in your home country. Videos We will be offering the chance to new countries to purchase videos of debates from recent Championships, in conjunction with the new World Championships Video Library set up by Mishael Zion in Israel. Contact us for details. Another Newsletter will follow with the various entry forms in September. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me or Jonathan Hills at the ESU if you have any queries or problems. See you in February! Trevor Sather
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