WSDC 2001: Johannesburg, South Africa
Newsletters

Newsletter 1

Hi all!!

I hope everyone has had enough time to recover from the Pittsburgh weather and that all is going well.

This newsletter is to give you the final dates of the Championships and to introduce to you the various people who are available to deal with any queries you might have at this stage.

1) Dates
The dates are now finalised. As was discussed at the World Council meeting, the Championships have been moved a week earlier to allow us to make use of university students from around the country to assist us. Registration will take place on Monday 29 January and participants should plan to depart on the morning of Wednesday 7 February.

A full updated schedule is now available on our web-page www.debating.org.za/2001 It also includes more detail as to the various tours and social events which we have planned.

2) Communication
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to two key people on the Organising Committee.

Firstly, the Chairman of the Committee is STUART THEOBALD. Stuart is one of South Africa's foremost debaters and recently completed Honours in economics at Rhodes University. He has been a key player in almost every aspect of South African debating and a driving force behind the 2001 Championships from the beginning (having written almost the entire bid document!) Stuart's prime responsibilities involve primarily the marketing and financial aspects of the Championships as well as the running of the Organising Committee. Should you wish to e-mail Stuart, please do so at 2001chair@debating.org.za

Secondly, the Admissions Director is BELINDA FYNN. Belinda is an experienced adjudicator and debater who is currently studying Engineering at Wits University. She was an integral part of Organising Committee for the 4th South African National Debating Championships in July last year. Belinda should be your first port of call for any queries regarding entrance requirements, entry fees, accommodation, airport transport etc, etc.... She will co-ordinating the registration and payment of each team prior to the Championships and will be co-ordinating accommodation arrangements once you arrive. She can be reached at 2001entry@debating.org.za

Finally, my role as Convenor and Tournament Director will be to look after the day-to-day running of the Championships. I will be involved in logistics and social events but will spend most of my time concentrating on the debating issues themselves - the draw, the topics, venues etc... If you have any debating-related queries or anything arising from previous Championships you feel I should deal with, please e-mail me at 2001convenor@debating.org.za - and she will make the necessary arrangements.

WSDC Listserve
This is the listserve that was set up by Trevor Sather last year. We will use this as a "discussion forum" to discuss issues like power-pairing and so on with everyone out there. If you have received this e-mail with [WSDC] in the subject line, it means you are signed up to the Listserve

If you would like to add an address to the listserve, send an e-mail to wsdc-request@anadas.com with a blank subject heading and the text: SUBSCRIBE WSDC my@emailaddress

* We would suggest that most people sign up to BOTH the 2001 Mailing List AND the WSDC Listserve as they will be used for very different things

That's its for now - everything else remains as was discussed at the World Council meeting in Pittsburgh with the full newsletter from that meeting available at www.debating.org.za/2001. Please let us know if you need any further information.

Details of the likely dates for registration, payment of entry fees and announcement of topics will follow in the next few weeks.

We look forward to a busy few months and to seeing you in Johannesburg next year!

Regards
Steve

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