Canadian Schools Debating Team 2008
January 26th, 2007
Dear Provincial Debate Coordinators:
On behalf of the CSDF Worlds Selection Committee I am pleased to invite your province or territory to participate in the Team Canada Selection Tournament that will be taking place in Ottawa on April 30th and May 1st, i.e. immediately following the National Student Debating Seminar. Students will need to arrive in Ottawa during the evening of April 29th and book flights home for the morning of May 2nd as we may go quite late on May 1st.
The selection tournament will consist of a seminar in which we introduce students to Worlds Style, three-a-side debating. We will then have at least six rounds of impromptu style debating with an hour’s preparation time before each debate. Every student will have an opportunity to debate in each of the six debate positions. The debates will be judged only by people with considerable Worlds experience. There will be one judge to a room and we will use Worlds style judging forms which we will explain to the students during the briefing. As an innovation this year we are going to have one round of prepared debate. Students will be given the resolution and the position in which they will debate as soon as we receive their registration forms.
All students will also have an interview with a member of the selection committee or our designate. This year we have already reappointed to the team a member of the current team who is still eligible. We will select 8 team members who will be all invited to the Pan American Debate Championship.
We will make the final selection of the World Team during the summer camp that we will probably host in Calgary at the end of July. The members not selected for the World Team will be invited to represent Canada at the European Debate Championship in the last week of November 2007 and will be kept as reserves for the World Team.
Newly selected team members are required to commit themselves in writing to a number of requirements including a code of conduct and making themselves available for a week long camp this coming summer and for the week immediately prior to the tournament. The coach may try to get the team together at other points during the year. In addition, the coach will give the team regular assignments designed to broaden their knowledge and to keep them on top of current issues.
Each province and territory is entitled to send three students who are currently in Grades IX through XI to this tournament. Please note that the dates for the World’s tournament in 2008 are September 7th to 17th. Therefore only those Grade XI students who will not already have started university by September 7th are eligible. (For further details please see my letter of January 18, 2007.) Our only stipulations are that they will be spending the 2007 – 2008 school year in a high school in Canada (or in a first year CEGEP programme in Quebec) and they will have reached their 14th birthday but not their 19th birthday by the first day of the tournament. These limitations are to ensure our compliance with World Schools Debating Council rules. Students do not need to be Canadian citizens.
To register for the selection tournament, students who will also be attending the National Seminar can indicate their intention to participate in the selection tournament in the space provided on the National Seminar Registration Form available on the CSDF website at www.csdf-fcde.ca. For any students who are competing in the selection tournament only, they must complete a set of National Seminar Agreements and Waivers (including the Removal Agreement and Liability Release) in addition to the National Seminar Registration Form, where they should indicate “Team Canada Selection Tournament Only” in the space provided. A separate application form to be completed for the selection committee will also be available on the CSDF website. The fee for the tournament is $100.
Please send the completed package of Agreements and Waivers along with your registration fee by April 6, 2007 to the 2007 Seminar Registrar:
Mary Ryan
34 Mayor Avenue, St. John’s, NL
A1C 4N5
Fax: (709) 737-3121
Your completed National Seminar Registration Form and the Worlds Application Form (Resume) should be e-mailed as soon as possible to seminar@csdf-fcde.ca.
The World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) has an excellent website at www.schoolsdebate.com. I would ask that all participants in the selection tournament go to this site and download the Notes for Adjudicators found in the Rules & Guides section. These notes give a very detailed explanation of Worlds style debating and in particular, the special responsibilities of each member of the team. I would recommend that participants read this document thoroughly and bring it with them to Ottawa as we will be referring to it frequently during the briefing. Students might also read through the section on Definition Guidelines.
Competitors will be met at the airport and will be accommodated at the Capital Hill Hotel & Suites with adult supervision during their stay. Transportation and some meals will also be provided.
In conclusion, we are looking forward to an exciting and stimulating couple of days, and hope that all students will enjoy the tournament and an introduction to a new style of debating. If you or your students have any questions about the team selection procedure, please feel free to email me at jwebster@csdf-fcde.ca. Please also refer to the CSDF Policy regarding the Worlds (in the Constitutional Documents).
Sincerely,
Janet Webster
CSDF Worlds Officer
on behalf of the CSDF World’s Committee
Kris Ade, John Robinson, Stephanie Dick, Jess Prince, Martin Poirier, Harold Kyte
P.S. Please find below the committee’s three-year development plan for the National Team.
National Team Three-year Development Plan
Team 2007
April 2006: Team 2007 selected in Halifax
August 2006: Training Camp in Calgary
October 2006: Team 2007 divided in 3 teams of 3 debaters at the Pan Am in Los Angeles
November 2006: Team B at the European Debate Championship, Stuttgart Germany
July 2007: Team A at Worlds in Seoul, South Korea
Team 2008
April 2007: Team 2008 selected in Ottawa
July 2007: Training Camp, location TBA
October 2007: Team 2007 divided in 3 teams of 3 debaters at the Pan Am, location TBA
November 2007: Team B at the European Debate Championship, Stuttgart Germany
August 2008: Training Camp, location TBA
Sept 7 to 17, 2008: Team A at Worlds in Washington DC
Team 2009
November 2007: Team 2009 selected in Vancouver
August 2008: Training Camp, location TBA
October 2008: 2009 divided in 3 teams of 3 debaters at the Pan Am, location TBA
November 2008: Team B at the European Debate Championship, Stuttgart Germany
Feb or July 2009: Team A at the Worlds, Location TBA.