SGM and Debsoc this Thursday:
This week we'll be meeting in Stone lecture theatre (at the Law School) at 6pm. We'll start with the SGM, which will finish shortly before 7pm. We'll have general debates from 7pm as usual, so anyone wishing to participate should arrive and sign up before 6:40pm.
Thropy Recap:
This weekend our largest ever contingent of debaters headed down to Palmerston North to compete in Thropy - the North Island Amateur Debating Tournament. That's 51 people - or 13 teams and 12 judges! The weekend was a good one, filled with quality debates, good social events and two very long drives.
Highlights include Jeremy's car breaking down barely an hour from Auckland, a speeding ticket, a birthday, a trip to the hospital, Maori wardens, romances, getting stuck in a ditch and a debate about having sex with disabled people.
On the debating front, Auckland had a fairly solid tournament. Two of our teams broke to the semi-final, so congratulations go to Team Hawera (Nupur Upadhyay, Sam Bookman and Emily Adlam) and to Team Tautoko (Rupert Nelson, Mark Zhu and Tim Conder). Both teams performed strongly through the preliminary series and debated well in their respective semi-final debates.
Unfortunately both teams were ultimately defeated and we were faced with a Victoria v Victoria final as with last year, however the Auckland team also did well when it came to individual speaker awards. Sam Bookman was named first reserve for the North Island team, while Gretta Schumacher and Emily Adlam both received Promising Speaker awards.
A subject that also always excites me is adjudicator accreditation. I'm pleased to also announce thatStephanie Thompson accredited at Thropy as an NZUDC accredited national adjudicator.
Finally I want to thank everyone who came with us as part of the squad. Thropy was, as always, an outstanding weekend. It was great seeing so many of you getting amongst it both during and after debates, I hope everyone had a great time.
Reminder of SGM:
Instead of a Pro Debate this week we'll be having a Special General Meeting in order to tidy up our Constitution. For full details on what will be discussed, see our earlier mail-out here.
Reminder of 'Worlds' entry deadline:
Although Worlds isn't until the end of the year, because we need to register teams and pay in the next few months we're asking everyone who is interested in attending Worlds to let us know by the end of the month. Even if you aren't sure, please email in so that we know rough numbers and can narrow down the people we approach in the coming weeks and months. More details on Worlds can be found here.
Debsoc gets better:
For those with an interest in the structure behind the Society, we're pleased to announce that we have today been granted 'charitable status' by the Charities Commission. This should be another step along the round to bring you increased funding for Australs in 2010 and for our events generally.
See you later this week,
Debsoc
