Worlds Council Notes - Part One

Here are my notes from part one of the meeting.

WUDC COUNCIL MEETING NOTES

Passed a motion to recognize two different programs in Bangladesh as being individual and different for the purpose of registration.

Minutes were briefly disputed. Barbados had a number of factual errors. But, they were passed.

UBC Report: ran a deficit, questions about ESL-EFL tab not being available, congratulated.

Cork next year report:

• Preparation is moving forward.
• Limited to 300 teams: capacity of university, adjudication pool will be deeper, cannot do 400 teams, cap is 3 per institution.
• Equality officer, women’s officer, finance officer.
• Finance: backing from public bodies, university, so we have sufficient backing. Will work to increase funding in the next year.
• Registration: $400 Euros per delegate, it is higher, Ireland is expensive country, and covers core costs only. Two stages: initial interest, receive payment, accept credit cards and wire transfers. Deadline is not set. 3 months notice of when it is open. It will fill up quickly. No composite teams.
• Visas: available to help you. Bangladesh suggests delegation of authority to avoid travel to India.
• Hotels: three hotels – 1 is adjacent to University, 2 in Cork City center (not that far) buses will shuttle people. Hotels assigned in the order of when you register. 4 star hotel.
• Food: minority food requirements will be provided, no extra costs.
• Social directors: two of them, incremental increase in parties, aiming to make people miss flights because of the parties.
• Grand final in city hall.
• Adjudication: yet to choose the tab, adjudication team decided. Unbalanced feedback based on regions. Judge feedback system, 3 draw rooms video linked.
• http://corkworlds2009.com, it is the primary means of communication.
• Party on January 2.

Assumption report:

• Finances: teams still owe us money, still need to refund some,
• Today is free travel day. The financial balance sheet was presented.
• Income: $926,196, Expenses: $926.196, with Assumption throwing in balance to make a balance.
• England mentioned some communication problems and some serious waiting times.
• Answer: some staff not fluent in English did not adequately label new schedules as “new” and when.
• Ireland: were DCAs informed when it was raised to 400 teams?
• DCAs: No, we were not informed until they were entered and paid. DCAs seemed very unhappy that the team cap was raised. Organizing committee admitted that they raised team cap without consultation.
• Ireland: At the bid, Assumption said they would fly over judges, but then they did not. Why was it not done?
• Answer: We said we would do it with sponsorship, but we could not find any.
• England: Can you present initial accounts?
• Answer: should be 100% finalized by tomorrow morning.
• Cork: Why could we not have used some of the other funds used to bring some of these judges?
• Answer: Some things in Thailand cost less than a ticket to Thailand. Extra teams might also have created a problem.
• Israel: Kosher food promised, website said dietary requirements met. No extra fee noted. Then, kosher participant were asked to pay extra $300 for kosher food a week before the tournament. Council needs to make a decision about this.
• IONA: Some dietary requirements were all of a sudden not met when we move to a new location?
• Answer: This was a miscommunication; we will provide it as possible. We did post food ingredients so people could know. We are trying to customize as much as possible.
• Question: How did kosher food handled?
• Answer from Israel: They had to get their own.
• IONA: Number of delegates did not get the food they were required. I emailed, I was told I would be served, and I worked with the food director, but so far only 1 breakfast, no food at two social events, egg and boiled rice. MSG allergies, nut allergies, seafood allergies, problems with ingredients lists. People got sick.
• Answer: I will build a list and make sure it goes well in Pattaya.
• England: Should consider financial redress to those not receiving promises food.
• Answer: We will make sure Pattaya will be better. Kosher meal needs should consult so we can build a guideline.
• Assumption: We emailed and tried our best.
• Europe: But you failed. People got bad explanations.
• Germany: There seem to have been different standards for judging. Was there one?
• DCA answer: We had a test, we tried to use feedback and update evaluations, at the end of the day we readjusted rankings, we had an hour-long briefing and had three or four slides on definitions, nobody asked any questions, we had an item on the test, but it is hard to control.
• Japan: Might not have gone to the briefing, so no way they would know. Judge briefing should be mandatory.
• DCA: No one who did not take the test ever chaired a round.
• Jamaica: A person asked to chair with no WUDC experience, comment was that “those teams will not break anyway.” We need to make sure we stay within the spirit of WUDC, judges were too concerned with beer and not quality. EFL teams were marginalized and there was a condescending manner.
• DCA: Always be nice, always be positive, these were parts of our briefing. More experienced judging was moved up in the end. We tried to make sure that every team in ESL/EFL break had experienced chairs. We demoted people, we acted to protect damaged teams.
• Jamaica: We thank you for your efforts.
• Barbados: I chaired in UBC, bit only chaired one. Feedback on chairs was too late. Judges impose their own views. Many judges marginalized us. On the bus judges were making fun of debaters, do not ridicule people. We are not here as a sideshow.
• DCA Answer: We filed complaints, we had a merit-based system, we asked for feedback on chairs and got some earlier even without forms, we asked for respect to all teams. We did knock people out of breaking because of rudeness.
• Suzuki/Equity: Some judges say things that are unacceptable, but we cannot blame adjudication core for bad behavior. We have a code of conduct, so talk to equity officer about it. 5 equity issues were handled about judge behavior. Please raise the issue with us in the formal procedure.
• USA: American teams were expecting Thai Airways discount would work, but it did not. They waited for the code, but then when they did it did not work, no follow up on contact, and then they lost money. This really hurt USA teams.
• TJ: Passwords were not activated, we complained to them, we tried.
• Cork: Judges, again. Adjudication core cannot be held accountable for people who were ignorance. They tried.
• Derek Lande: There is a lot of pressure to increase team caps, and then judging is being spread too thin. We may have to decide to set a limit on size. Cork is 300, but judging is also a reason. Every institution needs to send the best judges, not the runner-ups.
• Derek Lande: Stop sending inexperienced judges and lots of them. That is a bad move.
• Ian Lissing: Do not send the second-class citizens of your debating societies, this brings down the level. Send better judges, get better judges.
• Ian Lissing: Thanks to Assumption for being gracious hosts.