Wie Nika Jelaska, Cheforganisator der Europameisterschaft 2014 in Zagreb, bekannt gegeben hat, ist die Bewerbungsphase für einen Posten als Chefjuror eröffnet. Das Bewerbungsformular kann hier heruntergeladen werden. Über das Anforderungsprofil und den Bewerbungsprozess heißt es: Selection Criteria: Zagreb EUDC plans to appoint five Deputy Chief Adjudicators. The Org Comm says, that they have a strong preference for a geographically diverse adjudication team, with DCA’s that come from all over the continent. The team will ideally have members from developed and developing circuits, as well as a mix of those with extensive adjudication experience and those with less experience on adjudication teams. They are ...

The 4th UCU Open will be held in Utrecht, Netherlands on the 29th and 30th of November 2013. The registration for the BPS tournament will open on the 1st of September, the fee is 30€ per participant, judges are free (N-1 rule applies). There will be 5 preliminary rounds with a break to semi finals. Sam Block will serve as CA (DCAs: TBA) For more information visit the Facebook group or the homepage. Franziska Städter/ak

Last weekend a dream that many debaters dream came true for Peer Klüßendorf and Emilia Carlqvist: They became European Debating Champions in English as a second language. Peer started debating in highschool when he attended "Jugend debattiert" and advanced to its national and international final in 2007. One year ago, he resumed debating when he moved to Lund. Emilia just moved to Lund in 2011 and tried debating at a local tournament. Despite liking it, she was too busy and did not debate again until 2012 when she decided to run for the board of Lund Debate Society. Achte Minute ...

Am Donnerstag und Freitag fanden in Manchester die Ausscheidungsrunden sowie das Finale der European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) statt. Per Twitter und Facebook wurden die Gewinner bereits kurz nach der Siegerehrung am Freitagabend bekannt gegeben. Der Vollständigkeit halber gibt es hier die Themen und Gewinner nochmals zum Nachlesen. English as a Foreign Language: ESL Quarter-Finals: THBT men should consistently 'call out' and correct chauvinistic claims made by friends and coworkers ESL Semi-Finals: THBT environmentalists should start a campaign of sabotage and property damage aimed at major polluting companies ESL Final: THB the state should not fund works of art/ performance that average citizens would not ...

The Break of the EUDC Manchester 2013 has just been announced. It has been quite a wait. https://twitter.com/TheHist/status/370309338704785408 Open Break 1. TCD Hist A 2. Cambridge A 3. Sheffield A 4. Bristol A 5. GUU A 6. Cambridge B 7. TCD Phil A 8. Edinburgh A 9. UCC Phil A 10. Oxford A 11. St Andrews A 12. Nottingham A 13. Warwick A 14. Durham B 15. KCL A 16. Birmingham A ESL-Break 1. Tel Aviv 2. BDU A (Niels Schröter and Hauke Blume) 3. Belgrade A 4. Groningen B 5. Roosevelt A 6. Lund A 7. IDC A 8. Vienna A (Stefan Zweiker and Christoph Jäger) 9. Munich A (Marco Witzmann and Wladi Jachtchenko) 10. BBU A 11. RRIS A 12. Belgrade B 13. Stuttgart A (Nils Haneklaus and Andreas Lazar) 14. ...

[caption id="attachment_17792" align="alignleft" width="256"] The University Place - the main debating venue[/caption] Since sunday 214 teams from Europe , 19 of which are from VDCH- Clubs, are competing in the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC). The Manchester Debating Unions is hosting the biggest event in the european debating circuit this year at the University of Manchester. Here are some insights into the tournament, the debates and how the German teams did. The locations The teams live in cosy small apartments with single and double bed rooms around the campus. The distance to the debate rooms is very short - it takes teams 5-10minutes. ...

Am Sonntag geht es endlich mit den lang erwarteten Euros in Manchester los. Fünf Tage voll Debatten und Socials. Zu Recht sind dabei die Debatten und das soziale Miteinander auf den Euros immer das Allerwichtigste! Daneben wird sich aber auch in diesem Jahr wieder das EUDC Council zusammenfinden, ein Gremium, das sich aus Vertretern aller anwesenden Debattier-Nationen zusammensetzt, um wichtige Entscheidungen zu treffen und Diskussionen zu führen. Das Council entscheidet über die zukünftigen Euros und dient als Forum für „Manöverkritik“ an den laufenden Euros. Teresa Widlok ist vom VDCH als Internationale Beauftragte und Vertreterin für Deutschland im Council vor Ort. ...

[caption id="attachment_17676" align="alignright" width="324"] Front page of the report[/caption] During the Glasgow Ancients Final the Team of Opening Government, defending the motion "This House Regrets the Centralization of Religion", was booed and "shame"-d by male debaters in the audience, adding to the list of problematic remarks on women in the Glasgow Debating Union observed during the weekend. Achte Minute documented parts of the debate in an article. Now one of the victims of this incident, Rebecca Meredith published together with Matt Hezell and Clara Spera a report, that shows the spread of misogyny and sexisim within debating. The report collects contributions from ...

Achte Minute features today a online post by Daan Welling that can also be found on his blog. He says, that as he is now part of the “old crowd” on the Dutch debating scene, he thinks it ought to be time for him to sit down on the sofa of self-appointed wisdom, and give some general suggestions, ideas and inspirations for the coming debating season. We are excited to see what you think about his ideas. I think our circuit is incredibly fun and inclusive, and serves as a great addition to one’s (student) life. Nonetheless, there are always ...

Fünf Tage Übung, die besten Trainer, ehrgeizige Teilnehmer und angenehme Socials. Das waren die Erwartungen mit denen wir uns auf zum DAPDI nach Rotterdam machten. Nach einer viel zu langen Anfahrt und dementsprechend kurzer Nacht machten wir uns morgens auf den Weg zur Erasmus Universität Rotterdam. Dort angekommen gab es Kekse und Kaffee zur Stärkung und die Trainings konnten beginnen. Die Teilnehmer waren in 5 Gruppen unterteilt. Je nach Erfahrungsgrad, thematischem Interesse oder Trainerpräferenz blieb man in der zugeteilten Gruppe oder wechselte in eine, die den eigenen Anforderungen und Wünschen eher entsprach. Das Teilnehmerfeld war gut durchmischt. In unserem Raum fanden ...

The CA team at EUDC Manchester has introduced changes to the way POIs are treated; in particular, they have introduced a compulsory POI requirement, and have asked judges to more stringently enforce the allowance for 15 seconds of speaking time during a POI. Michael Shapira wrote a constructive criticism about those new rules. Now Shengwu Li, writing on behalf of the CA team, explains the thought process behind these rulings. He says that they were happy and thankful for the lively debate on this important issue, but he feels, that there need to be some clarifications as to theire reasons ...

The recent briefing and later clarification released by the adjudication core of the upcoming EUDC Manchester 2013 has included some changes in the way we are to treat Points of Information (POI). These changes consist of two major elements. The first is, that being allowed to offer a POI has changed to become 15 seconds of "protected time", in which the POI giver may do as he or she pleases. The second change is an introduction of a "Mandatory POI" under which a speaker must take a POI during their speech. Failing to do so, the speaker is then required ...

Für die vom 18. bis 24 August stattfindenden Europameisterschaften im Debattieren in Manchester muss der Debattierclub Mainz ein Team kurzfristig absagen. Nach Absprache mit den Organisatoren der Euros wird dieser Startplatz nun neu vergeben. Falls ihr Interesse an einer Teilnahme habt (gesucht wird ein BPS-Team mit zwei Rednern), dann meldet euch so schnell wie möglich bei Lucy Penny (Co-convener der Euros) unter folgender E-Mail-Adresse: lucy@manchestereuros.eu. Bitte meldet eure Anmeldung auch an den Präsidenten des DCGJ, Christian Strunck, unter info@dcjg.de weiter. fpu

Dessislava Kirova ist nach Isabelle Fischer und Jens Fischer die dritte deutsche Debattiererin, die Mitglied des Chefjurorenteams einer Europameisterschaft ist. Die Achte Minute hat zwei Wochen vor dem Beginn der Meisterschaft mit ihr gesprochen -  gerade noch rechtzeitig, denn Dessislava fährt fünf Tage früher nach Manchester, um sich noch intensiv mit ihrem Team zu beraten. Achte Minute: Dessi, wie bist du zu dem begehrten Posten der Chefjurorin bei einer Europameisterschaft gekommen? Dessislava Kirova: Ich wurde Anfang 2012 von Shengwu Li (Chief Adjudicator EUDC 2013, Anm. d. Red.) gefragt, ob ich Teil des Teams werden möchte. Bis zur letzten Europameisterschaft in Belgrad hat ...

Fred Cowell and Danique van Koppenhagen, the CAs of Durham EUDC 2014 have openned the application process for Deputy Chief  Adjudicators. All infromations about where to apply can be found on the EUDC Druham website. The requirements for future DACs are outlined here.  Applicants need to fill in the form by 11.59pm 30th of August. fpu

Der Debattierklub Wien hat seine Bewerbung um die Europameisterschaften 2015 offiziell gemacht. Es gibt nun ein Bid-Video und eine Website. Hier gibt's die neusten Informationen aus ihrem Newsletter: Org-Com The five people you can see on the picture (Andreas Prischl, Jakob Reiter, Elisabeth Vikydal, Stefan Zweiker and Anika Nussgraber at the scene of the Summer 2015 Teaser) are part of the DKWien crowd that will invest their time into making Vienna EUDC 2015 the Euros you do not want to miss. Our Orga is built around Stefan who takes up the role of convener and Jakob who is in charge of funding and relations to external stakeholders. Yet, there are so many more ...

There is not much to report from the Patras Open International Debate Championship, that took place in Greece from July 26th to July 29th. But we can give you some impressions: The motion of the Grand Final that took place in the Theater by the Sea in Patras was "TH as Socrates wouldn't have drunk the hemlock". The winning teams came from Turkey: Congratulations to Melda Eren and Ali Avci as well as the best speaker of the Open, Kallina Basli. The CA team consisted of Manos Moschopoulos, Harish Natarajan and Milan Vignjevic. The Motions: R1: THW ban Golden Dawn. R2: THBT the state should not give ...

The Oxford Inter-Varsity 2013 will be held from November 8th and 9th.  There is the possibility to visit the legendary Oxford Union Debate on Thursday evening. Also there will be campus tour for international debaters on Friday morning followed by some Debating workshops and the registration that ends at 3pm. Details Five preliminary rounds of 7 minute speeches, breaking to Quarter Finals, ESL Semi Finals and novice Grand Final All Grand Finals hosted in the (in)famous Oxford Union Chamber 140 team cap, n-1 applying to IONA teams Introductory debating workshops Novice Grand Final and Best Novice Speaker prize CA TEAM Stephanie Bell - WUDC 2012 Grand-Finalist and 2nd ...

[caption id="attachment_17141" align="alignright" width="324"] Beyond black and withe: Danique van Koppenhagen (l) and Fred Cowell (r) are looking for Co-DCAs[/caption] The DCAs of the Durham EUDC 2014 bid contacted Achte Minute about the application process for Durham EUDC DCAs. Below are all the informations you need if you want to consider an application. "We will not be appointing DCAs on a specifically regional basis but will instead be appointing those individuals who meet the qualifications and are best placed to fulfil the duties and expectations of a DCA. The qualifications and duties of a DCA are set out below, we will be ...

This year's Cambridge Inter-Varsity will be held on November 15th-16th 2013. The organizers state: „The Cambridge IV is one of the largest and most prestigious debating events on the calendar. Hosted and run by the Cambridge Union Society, the IV attracts some of the best teams from universities all over the world. Over three hundred students will be attending and we hope you'll be one of them.“ The Cambridge Union dates from 1815, and has a long history of hosting Presidents, Prime Ministers, Statesmen, Celebrities and Sports Stars. The Unions weekly debates serve to engage and to challenge presumptions and prejudices. ...

Thanks to Colm Flynn, we receiced the following information: "While details are a little limited at this early stage a group of Chinese universities have come together to bid to host the 2016 World Universities Debating Championships. The Beijing University Debate Association are the host organisation and the championships would be held in Tsinghua University.  They are supported by: Beijing Foreign Studies University Beijing Language and Culture University China Agricultural University Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics China University of Petroleum - Beijing Convenor of the tournament would be former BUDA President Chanel Chan Choyi. Beijing are the first to announce their intention to bid for WUDC 2016 and there may ...

The Lund Debate Society invites all debaters to the Lund IV 2013. As a perfect preparation for Chennai Worlds, they will provide you with a great CA team, 5 rounds, 7 minutes speeches, break to Quarterfinals, Novice Finals, Swedish sittning and fika and a tour of Lund and Copenhagen, if you like! After the Finals on Saturday evening, there will a traditional Sittning dinner which is a three course gourmet dinner, with dancing and booze! Team cap: 40 teams (n-1 rule for adjudicators) Co-CA: Pam Cohn (Worlds 2012 Best Speaker), Harish Natarajan (Chief Adjudicator of Chennai Worlds 2014) Crash can be provided with ...

The Org Com of the Red Sea Open 2013 has opend the registration for the tournament. The fourth installment of this tournament comes with "Alcohol that flows like a river, Sun that leaves you slightly toasted, An amazing adjudication team, and Debaters from all over the world" and will, according to sources, offer "5 days of Pure Enjoyment!". Teams and judges can register here for the tournament that will will be held in Eilat, Israel from September 9th-September - 12th 2013. Michael Shapira will serve as CA, Harish Natatajan, Pam Cohn and Monica Forman are going to be his DCAs. For more information like the Facebook-Event. fpu/ ak

[caption id="attachment_17004" align="alignright" width="324"] Not too friendly to argue with each other: Nordic Debaters (c) Peer Klüsendorf[/caption] We might hear the sound of Edvard Grieg's Morning Mood, as debating in the Scandinavian countries slowly awakes. Despite impressive language skills and communication heavy education systems, they had been noticeably absent from the European debate scene, leading many to think that Scandinavians were simply to friendly too argue with each other. But maybe they just needed a spark from some motivated debate societies. In the first half of 2013, teams from Lund managed to win tournaments in London, Helsinki and Bremen, while Stockholm impeccably ...

Der Debattierklub Wien lädt alle Neulinge* im Debattieren zur zweiten Auflage seines Novice-Turniers vom 8.-9. November 2013 in Wien ein. In der Ankündigung schreiben die Organisatoren: "Are you new to debating? Can you feel the urge to take the bird off the runway and kiss the sky? Take some flying lessons and spread your wings at the second edition of Vienna Freshers'! This tourney will get start your debating life in a nice and circumspect way." Chief adjudicators (CA) a.k.a Chief Aviators: Senna Maatoug and Melanie Sindelar Format: British Parliamentary Style (BPS), English language, 5 min speeches, extra long prep-time 25 min Reg fee: 25 ...

The Org Com of Chennai Worlds released informations about the application process for those who would like to participate in Worlds as a adjudicator. This includes Individuals applying to be ‘Independent Adjudicators’ (i.e. an adjudicator unaffiliated with any institution) or Representatives from institutions that have requested one or more adjudicator spots in excess of the ‘N-1’ requirement.  Independent Adjudicators Independent adjudicators are those that wish to judge at Worlds but are not officially part of an institution's WUDC contingent. Independent adjudicators can either be self funded or can apply for a subsidy from Chennai Worlds. Applicants need to fill out the following form and answer ...

This years Berlin Intervarsity was won by a team from Berlin: Hauke Blume und Niels Schröter opposed the motion, that THW support popular uprisings against dictators even in cases they are lead by Islamist extremist. Best speaker (Tab) was Michael Saliba from Stuttgart with an average of 78.8 points. 36 Teams competed during four rounds under the chief adjudication of Omer Nevo and Dessislava Kirova. The break to the Seminfinals: 1. BDU A (10) 2. Birmingham A (10) 3. Tilbury House Red (10) (Leonard Münstermann & Lyuba Ilieva) 4. Stuttgart (9) 5. Utrecht B (9) 6. LMU (9) (Marco Witzmann & Wladislaw Jachtchenko) 7. Auckland (8) 8. UCC Law B ...

The UTU Debating Club announced the Turku Open, that will take place in Finland from 25th to 27th October 2013. 5 Preliminary Rounds with Break to the Semi-Finals Chief Adjudicator: Manos Moschopoulos Team Cap: 32 teams (no limitation to the number of teams each institution can send) First come-first serve criteria n-1 rule apply Registration Fee is 50€/debater with accommodation and 35€/debater without Registration Fee is 40€/adjudicator with accommodation and 25€/adjudicator without. Registration Deadline: 30th of September or when the Team Cap is reached The organizers give three reasons, why debaters should come: " Because you love debate and we promise you amazing motions, a well-known CA, great judges and ...

An alle Debattierer, die sich danach sehnen beim Berlin IV mitzumachen: es sind noch ein paar Plätze frei. Das Berlin IV findet vom 21. Juni bis zum 23. Juni 2013 statt, wenn ihr also Interesse habt meldet euch schnell bei der BDU und überweist die Teilnehmergebühren. Weitere Infos gibt es in der Facebook-Event. Das Berlin IV 2013 verspricht dieses Jahr alternative Freiheit als Motto. In Berlin warten als Socials keine übertriebene Bankets sondern Barbecues und Eiscrème, Ausstellungen und eine lebendige Clubszene. ak/fpu

Der Debattierklub Wien richtet- mal wieder- ein Turnier aus. Die Achte Minute hat hier den Einladungstext für euch still und heimlich hereinkopiert.  You expect those Vienna People to come up with something really big and massive, when they announce a summer tournament and all what you get is something called 'Mini'? Like, seriously? My dear friend, life should have taught you that size is not all that matters. Sometimes the pleasure sprouts from the tiny things, just look what Vienna Mini does for you: If you've been focussing too much on your exams recently, Vienna Mini cleans off the rust from your ...