Hi,

I cannot be at Nationals this weekend, but I wanted to say that I fully support the establishment of an annual North American BP Championship tournament (NA UDC).

To that end, the HWS / IDEA Round Robin is planning to offer an automatic bid to the winner of this year's NAUDC, generously hosted by Hart House.  If there is anything else I can do to support this effort to add another excellent tournament to our calendar, please let me know.

Good luck to everyone at La Verne.

All the Best,
Eric


******************************************
Eric Barnes
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Philosophy Department
Public Policy Program
Debate Coach
(315) 781-3182
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

On Apr 12, 2013, at 8:45 AM, Alfred Snider wrote:

Something to consider.

Tuna


-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        NorAm BPs
Date:   Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:16:13 -0400
From:   James P.E. Hardy <[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To:     [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>



Hi Tuna,

Louis asked me to forward the following to you:




Hello Mr. Snider,


Hart House will be going forward with hosting the inaugural BP
Championships for North America, and we would immensely appreciate
your input and - if you think our initial is worthwhile - your support.


As USUs is coming up, we would enormously appreciate it if you would
canvass the concerns and opinions of the American debating community,
especially for the schools that are heavily involved in BP debating in
the United States. Your stature and experience in the American
debating community would be incredibly helpful in accurately assessing
the mood of schools south of the border (something a Canadian like
myself would be unable to do), and your opinion personally would also
be tremendously valuable to us.


The tournament is open to input to consider the different experiences
of universities across North America, but also the general interests
of the American BP debating community. While we would guarantee 5
preliminary rounds, quarter-finals, and two American DCAs at minimum,
we are open to alternatives if that would add to the tournament
quality and would be feasible from a logistical perspective. Your
insights here would be really useful, especially in terms of liaising
with other American schools to give us a broader picture of the
concerns of the American debating community.


The information below may also be of some help in providing additional
relevant information.


If you have any questions or concerns, please email me. While I am in
the middle of law exams, I will try and answer as soon as possible.


Your input and support would be phenomenal for us to create the best
tournament possible,
Louis Tsilivis,
CUSID President 2012-2013
Co-CA, North American BP Debating Championships 2013


___________________________________


In the past month or so, after extensive discussions with members from
the both the Canadian and American university debating communities, it
has become apparent that there is a widespread desire to hold a North
American university debating championship in the British Parliamentary
(BP) format.


The continent already has a championship in North American
Parliamentary format (a hybrid of Canadian and American formats) and
BP championships for each country. A continental championship in the
BP format would do much to aid the spread of the debate format, give
North Americans an opportunity to debate against students from other
circuits, and help give the region a championship where Canadian and
American debating clubs would be accorded their due weight
internationally.


Since a number of the larger Canadian and American clubs have
expressed their inability or unwillingness to host such a championship
on such short notice, the Hart House Debating Club has accepted the
call from members of the North American debating community to host the
inaugural tournament.


The tournament would be held from October 18-20, 2013, in place of
Hart House’s annual IV, and be open to all teams representing North
American universities. Hybrid teams would not be permitted and all
teams must be composed of two currently-enrolled students from the
same university.


The tournament will have, at minimum, five preliminary rounds with a
break to quarter-finals. The break will be announced at Hart House’s
traditional Saturday evening banquet in the Great Hall. Hart House
will consider the feasibility of additional preliminary rounds, an
expanded break, and novice and ESL finals (considering French Canada
has a large and very active debating community).


Ashvin Singh and Thomas Slabon will be serving as tournament
directors. Thomas has a breadth of experiencing in running events at
Trinity College and Ashvin has successful organized tournaments at the
University of Alberta, including Canadian Nationals.


Veenu Goswami and Louis Tsilivis, who were the planned co-CAs of the
Hart House IV, will serve as the championship’s co-CAs. This year they
both won the Canadian National Debating Championships. Louis
additionally won the Central Canadian Debating Championships and was a
semi-finalist at the Oxford and the Yale IVs. Veenu additionally won
the Oxford IV and was a finalist at the Cambridge and Yale IVs.


There will be a call for applications for at least two American DCAs,
with a focus on having at least one DCA representing schools within
APDA and one representing schools from outside of APDA.


The championships received a unanimous endorsement from CUSID at the
national meeting in Vancouver, and schools from both the APDA and
US-BP circuits have already declared their support for the tournament
in principle.
In the mould of title tournaments in North America and around the
world, the championships would rotate among universities in the
continent, and Hart House would not be the host school for the next
academic year.


While political decisions regarding the selection of future hosts, the
creation of a governing body (if any), or an MOU to govern the
championships are still open questions, it is the belief that these
questions can be decided on at a later date – either before or even at
the tournament this fall – by the North American debating community.