Monthly Archives: March 2009

2009 CUSID National Championships

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Hot on the heels of crowning Amy Marlene Robichaud Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister, the 2009 CUSID National Championships have recognized new National Champions. 54 teams from 18 schools competed at the event graciously hosted by the University of Saskatchewan Debate Society.

Richard Lizius and Paul-Erik “Dash” Veel of Hart House took home the gold, defeating McGill University’s Sophie MacIntyre & Jake Liang. The triumphant pair also took home Top Speaker awards, placing first and second respectively.

In Novice Finals, Mary MacPhail and Robert Lees-Miller from the University of Alberta defeated David Miko and Justen Russell from the University of Calgary. The Top Novice Speaker was the Royal Military College’s David Reid.

Triumphant in the East vs West showdown were Dalhousie’s Andrew McCoomb & Krum Dochev, who defeated the University of British Columbia’s Maria Jogova and Joshua Sealy.

Dan Powell of RMC became CUSID’s Top Public Speaker with a ballad detailing the exploits of the Dalhousie team, whose success against fierce opposition earned them the honorific “Dragonslayers”.

The new CUSID executive was also elected. Vinay Kumar Mysore of McGill University will be the 2009-2010 CUSID President, and joining him will be Brent Kettles from Osgoode Hall as Treasurer. Trinity College’s Mitchell Gerskup of will serve as CUSID’s new Executive Director. Iain Ireland and Ali Cherri will be serving as regional Vice-Presidents, joining Shaughnessy Hawkins, the sitting V-P Central. Many thanks to the outgoing executive.

Next year’s National Championships will be hosted by the University of Alberta, British Parliamentary Nationals by the University of British Columbia, and Toronto’s York University will host the North American Debating Championships.

2009 University of Saskatchewan Nationals CUSID Meeting Minutes

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1. Call to Order – 2:06 pm

2. Roll call and voting rights

  • Present: Maria – UBC
  • Iain – Usask
  • Chris – Calgary
  • Sarah – Alberta
  • Jessica – Regina
  • Stephanie – Brandon
  • Dafne – Waterloo
  • Ari – Manitoba
  • Remi – Carleton
  • Emmett – York
  • Steve – Western
  • Christine – Queens
  • Sophie – McGill
  • Richard – Hart House
  • Dan – RMC
  • Valerie – EDS
  • Ali – Dalhousie

PROXIES

  • SEDFUO -> EDS
  • Alaska -> Alberta
  • St. FX -> Ali
  • Marianopolis -> McGill
  • Acadia -> Auyon (Baltar)
  • Trin -> York

3. Approval and additions to the agenda
No additions. Approval unanimous.

4. Approval of previous minutes
All are in favour save Hart House

5. Oral Exec Reports
Adam Coombs, President
Northams Hybrids, Amherst only informed them two weeks in advance.
After consultation with DCA and CUSID executive the decision was made
to allow them.
Tournament running guide: is ready.
Alex Amar, Executive Director
CUSID is bad at giving back money – Alex’s mom still owns CUSIDnet.
The executive director is a very demanding position, with a lot more
to it than just running the website, perhaps it should be split into
two positions.
Minutes for Queens Nats are not in existence
Static documents will be updated cooperating with Mitchell
Richard – Commends Alex for his efforts
Rudi Lof (Treasurer)
Still doesn’t have any signing authority (applause from HH).
Account is difficult to pass signing authority, and charges CUSID $5 a month.
Recommends creating an account with Citizens Bank, which can be
updated more easily and will direct money towards charity.
Garnett – How does the charitable contribution work?
Charitable contributions are done in much the same way as PC points.
VP West (Emily Cliff)
West has seen increased participation, more clubs and increased
tournament attendance.
Increased French debate in the west, first French tournament in the
west in memory.
Ombudsman (Vinay)
They held numerous forums and have drafted a guide for CA’s in terms
of including increased female participation in debating.
Ombudsman (Sarah)
People are getting along.
Nick – Were there any complaints?
Vinay – No
Valerie – What is the status of the woman’s comitee
Vinay – It didn’t happen but will hopefully happen in the future.

5.1 President
5.2 Executive Director
5.3 Treasurer
5.4 French
5.5 Regional VPs
5.6 Ombuddies

6. Constitutional Amendments

6.1 Addition of Mount Allison to Schedule A
VP East: Uh yes.
All are in favour.

6.2 Make Western Pro-Am a sanctioned tournament.
Emily Cliff – I was pretty sure it was a sanctioned tournament for
hybrids. Considering hybrids are allowed at the tournament we feel it
would be useful to formalize the situation.
Alex Amar – Back in 2004 we amended the bylaws to allow hybrids at
the regional novices.
Motioned by Saks, seconded by Alberta
All in favour, HH abstains.

6.3 Vote to add Western Pro-Am to the list of tournaments with
exemptions for hybrids.
All in favour.
6.4 Vote to allow regional novices to the list of tournaments allowing Hybrids
All in favour

7. Motion to amend scheduling bylawss

8. Amended MOU
APDA president and I have discussed updating MOU.
Brought style guide into corespondance with actual practice at tournaments.
Vinay – Can we see it?
Vote to adjourn @ 2:41

9. National Title Tournaments

10. Elections

10.1 P
10.2 ED
10.3 Treasurer

11. New Business

12. Adjournment

DAY TWO

1. call to order – 11:03 am

2. roll call and voting rights
Present:

  • Maria – UBC
  • Iain – Usask
  • Chris – Calgary
  • Sean – Alberta
  • Jenna – Guelph
  • Jessica – Regina
  • Stephanie – Brandon
  • Dafne – Waterloo
  • Ari – Manitoba
  • Remi – Carleton
  • Emmett – York
  • Steve – Western
  • Christine – Queens
  • Josh – McGill
  • Richard – Hart House
  • Dan – RMC
  • Valerie – EDS
  • Auyon – Dalhousie

PROXIES

  • SEDFUO -> EDS
  • Alaska -> Alberta
  • St. FX -> Ali
  • Marianopolis -> McGill
  • Acadia -> Auyon (Baltar)
  • Trin -> York

7. Motion to amend scheduling bylawss
Adam: I think we should discuss this on CUSIDnet. Shaughnessy isn’t here. And no one knows exactly what they want.

8. Amended MOU
APDA president and I have discussed updating MOU.
Brought style guide into corespondance with actual practice at tournaments.
Vinay – Can we see it?
Vote to adjourn @ 12:41
Adam reads out the amendments. Motion, Nick, Second RMC.
APPROVED

9. National Title Tournaments

NorthAms: Osgoode.
Bidding: RUDI LOF: no questions re the post. We ran novice very well, fed you well. We have the capacity, and the school is very enthusiastic about supporting us. Everything might be in the same building. I will be meeting with senior admin to discuss our approaches to law firm outreach. We like the idea of subsidizing teams from outside central. As much as our club is young, it is deep and enthusiastic. I WILL LITERALLY KILL PEOPLE IF THE TOURNAMENT DOES NOT RUN ON TIME. I WILL DROP YOU, HIT YOU, GET IN THE FACE OF THE CHIEF ADJUDICATOR, WHATEVER IT TAKES.
Aaron Rankin: position on making it cheaper for central v. east & west?
Rudi: No strong position right now; we’ll consider the resources clubs have. I’d like either free reg or some other type of subsidy. We will
do our best to iron out the issues of the tournament being in central.
Nick Shk: rationale behind selection of CA? He’s not been on the circuit for a few years –
Rudi: very dedicated, also very supportive of the club. I know I can work with him. Re experience, Brent is ACA, and will be giving an on the ground perspective and helping with judge slotting.
Adam – no more questions – voice vote?
AYEs have it.

CUSID BP Nats:
Bidding: Essi … chikmorof?
2005 BP Nats, 2007 Worlds, McGoun this year. The UBC IV gets American teams and this built up knowledge in the club about hosting… plus we have an awesome working relationship with the university. We have a deep alumni pool; we capped reg at 140/40, but we’re hoping to get lower. Dash is our CA. We will have minor-friendly socials. McGoun was ahead of schedule.
Adam – no more questions – voice vote?
AYEs have it.

CUSID Nats:
Bidding: Alberta
I am Ashvin Singh and I have a bidding problem. We’re incredibly punctual. We have run a bunch of tournaments lately. March 19th-21st – CA is Jason Rogers. We have a big club. 22 here, 18 staying next year, lots of folks not here.
Richard: DCAs – east and west, or east and central?
Adam – no more questions – voice vote?
AYEs have it.

10. Elections

10.1 P
MCGILL nominates VINAY
This is my 4th year. I’m this year’s ombuds.
1 – women’s tournament at UBC – this should spread in CUSID. Empirically and anecdotally, successful.
2 – how do you find funding, how do you run a club. Usually institutional memory; we should centralize this knowledge. Do a survey; members only disclose what they feel is appropriate.
3 – outreach programs. Some clubs are lucky and have consistent execs; we lose clubs with one iffy exec. Plus, some clubs lack … BP experience.
Alex – At public speaking this year a large number of members from one club piled into one room to encourage their own speakers and ignore other schools speakers. As president how would you encourage social interaction amongst clubs?
No reply.
Nick – re NorAms – what do you think about a hypothetical BP NorthAms? There’s been talk of a summer tournament; I think it’s a really good idea.
Ali – the past three presidents have attended tournaments in all regions.
VInay – yep.
Adam – no more questions – voice vote?
AYEs have it.

10.2 ED
Adam – no more questions – voice vote?
AYEs have it. Trin, marianopolis and SEDFUO vote no.

10.3 Treasurer
York nominates BRENT
Osgoode, formerly Calgary. I’ve been a treasurer before.
1 – taking
2 – depositing
3 – distributing.
I can do this. Signing authority is hard to get. I will take aggressive action to remedy this. I want to assemble a standard CUSID fundraising package. I would like to undertake fundraising on the behalf of CUSID itself. McGill – how do you feel about treasure. … broadly in favour.

11. New Business
11.1 Constitutional review.

Our consititution has holes. It should be more reflective; fill in ‘language holes’. Dash and I would like – we are big law nerds – first, backtrack and see where we have evidence to make changes that aren’t reflected in the static documents, second, get an oral history and see what needs to be re-passed.
1 – club membership is not institutional membership.
2 – the only mentions of regional rotation are kind of muddy.
A) No changes; just clearing things up
B) Final product will be line-by-line comparative.
Motion to empower nick and dash to form a committee put forward by HH, second by Sask
EDS: regional representation?
Adam – no more questions – voice vote?
AYEs have it.

12 Adjournment
HH second by RMC

Amy Marlene Robichaud: Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister

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On the eve of the 2009 CUSID National Debating Championships, the grand finale of the CBC’s Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister aired last night — and after a fierce debate hosted by Alex Trebek and judged by former Prime Ministers Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark, Kim Campbell and Paul Martin, Calgary native and University of Ottawa English Debating Society member Amy Marlene Robichaud won the competition and was awarded $50,000 and a paid internship.

Among other achievements, Amy has co-ordinated the English Debating Society’s 24 Hour Debate Challenge, raising hundreds of dollars for a shelter for battered women, and ranked as a public speaking finalist at tournaments as prestigious as Queen’s University and the CUSID British Parliamentary National Championships.

Congratulations Amy!

Amy was the second person to enter this season’s competition which began online when the CBC asked young Canadians, aged 18-25, to post a video to YouTube telling us what they would do to improve Canada politically, socially and economically. Candidates challenged one another’s platforms with additional videos. They also responded to weekly video challenges asking for their opinions on current affairs. Finally, ten semifinalists were selected to come to Toronto to compete head to head at political bootcamp where four finalists were selected to compete on the nationally televised show.

Link.