Agenda:
1) Membership request of ESG-UQAM
2) Worlds Update from koc
3) Fall 2010 scheduling dates
4) Women’s Tournament
5) CUSID Vimeo Account

Vinay calls the meeting to order at 1:19pm.

1) Membership request of ESG-UQAM
Guillaume: Here’s the club rep.; everything’s in order.
Vinay calls a vote to see who’s in favour of admitting the new member; the vote passes unanimously.

2) Worlds Update from koc
Vinay:
Worlds Council update
Move towards scheduling changes, nothing instituted yet
Guarantee of a single team per institution
Giving spots to teams w/ past competitive success
Botswana will probably be first come first serve
All of this is contingent on future growth trends in worlds size
Also talks of expanding the break
Hart House lost the Worlds bid
There were also some equity issues

Rachel: What is the time-scale for competitive-reserved spots?
Vinay: Nothing specific was decided

Yumi: Who’s the new chair?
Vinay: Same Greenland. He’s from Sydney.

3) Fall 2010 scheduling dates

Vinay: Trouble with scheduling in the past; May/June scheduling doesn’t really help with certain conflicts (Hart House needs to know room bookings a year in advance)

Rachel: We could do it at the fall AGM at BP Nats?

4) Women’s Tournament

Vinay: Problems with representation of women in CUSID, this tournament is an experiment to look at ways of dealing with these problems
This will only work if schools take this seriously; send competitive teams
Competition for women only, but men and women are welcome to attend

Sophie & Lauren:
Lauren: Ice skating and laser quest socials, BP style debating, banquets, public speaking
Sophie: Want men to come out and help judge, getting a lot of female dinos to come out
Billeting will be provided

Yumi: Hybrids?

Kassie: What if a school wants to bid for next year? Bid at Nats?
Vinay: Sure? We’ll decide some way of doing it.

5) CUSID Vimeo Account

Mitchell: been recording videos for a while, there seems to be a lot of interest in them
Absorbing the hosting/bandwidth costs
Looking for a more efficient solution of hosting
Vimeo account will cost $60/year, sufficient for our purposes
Password protected sharing/etc.

Maia:Youtube?
Mitchell: 10 minute limit, lack of customized hosting options makes it a bad fit for debating

Yumi: streaming/downloading
Mitchell: Vimeo is mainly a streaming site, but file downloads are accessible w/ a pro account

Husein: Hosting public speaking as well?
Mitchell: Yes

Rudi: Two thumbs up

Vinay: Plagiarized cases; should we be concerned about this?

Brent: Great idea; financially feasible, should maintain current privacy practices
Mitchell: All of the current practices (getting permission, etc.) will still apply

Rudi: You waive your right to ban uploading recordings for certain title tournaments
Wouldn’t ban NBA championship game because some players feel they miss important shots
These are important for promotion and the history of our organization
Jake Liang: Debaters argue (sincerely) for things that you don’t necessarily believe in; videos only convey the sincerity, not what your beliefs are & debate cases don’t necessarily translate well into the real world
There should be clear disclaimers about the beliefs of the speakers in this round

Cal: sharing videos will prevent plagiarism, since everybody knows what you’re doing

Vinay: approve the $60 for vimeo hosting?

Motion: Approve the ED to purchase a Vimeo account on behalf of CUSID ($60/year)
Moved by Mike Soo; Seconded by Waterloo
Approved Unanimously

Meeting adjourned by Vinay at 1:53pm.

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

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Queen’s University

Present:

McMaster University (Kozo Ota)

University of Guelph (Shaughnessy Hawkins)

Carleton University (Adam Coombs)

University of Western Ontario (Cari Ferguson)

Lakehead University (Miranda Serravalle)

University of Toronto (Hart House) (Sarah Ingimundson)

York University (Rudi Lof)

University of Ottawa (English Debating Society) (Bill Hughes)

Royal Military College (Jon Douglas)

Queen’s University (Sarah Sahagian)

McGill University (Bryan Badali)

Bishops University (Ben Wald)

University of Waterloo – Directed proxy

Chair: Kozo Ota

Minutes: Kozo Ota

1. Call to Order

18:32

2. Approval of Agenda

APPROVED

3. Bids for Novice

Osgoode Hall (York) presents a bid for Central Novice.

Concerns are raised about Amir Mohareb’s experience with being a CA. Osgoode believes Amir has the relevant skills to come up with resolutions, and that he is willing to seek help from more experienced past Chief Adjudicators. There will be an informal team around Amir, but he will lead his adjudication team.

Concerns are raised about the 60 team cap being too low, and how realistic it would be to raise it. Osgoode might have logistics and judging issues if the cap is raised. The number was determined based on informal polling, and the club was not willing to organize a larger tournament without compromising the quality of judging. If the region is willing to commit to sending enough judges Osgoode will work hard enough to guarantee that the cap can be raised. There is general agreement that the community will work with Osgoode to allow a raising of the team cap.

Concerns are raised about the proposed “speed dating” social. Some feel that the forced socialization aspect of the event will not be well received by novices. Given the nature of Ontario’s drinking laws and novice ages it seems unrealistic to expect the same kind of socials possible in Quebec. Furthermore some feel that drinking has been over-emphasized and welcome Osgoode’s social idea. Osgoode ultimately believes that if clubs sell the idea to their novices positively the event will be successful.

MOTION to accept Osgoode’s bid for Central Novice, in principle, without a commitment to open or closed quarters.

Disposition: Passes with dissents on a voice vote.

A vote is taken to determine whether Osgoode Central Novice should have open or closed quarters.

Disposition: Osgoode Central Novice will have closed quarter finals.

4. Bids for Leger

The Royal Military College presents a bid for Leger.

Since the presentation of their bid on CUSIDnet, RMC has discovered their scheduling options are more flexible. Including dates in the first semester, RMC would also be able to host in the second semester on the traditional Dorchester weekend (vacated by Carleton’s successful NorAms bid).

A vote is taken to determine whether the membership would like to see Leger held in the first semester or the second semester.

Disposition: The membership unanimously decides it would like Leger to be hosted in second semester.

MOTION to accept RMC’s bid for Leger Cup in second semester.

Disposition: Passed unanimously on a voice vote.

5. Scheduling Discussion

DEFERRED

6. Other Business

none

7. Adjournment

18:58

Sunday October 22, 2006

1. Call to Order

Meeting starts at 12:49.

2. Roll Call and Voting Rights

Executives Present:

Padraic Ryan (President)

Paul-Erik Veel (Vice-President Central)

Chris Sommerville (Treasurer)

Voting rights:

Cari Ferguson (UWO)

Shaugnessy Hawkins (Guelph)

Mike Pass (McMaster)

Ashish Sinha (UBC/Dal/Alberta)

Tay Hughes (EDS)

Brent Kettles (Calgary)

Steve Dickie (Queen’s)

Adam Coombs (Carleton)

Zac Irving (Trin)

Sarah Ingimundson (Hart House)

Vinay Kumar-Mysore (McGill)

Also present:

Kozo Ota (Secretary)

Mark Samberg

3. Additions to and Approval of the Agenda

Members wanted to have an informal discussion on a CUSIDnet moderation policy and scheduling under the heading of New Business.

Agenda is APPROVED as amended.

4. Approval of Previous Minutes

Previous minutes have not been made available to the membership, and cannot be approved.

6. Constitutional Amendments

A. Amendment to Schedule A for new full memberships.

John Abbot College have not yet not submitted the requisite documents to be considered for full membership at this time.

Both the University of Lethbridge and the University of Windsor have submitted the necessary documents to be considered for full membership. Since both schools are the only clubs on their campus, the membership decide to vote on both school’s together.

-Motion to amendment to Schedule A of the CUSID Constitution to include the University of Windsor and the University of Lethbridge. PASSED

Discussion regarding the inclusion of Osgoode Hall in Schedule A:

Kozo conveys a message on behalf of the Osgoode Exec. Osgoode students have different needs from the general undergrad population served by the DSY. Because it is a postgraduate institution members do not necessarily identify with the undergrad population of the DSY. Finally there used to be a separate Osgoode Debate Society, this is a revival of a previous club not a creation of an entirely new one.

Dash believes that the CUSID community should come up with codified criteria about multiple clubs in one school before deciding on Osgoode matter.

Zac agrees that there needs to be a code of some sort. From Trinity’s perspective there is a sense of identification among members which can prevent them for debating with others on campus. Wonders whether criteria would make distinctions based on Federated college status.

Cari believes these separate clubs should attempt to integrate which is what happened at UWO.

The membership agree to set criteria for multiple clubs at same school, and to pospone the vote on Osgoode Hall until such a criteria is created..

B. Re-numbering

a) “58. The membership has the power to enact, amend, or repeal by-laws, by majority vote. This power can only be exercised at a general meeting. Such a meeting must have been called for the purpose of considering such an amendment and the full text of the amendment must be provided to the membership two weeks in advance of the meeting. Notice of the meeting shall be in accordance with section 62 of this Constitution (NOTICE OF A MEETING).”

be changed to

“…Notice of the meeting shall be in accordance with section 63 of this Constitution (NOTICE OF A MEETING)”

b) “60 This constitution shall only be amended by a two-thirds vote at a general meeting. Such a meeting must have been called for the purpose of considering such an amendment and the full text of the amendment must be provided to the membership two weeks in advance of the meeting. Notice of the meeting shall be in accordance with section 62 of this Constitution (NOTICE OF A MEETING).”

be changed to

“…Notice of the meeting shall be in accordance with section 63 of this Constitution (NOTICE OF A MEETING).”

Discussion:

Kozo briefly mentions that a renumbering agenda item used to be standard at the end of CUSID meetings.

Both renumbering amendments PASS without further discussion.

7. By-law Proposals and Amendments

Tournament Scheduling Bylaw

A. “7. On dates where a nationally-sanctioned tournament is scheduled, no other tournaments may be scheduled.”

be changed to

“7. On dates where a nationally-sanctioned tournament is scheduled, no other tournaments of the same language may be scheduled.”

Discussion

-Padraic explains the situations that precipitated this discussion was when UBC was investigating the possibility of running a French tournament on NorAms weekend, and in order to allow UWO to host an English invitational on French Nats weekend. The UWO situation comes with the approval of the TD and French Language Director.

-Tay is believes that this amendment can draw debaters away from French tournaments and might stunt the growth of a smaller French club.

-Shaugnessy believes it creates conflict for those who would like to try French debating. Understands that this particular situation is works out, and would like to examine each situation on a case by case basis rather than pass a blanket amendment.

-Dash believes that the problem of one tournament “syphoning” debaters would be minimal. From past experience the people who attend French Nats would have been there regardless.

-Ashish points out that the amendment allows more flexibility in the French schedule and allows for more tournaments.

-Shaughnessy think too many tournament hurts CUSID might not want to incentivize having more tournament.

The motion to amend the bylaws as proposed FAILED.

The membership agree to table an amendment that would allow case-by-case examination by the Executive at the next possible meeting.

8. New Business

Chris explains that the budget is the same as last year. The membership fee was lowered to $8.75 because the budget was to be split up between more clubs.

The CUSID budget was PASSED as presented.

Due to time issues the membership agree to have the discussion on the Scheduling Policy and CUSIDnet Moderation Policy in the President’s Forum of CUSIDnet.

9. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 13:17.

March 18 and 19, 2006

Carleton University

1. Call to Order

2. Roll Call and Voting Rights

Executive Present:

Jess Prince, President (Chair)

Joanna Langille, Treasurer

Myles McNutt, Vice-President, Atlantic Region

Erin Reddekopp, Vice-President, Western Region

Paul-Erik Veel, Vice-President, Central Region

Michael Kotrly, National Ombudsperson

Schools and Voting Rights:

Acadia University

University of Alaska (proxy carried by Teddy Harrison)

Unviersity of Alberta

Athabasca University

Brandon University (proxy carried by Erin Reddekopp)

Bishop’s University  (Ben)

University of British Columbia

University of Calgary

Carleton University

Concordia University

University College of Cape Breton

Dalhousie University

English Debating Society, University of Ottawa

University of Guelph

Hart House, University of Toronto

Lakehead University

McGill University

McMaster University

University of New Brunswick

Queen’s University

Royal Military College

University of Saskatchewan (proxy carried by James Crossman)

St. Francis Xavier University

Trinity College, University of Toronto

University of Waterloo

University of Western Ontario

Wilfrid Laurier University

York University

Fully-directed proxies:

École Polytechnique de Montréal

Also present:

University of Manitoba (proxy carried by Meredith Tapper)

University of Winnipeg (proxy carried by Meredith Tapper)

3. Approval of the Agenda

- Motioned by Saskatchewan, seconded by Alberta.  Motion carries unanimously.

4. Approval of Previous Minutes

- Motioned by Bishop’s, seconded by McMaster.  Motion carries unanimously.

5. Oral Executive Reports

President:

Report found in http://www.cusid.ca/documents/reports/2005-2006/president.final.html

Executive Director:

Report found in http://www.cusid.ca/documents/reports/2005-2006/ed.final.html

Treasurer:

Report found in http://www.cusid.ca/documents/reports/2005-2006/treasurer.final.html

Director of French Language Debate:

Report found in http://www.cusid.ca/documents/reports/2005-2006/directrice.final.html

National Ombudsperson:

Although most of the National Ombudperson’s Report is confidential, Michael Kotrly reported that there was some need to clarify the role of the National Ombudsperson and his or her regional partners.

6. Constitutional amendments

A.  Amendment to Schedule A for new full memberships: University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba

DISCUSSION:

• Winnipeg and Manitoba both had provisional membership and the required documents for full membership.

- Motioned by St. FX, seconded by Athabasca.  Motion carries unanimously.

B.  Amendments to the “Executive” section:

43. The Executive Director shall be responsible for
a. maintaining the CUSID WWW site and CUSID-Net mailing list CUSIDnet discussion forum

42. The President shall be responsible for

Addition of:

i. reviewing and updating Schedule A, jointly with the Treasurer, at his/her term’s end

44. The Treasurer shall be responsible for

Addition of:

j. reviewing and updating Schedule A, jointly with the President, at his/her term’s end

Proposed by: Executive Director 2005/2006.

- Motioned by Hart House, seconded by Western.  Motion carries unanimously.

C. Other Amendments:

DISCUSSION:

• Kozo Ota (McMaster) proposed a change to Article 52, which would require candidates for executive positions to declare their candidacy more than one week in advance of the CUSID meeting.  Kozo explained that it is difficult for schools to submit proxies when platforms are not posted, and that it limits the ability of clubs to have proper consultation and represent the wishes of their club democratically.  Even if individuals were only required to declare their candidacy and not post a platform, a list of names would be very helpful.
• Ben Wald (Bishop’s) asked if this motion would mean that if no one posted their platform a week in advance then there would be no executive.  Kozo agreed that this would be the implication of his proposal.
• Bryan Badali  (McGill) yielded the floor to Jason Rogers, who noted that the McGill Debating Union has thought about adopting such a plan in years past, and had opted not to do so because of the fear that it would discourage last-minute candidates, lose a measure of flexibility, and ultimately make the elections less democratic.  It’s not a matter of people deliberately misleading the electorate; rather, they are just not certain if they want to run.
• Chris Niewiadomski  (RMC) asked what would count as declaring ones candidacy?  Jess (President) stated that it would likely be a post on CUSIDnet.  Kozo (McMaster) accepted this as a friendly amendment to the motion.
• Joanna Nairn (Hart House) commented that this would mean people could not run for multiple positions on the executive.

- Motioned by Athabasca that this discussion be continued on CUSIDnet, seconded by McMaster.  Motion carries unanimously.

7. New business

Tournament Attendance:

• Joanna Nairn (Hart House) brought up the issues of declining membership in CUSID, and asked what could be done about it.  She suggested that perhaps the problem is that tournaments are becoming too informal and disorganized, and not enough of an ‘event.’
• Mark Botte (UCCB) agreed with Jo that this is a major issue, but had the opposite response – in his opinion, tournaments are becoming too formal and not enough fun.
• Bernard Dawson (WLU) agreed with Mark that the issue was not the formality of the tournament, as tournaments, even when CUSID was much larger, never ran on time.  Bernard argued that smaller tournaments are better than large ones, and that big tournaments should have the same feel as small tournaments in order to keep the CUSID identity.
• Kozo Ota (McMaster) identified the real issue as being the high cost of entry, perhaps as a function of the new prevalence of banquets which drive up the cost.  Jess (President) said that the recent Mac Pro-Am was a testament to how small tournaments could be successful.
• Laura Kusisto(Queen’s) agreed that at Queen’s it is an issue of money, and Jess agreed that the same problem exists at McGill.
• Michael Payton (York) thought that the problem was that going to every tournament doesn’t work for all clubs.

-Motioned by McGill that this discussion be continued on CUSIDnet, seconded by Laurier.  Motion carries unanimously.

[At this point in the meeting, several people left to do public speaking.  Votes were proxied as thus:

Lakehead University (proxy carried by Dave Sorensen)

English Debating Society, University of Ottawa (proxy carried by John Sergeant)

University of Guelph (proxy carried by Kozo Ota)

Royal Military College (proxy carried by John Sergeant)

Concordia University (proxy carried by Laurier)]

8. National Championship Bids

Designation of CUSID Nationals, March 2007
Bidding school: Queen’s University

DISCUSSION:

• Laura Kusisto and Adam Lazier presented the 2007 Nationals bid from Queens.  Meredith (Western) asked whether novices would be in the normal break or a novice break, and Laura stated that they would do whatever the CUSID community wanted. Ben Piper (Carleton) yielded the floor to Padraic Ryan, who stated that the novice break was the only reason he kept debating in CUSID.
• Chris Rivers (Acadia) asked whether resolutions would be squirrelable, and Laura replied in the affirmative.
• Joanna Nairn (Hart House) asked whether they would still host Chancellors; Laura replied that it was likely but not entirely confirmed.
• Christopher Macmillan (Calgary) asked about the cost; Laura replied that the cost wasn’t finalized but that they would be looking in to sponsorship options.

- Motioned by McGill, seconded by Bishop’s.  Motion carries unanimously.

Adjournment

- Motioned by Saskatchewan to adjourn, seconded by Hart House. Motion carries unanimously. It was decided to reconvene the next day to complete the agenda.

Call to Order

Meeting reconvened on March 19, 2006.

Second Roll Call

Acadia University

Unviersity of Alaska (proxy carried by Teddy Harrison)

University of Alberta

Athabasca University

Bishop’s University

Brandon University (proxy carried by Erin Reddekopp)

University of British Columbia

Carleton University

Concordia (proxy carried by EDS)

Dalhouse University

English Debating Society, University of Ottawa

Guelph University

Hart House, University of Toronto

Lakehead University

University of Manitoba (proxy carried by Meredith Tapper)

McGill University

McMaster University

University of New Brunswick

Queen’s University

Royal Military College

University of Saskatchewan (proxy carried by James Crossman)

St. Francis Xavier University

Trinity College, University of Toronto

University of Waterloo (proxy carried by Bernard Dawson)

University of Western Ontario

University of Winnipeg (proxy carried by Meredith Tapper)

Wilfrid Laurier University

York University

Jess noted that Manitoba and Winnipeg hadn’t paid dues at the last meeting yesterday – but they paid in last 24 hours and are now on the list.

9. Elections for the 2006-2007 CUSID Executive

Each candidate is given five minutes to speak.  The speaking order is determined by last name alphabetically.

A. President

Candidates:

- Padraic Ryan

- Meredith Tapper

- Nominations approved unanimously.

Padraic Ryan:

He introduced himself and explained that he has been debating at Carleton for three years, which was the most important intellectual activity he has ever experienced.  He is running because he wants to be involved in debating and to expand the quantity and quality of debating in Canada.  He would like to make it accessible to the most people in the best way possible.  At Carleton, they have seen the culmination of a great club building process.  The skills and experience that he has from going through this process are relevant to his ability to act as CUSID President.  Padraic has experience ‘in all brackets’ and can thus represent the views of a variety of types of debaters.  Debating should be an educational experience that is interactive and developmental.  Padraic spoke to five campaign issues:

Small schools issue: he will use own experience and try and share those skills with others.

French Debating: he plans to compete at a French tournament and can speak French. Also, the knowledge he has on small schools issues are transferable to French schools.

Women/Equity: he is a feminist and supports improving the status of women in CUSID.

Regional Development: he will attend a tournament in each region.

Northams and Worlds Council: he knows about these issues too.

Meredith Tapper:

She explained her motivations for running – she has been in CUSID for three years and has enjoyed the intellectual development and the people.  She wishes CUSID to have an open environment where everyone is comfortable.  She has been the President of Western’s club, which has fundraised significantly and formulated bonds with other clubs.  Meredith is very interested in communication issues.  The most important role for the CUSID President to fulfill is to coordinate communication between clubs.  She hopes to take on initiatives such as creating a tournament directing guide, among other communication-based projects.  Meredith would also represent CUSID at Northams by standing up for Canadian interests, and would effectively deal with other organizations such as school administrations, companies, etc.  Communication would be further facilitated by the creation of a CUSID email list, which would help those people who do not check CUSIDnet, particularly French schools.

QUESTIONS:

Alberta: We abolished Western MoA because it was outdated and unenforceable, and we wanted to outline rules in the running of McGoun.  With the existence of regional issues such as these, what can you do to help regions?

Padraic:  He agreed that it wasn’t necessary to have constitutional document like MoA.  His primary mode of assistance would be through communication, such as seeking out clubs to bit for title tournaments, etc.  He also emphasized that it’s okay to have a competitive bid process.  The only problem is when the lines of communication are too informal.

Meredith:  She is in favor of decentralization.  However, as President she wants to facilitate discussions within regions, particularly over tournament bids.

Athabasca: Can you communicate in French, because the new director of French Debate does not speak English?

Meredith:  She can communicate in French (primarily written) and grew up in a French culture.

Padraic:  [In French]  He speaks French with an intermediate level of speaking and writing.  He is confident in his ability to translate in the Exec forum, for example.  He intends to compete at a French tournament.

Hart House: Both candidates mention centralizing the role of President in Nationals fundraising.  To what extent should the President be distributing resources?

Meredith: In general her platform is not in favor of centralizing power.  Her goal with respect to Nats is to have it hosted in all regions and hopefully coordinate the appropriate money for traveling.

Padraic:  During the title tournament bidding process this might be relevant, but is ultimately at the discretion of the host school.

Alaska:  I’m glad to see importance of representing CUSID at Northams and Worlds Council.  What are your particular qualifications or skills to sit on those bodies?

Padraic:  He broke this year at Worlds and attended the women’s forum there.  He also reads about world debating issues.  Equity is an essential element of his perspective at the table.

Meredith:  She attended Worlds and made many friends there; she doesn’t hold the belief that you have to break at worlds to contribute at the Worlds Council table.  She is educated in communication and negotiation.

Bishop’s: On the issue of increasing tournament fees, what would your position be on getting more smaller or cheaper tournaments?

Meredith: Although cheaper tournaments are good idea, there is nothing President can enforce.

Padraic: He agrees that we should have smaller tournaments, but that by facilitating the bid process we can solve for this issue.

McGill: There has been a serious drop in participation. What would President do to combat that?

Padraic:  Combating this issue is about making debating seem as open and inclusive as possible.  We could eliminate injokes in opening briefings, for example.

Meredith:  This is a culture issue – we need schools to interact with one another at the very beginning to address this.  We should moderate the level of exclusivity. Meredith attempted to make people aware of the ombudsperson in addressing these issues while she was in that role.

Brittany Piovesan (former Director of French Language Debate): Why were your platforms only in English?

Meredith:  She can understand French and is committed to this issue.

Padraic:  It was a mistake.  There is no simple solution, but one thing that could be done would be to have platforms half in French and half in English.

Dalhousie ceded the floor to Jen Bond: There is a current problem with Central and ‘the regions’ (ugly step-child metaphor).   What do you really think that the President can do for the East?

Padraic:  He is not going to promise something unrealistic.  However, the lessons of developing small schools issues can apply, and he would like to ensure that there is a level of respect so people don’t feel alienated.

Meredith:  Each region does have issues; these issues are most effectively deal with by the Vice Presidents, but there are resource problems that apply to all regions.

Vote: 17-11 in favour of Padraic Ryan for 2006-2007 CUSID President.

B. Executive Director

Candidates:

- Carleton nominates Graham Pressey, seconded by Saskatchewan.  Nomination approved unanimously.

- Dalhousie nominates Chris Rivers, seconded by RMC.  Nomination approved unanimously.

Graham Pressey:

He likened CUSIDnet to cocaine for computer geeks, and described his love of CUSIDnet.  He is studying computer science, and has moderated boards in the past.  He also has organizational experience with CUSID, as he is the assistant tabs director for Nationals.  He is dedicated and levelheaded and feels he will be affective.

Chris Rivers:

He likes CUSIDnet, and the Acadia Advantage means he likes computers.  He has some experience with computers, and knows where to ask for help.  He is from another region, and has credibility because he takes CUSID very seriously.  ED’s need to understand more than just computer issues.  He would create a mailing list, and would create a short-term file sharing capacity on CUSIDnet.  In terms of moderating, he cares about equity.

QUESTIONS:

Hart House: Wth respect to equity, how far should the free speech argument go? Would you work with Ombudspeople?

Graham:  There is a need to balance free speech with equity, and would work with Ombuddies.

Rivers:  He would go to Ombudspeople for advice.

McMaster: Do you have the technical skills?

Rivers: He doen’t need help with email list, and can get help for file sharing.

Graham:  Rivers ideas are very good, and would be simple to do.

Vote: 20-7-1 (abstention) in favour of Chris Rivers for 2006-2007 CUSID Executive Director.

C. Treasurer

Candidates:

- McMaster nominates Chris Somerville, seconded by Hart House.  Nomination approved unanimously.

- Brandon nominates Monica Ferris, seconded by Queen’s.  Nomination approved unanimously.

Monica Ferris:

She stated that she works at her father’s accounting firm, and knows how to look at lots of boring facts and figures.  She would like to do a few things: accurately reflect the cost of tournaments in the open letter with respect to the different costs people from different regions face, and would like to have more national visibility because regional VPs can embezzle.  To achieve this latter goal, Monica would travel to the regions to collect money.

Chris Somerville:

He likes different perspectives on issues and feels this is the best way to contribute to the executive.  He has been a treasurer three times in his life, and is comfortable handling money and effectively communication.  He has a sufficient administrative capacity and has done committee work.  Chris speaks French.

QUESTIONS:

Bishop’s: Do you have any particular projects as an Exec member?

Chris:  The open letter sounds like a good idea.

Monica:  We already have an open letter, but she would improve it. She would also go to the regions.

Vote: 17-11 in favour of Chris Somerville for 2006-2007 CUSID Treasurer.

10. Adjournment

- Motion carries unanimously.

January 29, 2006

Hart House, University of Toronto

1.  Call to Order

Meeting called to order at 1:00 pm by Jessica Prince, CUSID President

2.  Roll Call and Voting Rights

Executive Present:

Jess Prince, President (Chair)

Julieta Chan, Executive Director

Joanna Langille, Treasurer

Monica Ferris, Vice-President, Western Region

Paul-Erik “Dash” Veel, Vice-President, Central Region

Michael Kotrly, National Ombudsperson

Schools:

University of Alberta (proxy carried by Padraic Ryan)

University of British Columbia (proxy carried by Padraic Ryan)

Carleton University

English Debating Society, University of Ottawa

University of Guelph

Hart House, University of Toronto

McGill University

McMaster University

Queen’s University

Trinity College, University of Toronto

University of Waterloo

University of Western Ontario

Wilfrid Laurier University

York University

Full-directed Proxies:

University of Calgary

University of New Brunswick

Bishop’s University

3.  Additions to and Approval of the Agenda

Motion to postpone the discussion of restricting non-Canadian members from full membership in other organizations until after the discussion of the alternative motion of restricting all members.

- Motioned by McGill, seconded by McMaster.  Motion is carried.

Agenda unanimously approved by voice vote.

4. Approval of Previous Minutes

Minutes unanimously approved by voice vote.

5. Oral Executive Reports

President:

• Two new schools in Quebec looking for CUSID membership, which shows a growth of debate in the province.  Brittany Piovesan, the Director of French Debate, is very excited.
• The Universities of Manitoba and Winnipeg have been granted provisional membership and will submit for full membership at Nationals.
• Will attempt to clean up by-laws that have gone missing.
• At Worlds Council, we ratified UBC’s bid for next year’s Worlds and voted for Assumption University in Thailand to host Worlds 2008.
• Made connections with people from the West Indies and Jamaica at Worlds who were interested in participating in Canadian tournaments.
• At Worlds, met the APDA President, Robbie Pratt, and we had previously talked about having a “heads of state” meeting at the North American Championships to discuss the Memorandum of Understanding and other issues that effect our two circuits. At World’s, we reaffirmed our desire to have such a meeting between our Executives. However, on the day before NorthAms, he decided not to attend the tournament, so I met with other Executive members who said they were unaware of the President’s issues and who were generally very nice.
• Will recommend that a better transfer of information happens between Executive members leaving office and those who have newly been elected, and therefore proposes that a formal report be written by all CUSID Executive members.

Executive Director:

• Updated CUSIDnet software during the holidays and the website has continually been updated
• CUSIDnet recently had a case of spam posts.  Created a small dilemma about thread deletion when people started replying to the threads and having conversations.  Decided that they will be deleted if replies were only requests for deletion or when no productive conversation is being had.
• Renewed webhosting account by taking advantage of the Christmas special – buy one year and get one year free as well as double bandwidth.  Bandwidth should not be a problem anymore.

Treasurer:

• List of schools who have paid their dues is updated and on CUSIDnet
• Paid to renew CUSID webhosting package
• Agree with Jess that formal report needs to be written, since there were problems with transferring this year.  Suggest that CUSID account transfers be done during Nationals to prevent the outgoing Treasurer from leaving the country and not transfer the account to the incoming Treasurer.
• Money is in the bank account!

Director of French Language Debate (delivered by Bill Hughes of Ottawa):

• Attended The Commerce Games (Jeux du Commerce) at Université Laval, which is a popular French debating event in Canada.  Represented CUSID and judged 18 rounds of debate.  Great venue for French debater connections and inroads to French debate in Canada.
• Happy that there are two new French schools applying for CUSID membership.
• Increased number of French tournaments. Université du Québec à Montréal (pending membership) is bidding for French Nationals this year.  Sherbrooke will be hosting Opération Sherbrooke, a magic wand tournament, in February.  L’École Polytechnique de Montréal will be hosting a tournament called King of the Mountain and the invitation will be up in the next week.
• Would like to see French school private forums on CUSIDnet to increase communication in those schools.
• Interested in getting non-CUSID schools to go to tournaments.

Joanna Langille, as 2006 NorthAms Tournament Director:

• NorthAms advice for next year’s Executive:  Make sure that the Canadian NorthAms Deputy Chief Adjudicator is selected as early as possible, e.g. 6 months, so that the DCA has sufficient time to communicate with the Chief Adjudicator and the organizing committee.
• Next year’s American CA will be from southern APDA, so their goals will be less compatible with CUSID’s goals.
• This year, Robbie Pratt had asked that the Memorandum of Understanding be repealed, and Maryland and Johns Hopkins pulled out because of dissatisfaction with the MoU.  If they try to pull out next year, try to give them the style guide from this year, which most teams agreed was a fair interpretation of the MoU.
• In general, an important criterion for the DCA should be that he or she is a forceful person who can adequately represent CUSID’s voice at NorthAms.

Vice-President, Western Region:

• CUSIDWest actively undermines equity issues and disregards the Code of Conduct, since they think that equity is a Central problem.  For example, there were no equity officers at Hugill until it was pointed out and only then was the Tournament Director designated as one.  Still, she was not visible throughout the tournament and never left the tabs room.  Another example is UBC who had no equity policy for a CUSID-wide title tournament.
• There are ideological differences, split between “West CUSIDWest” consisting of B.C. and Alberta and “East CUSIDWest” consisting of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  The West believes in canned cases; the East doesn’t.  The East believes in mandatory heckling; the West doesn’t.  This degenerated into a 12-page flamewar on CUSIDnet.
• Over the summer, hopes to discard the Memorandum of Agreement.  Will adopt a NorthAms style times or just pure Central times, but not sure how it affects East CUSIDWest, since they’re pretty mad about it right now.
• Want to encourage American participation from NPDA.  There was an American team who attended Hugill this year.

Vice-President, Central Region:

• There is still no assigned host for next year’s Central Novice Championship.  A Trinity Novice is a possibility, but still looking at other schools that could host.
• At the upcoming tournament at Guelph, may have another forum to discuss issues in Central, so it’s not just people from small schools.  If there’s a broad consensus on issues, solutions can be formalized and implemented more than has been in the past.  However, will need to check on other schools’ attendance.
• There have always been claims about the benefits and harms of certain dynamics and certain styles.  With Shaughnessy Hawkins, will look at CUSID in a social science perspective and compile statistics with controls for gender, small school, program of study.  Will ask different research questions such as what determines what wins rounds?

National Ombudsperson:

• Echoes Monica about region disparity on equity issues and that it is viewed as a Central problem.  CUSIDEast was also really bad about following the CoC, but Jen Bond, the Eastern Ombudsperson, enforced it.
• Some schools are actually against equity policies and do or say things just to provoke the equity officers or Ombuds Committee to act.
• The whole Ombuds Committee is in good communication with each other.
• Question for President: Regional Ombudspeople are supposed to do a report after each tournament, but to whom are these reports supposed to be submitted?
• President: Probably supposed to go to the National Ombudsperson.
  • CUSID is likely the most equity friendly debating organization in the world!

6. Constitutional Amendments

A.  Amendment to the “Regions” section:

Addition of:

5.CUSID shall be regionally organized into:
c) the Western Region, comprised of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Territories, and Alaska.

Proposed by: the President 2005/2006.

- Motioned by McGill, seconded by Guelph.  Motion carries unanimously.

B.  Amendments to the “Executive” section:

42. The President shall be responsible for

Addition of:

h. compiling a formal report at his/her term’s end.

43. The Executive Director shall be responsible for

Addition of:

g. compiling a formal report at his/her term’s end.

44. The Treasurer shall be responsible for

Addition of:

i. compiling a formal report at his/her term’s end.

45. The Vice-Presidents shall

Addition of:

f. compile formal reports at their term’s end.

46. The Director of French Language Debate shall

Addition of:

g. compile a formal report at his/her term’s end.

Proposed by: the President 2005/2006.

- Motioned by UBC, seconded by Alberta.  Motion carries unanimously.

C.  Amendment to Schedule A for new full memberships: l’Université de Québec à Montréal and la Polytechnique de Montréal.

DISCUSSION:

• Polytechnique has not sent people to tournaments, but will host a small tournament in Feburary.  They can work together with UQAM.
• UQAM would also like to involve themselves in CUSID as well and can definitely put on a good French Nats.

- Motioned by Ottawa, seconded by Carleton.  Motion carries unanimously.

D.  Amendment to the “Membership” section:

Addition of:

10. All members shall be restricted from holding full membership in any other debate organization (for example, they shall not be regular institutional members of NPDA or members of APDA).

Proposed by: the President 2005/2006.

DISCUSSION:

• President: There are two motions for consideration. I am proposing them because at the last GM in October, after we granted Alaska full CUSID membership, some members expressed interest in restricting their membership and other future non-Canadian members solely to CUSID and thus, no other regional debate organizations. After that meeting, some members also expressed interest in a motion restricting all CUSID members from holding full membership in any other regional debate organizations (such as APDA or NPDA). I have no personal stake or interest in either motion, I just think that they both deserve to be considered. As this is controversial, any motion should obtain 2/3 majority to pass.
• Now that Alaska has been accepted with no strings attached, there is more interest from other American schools to join CUSID just to have access to the regional and National Championships.  There needs to be some display of commitment to CUSID.
• We don’t want to restrict people from debate.  It’s a debating organization.  We vote on these memberships on a case-by-case basis anyway.  We don’t really need this hard rule in place to bind everybody.  If it means more people at tournaments, that’s good.
• All schools in CUSID have limited resources and we don’t want to drain clubs.  If we open CUSID up to anybody, a club’s resources will be spread thin.  Our primary mandate should be to encourage Canadian clubs to go to Canadian tournaments.
• If it’s just solely on a case-by-case basis, some schools will have more political advantage than others.
• We really want to engage with NPDA in CUSIDWest.  NPDA considers UBC and Alberta as full members.  Alberta and UBC have constitutional power in NPDA.
• We’re not stopping people from debating.  We allow non-Canadians to go to CUSID invitationals anyway.  We’re talking about things like being on the CUSID Executive and participating at Nationals.  If we’re going to define CUSID as a league, we should have some kind of limitations.  We should be consistent about whom to allow as full members and not just schools we like and schools we don’t like.
• This amendment is restrictive and can’t cater to different organizations.  E.g., if we vote on contractual issues with APDA, then some schools can have 2 votes.  Perhaps this amendment can only apply to organizations with which CUSID has some contract.
• McGill: Friendly motion to amend “for example” to “i.e.”.  Motion is friendly, so amended.

- Motioned by McGill, seconded by Hart House.  Motion fails with only 8 votes for.

E.  Amendment to the “Membership” section:
Addition of:

10. The non-Canadian members shall be restricted from holding full membership in any other debate organization (for example, they shall not be regular institutional members of NPDA or members of APDA).

Proposed by: the President 2005/2006.

DISCUSSION:

• If not the last one, then not this one.
• We have to treat non-Canadians differently.  We can’t just admit anybody into CUSID.  If they really want the opportunity to vote in CUSID, then they need to show us why by not being in other organizations.
• The difference is that they already have other leagues in which they can be on the league executive and vote.  Remember, they can still participate in our tournaments.

- Motioned by Hart House, seconded by McMaster.  Motion fails with only 7 votes for.

7. New Business

a) Designation of French Nationals, March 2006
Bidding school: l’UQAM

- Motioned by McGill, seconded by Ottawa.  Motion carries unanimously by voice vote.
b) Designation of British Parliamentary Championships, fall 2006
Bidding school: Hart House

- Motioned by McGill, seconded by Carleton. Motion carries unanimously by voice vote.
8. Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 2:15 pm.

Hugill Cup, University of Alberta – November 26, 2005

VP West, Athabasca, Calgary (Kettles), BC (Teddy), Alberta (Roman / James), Saskatchewan (Ky), Brandon (BJ), [Alaska (Steve)], SFU (Massie)

* VP West report
- CA school / training etc over summer
- Massie’s videos
- Portland tournament, 9 – 11 Dec. (Steve)
- Brandon invitational, 20 – 22 Jan. (BJ)
- French discussion, FL-HS debate in Apr. (Guillaume)

* Tournament debriefing
- Mandatory for all tournaments, posted before meeting (BJ)
- Can codify until blue in face, but if we want them, we should just do it (Crossman)
We will encourage them, posted beforehand, in Western Issues

* Western Issues mod policy
- Current policy arbitrary, let’s limit somewhat (James)
- Pref. open access on request, but Western Issues is intended for business and mod policy should follow (Massie)
… discussion of optics, utility

General consensus on “anyone CUSID-West gets access on request, with a strong moderation policy of ’stay on topic’ and keep it to business.”

* McGoun

Ky & Shavaun(sp.): U of S is looking for tournament that encompasses how a tournament would be run in Sask. Considering heckling, questions, etc. — Sask style includes a lot of heckling, speaker-POIs, and dislike of tight / spec / researched cases. Think that a lot of style questions should be up to host school. Are well on-track for planning, considering external CA (had some offers already, want to develop local CA talent too).

Teddy: understand that you want to run tournament in certain way, but query why this policy of host sovereignty is good.

Sh: see two divisions in CUSID-West: AB/BC have focussed on some aspects of CP, SK/MB have focussed on others. Seems logical to U of S that when it comes to sub-region, there should be some reflectiveness.

Massie: 5 years ago, Leger hosted wanted to run it in BP style. Three years ago, CUSID Pres went to Dief and said “this is more different than we thought”. CUSID-West said style included canned cases, POIs encouraged, etc. When did we develop idea that there are _two_ western styles?

Sh: look at schools as they are now, Brandon, Regina, & Sask tend to run similar styles, which have a categorized difference.

Massie: this is more of an _emerging_ difference, rather than a recognition of a past difference. Isn’t it better to do this prospectively and recognize style?

Teddy: why, for a title tournament, should the host school decide? Can we, as a region, come up with a defined style? See for instance Worlds.

Mandy: to say that this is emerging loses the point that this is _our_ style.

Massie: Sask said that UBC Nats style was Western style, and Dief wasn’t.

Crossman: in terms of TD’s discretion (which I think is important), this is a CUSID-sanctioned tournament. While there may well be a or two  CUSID-West styles, there is also a general CUSID style that cuts through all regions. And perhaps things like having heckling or questions through speaker do undermine that. But when we have a title tournament, as we did at Nats last year, you have to be willing to bend on questions and make people comfortable for the legitimacy.

BJ: five years is non-trivial, in-house style.

Massie: involvement in CUSID West is part of what defines style.

Kyle: MoA is product of schools coming together to answer question “So, what is your style?” when CUSID asked at Nats bids. Maybe we’ve evolved since then and should revisit style. If there are concerns about canned cases, maybe we need to move towards straight cases.

Teddy: maybe, formally, hosts do have that discretion. But as a region, we ought to set the style etc for tournaments.

Consensus seems to be that we want to have a consensus on style for title tournaments and that we’ll try to hammer this out.

UBC British Parliamentary Championships

1. Call to Order

2. Roll Call and Voting Rights

17 members of CUSID, with representatives from all 3 regions – quorum achieved.

–       University of Toronto – Hart House (Jo)

–       University of Guelph (partially directed proxy/Padraic)

–       Carleton University (Padraic)

–       Simon Fraser University (Ross)

–       University of British Columbia (Teddy)

–       University of Alberta (Crossman)

–       Queen’s University (Laura)

–       University of Ottawa – EDS (Padraic)

–       Athabasca University (Chris)

–       Memorial University of Newfoundland (directed proxy)

–       McMaster University (directed proxy)

–       University of New Brunswick (directed proxy)

–       University of Western Ontario (Kevin)

–       Bishop’s University (Jason)

–       McGill University (Jason)

–       University of Calgary (Brent)

–       Waterloo (directed proxy)

3. Oral Executive Reports

a. President’s Report – delivered by Jess.

–       CUSID open letters:

–       completed by the Executive this summer and now available on the website

–       meant as a tool to gain institutional support and fundraising

–       Brittany (the DoFLD) is currently translating them into French

–       Central Debate Guide:

–       helped Dash (the VP Central) compile and edit his guide, now available on the website

–       not just for Central, meant to be used by all of CUSID

–       National Debate Guide:

–       approx. 10 articles, designed to address issues not dealt with in the Central Guide (e.g. regional variations in style, BP debating, NorthAms style, and French debating)

–       will be available as soon as editing/compilation is complete; perhaps will be subsumed within the other Guide? Waiting for more articles.

–       CUSID Bank Account:

–       signing authority has been transferred from the past President and Treasurer to myself, now we are just finalizing the transfer by getting Jo (the current Treasurer) onto the account as well

–       Wayne Chu was owed $132, due to his credit card being down for the website server costs – he wasn’t paid for 2 years, so we paid him back

b. Interim ED’s Report – delivered by Jess on behalf of Julieta.

–       Funky bug that caused sudden changes to CUSIDnet header was fixed when Nick Tam updated the CUSIDnet software just before the transfer.

–       The lost password for the ftp files have been recovered and everything on the website can now be updated.  Things have since been continuously updated.

–        CUSID letterhead designed for open letters and any future documents.

–        Implemented high school tournament schedule to promote CUSID high school tournaments.

–       South African National Debating Council approached to see if we can help with their new website and also to provide some relevant CUSID news for their news section.  We said yes.

–       OSDU approached to see if they can set up a private forum on CUSIDnet for them to use since they have no “technical ability” to create their own forum.  We said no, because of bandwidth, cultural difference, and moderation/censorship problems.

–       It was summer, so not much went on in CUSIDnet.

c. Treasurer’s Report – delivered by Jess on behalf of Jo.

–       Signing authority of the CUSID account: Jess, Alex, Erik and I are in the process of changing the signing authority of the account.  This process is somewhat complicated by the fact that we are in three (now four!) different cities.  There is only one more action to be taken to complete this transaction; Jess simply must confirm my authorization to have signing authority on the account when some paperwork arrives in Montreal.  To future Executives, Jess and I would recommend that you begin the process of account change-over as soon as the new executive is elected.

–       Proposed Budget: After examining the budgets of Gaurav and Alex (the past two Treasurers) I have created a budget which is balanced and which is in line with past CUSID costs.

–       Gavin McGrath: After receiving information from Alex about the CUSID account, I realized that CUSID still has one debt outstanding. Gavin McGrath, former CUSID VP East, still owes the CUSID Exec $70.  I have contacted him about this matter, and he has promised to send me the cheque immediately.

–       Club Fees: As per last year, the amount needed per club to have a balanced CUSID budget was $10.  I have requested this money of the CUSID clubs, and many clubs have already sent their funds via cash or cheque.

–       Bylaw Amendment: As there are no CUSID protections in place against fraud by Treasurers, I have proposed that there be a change made to the CUSID by-laws that requires Treasurers to keep receipts and an updated cash flow sheet.

d. Director of French Language Debate – delivered by Jess on behalf of Brittany.

To begin, interest in french language debate in Canada, or specifically central Canada, is gaining energy and more and more participants. The novice tournament at l’Université de Sherbrooke didn’t have too many francophone novice participants, but the explanation from many who were there was that it was felt that this tournament was a little early and that they hadn’t had sufficient time to prepare. They are waiting instead for the opportunity to debate at the next tournament offered in French, the Coupe Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

When it comes to new members who would like to join CUSID, l’ETS was not able to submit their application on time (due to a change in person responsable for the club), thus it will be necessary to approve them at a later date, hopefully at the beginning of the next semester. The Championnat National can be awarded at that time. The Polytechnique de Montr éal has also showed interest in joining CUSID. It may also be possible to consider their application at the same time as l’ETS.

Contact with the Jeux du Commerce 2006 has been made. The person responsible for the event, Sophie Bergeron will pass on the information regarding french tournaments in CUSID to the participants of the Jeux du Commerce in the hopes that they can pratice their debating skills before the event. After this, I will go to Quebec City to judge at the event and promote CUSID.

Concerning debate in western Canada, I have nominated Guillaume Laroche once again as assistant to the directrice in western Canada. This idea of the last director seemed brilliant, so I have decided to adopt it as well.

The things that will require attention and work over the next couple of months are translation of CUSID documents (if you can help, let me know), recrutement from within the Jeux du Commerce and maybe the Jeux-ridiques (the French Law Games), encouragement of l’ETS and the Polytechnique, as well as support of french debate in western Canada.

e. VP West’s – delivered by Monica.

CUSID West is going through a bit of a transition period. We’re seeing waning growth in some clubs, and the reemergance of others (Brandon, for instance). We’re really happy for UBC as they are hosting Worlds next year. We hope to continue the growth we’ve been seeing recently, especially in French debate, which is often easier to get funding for than English debate. We’re also looking forward to our Fall Open novice tournament, as well as our Hugill Worlds Prep tournament.

f. VP East’s Report – delivered by Jess on behalf of Alexa.

My primary focus as VP Atlantic has been the establishment of new debate clubs in the region. I am very pleased to announce that Saint Mary’s University has formed a debating club this fall. I believe they were ratified last Sunday by their council, and will be seeking provisional membership from CUSID shortly. Personally, I have been working closely with the club’s executive and attending their weekly meetings. Sodales has also reached out to help the new club by inviting SMU debaters to attend Dal meetings. I am encouraged by the enthusiastic response we have gotten from SMU and am excited to see their participation at Acadia’s upcoming invitational tournament.

In addition to the establishment of a club at SMU, we have seen the rejuvenation of the ABU debate society. Their participation at novices was encouraging, and I have been in contact with the club president to get them out to future tournaments in our region. It is a challenge to help ABU grow as they are not located near an established club, but I will be relying on UNB to help them; at least in transportation to upcoming tournaments.

The Atlantic Region is looking forward to Atlantic Championships which are going to be held at St. FX in November. The X club was only (re)established a couple years ago, and it is great to see the enthusiasm and large member participation they are enjoying. My primary concern for Atlantics will be to ensure that we have enough experienced judges to help with the relatively young club. The tournament CA and I will be turning to past debaters in the Atlantic region for their help with judging.

Atlantic Novices were held two weeks ago and the attendance was great. We had approximately twice as many teams in attendance this year compared to last year. I anticipate that this is a good indication of the enthusiasm and participation we can expect in the eastern region this year!

As always, fundraising is a major concern for all of our clubs. I have encouraged the  clubs to access the letter drafted by the executive over the summer, and I hope to talk about some fundraising ideas with each club at Atlantic Championships.

g. National Ombudsperson’s Report – delivered by Mike.

- Equity officers should be people from CUSID instead of someone from outside (i.e. someone who may attend the host school and debate interally, but does not actively participate in CUSID)

- They need the confidence to do something about equity issues and take action if need be

- It is key to let equity officers know what they can and cannot do

- inform them of their jurisdiction & powers

Kevin: Be sure to inform Equity Officers that they should always check with their school and/or student government, because typically they have their own Equity Policies and Guidelines that you will be required to follow and will be constrained by. Then, of course, check the Code of Conduct for CUSID as well.

Constitutional amendments

Full new memberships

Alaska

Informal Platform (presented by Steve Johnson)

o      History of Alaska

o      Seeing more good debate here than in other forums

o      Expanding their BP style, hopefully culminating at worlds

o      Bid based on similar goals, not nefarious to take over organization

o      Motion, seconded

For: 15

Against: 2 (UNB, Hart House)

Brandon University

For: 17

Against: 0

John Molson School of Business

For: 17

Against 0

By-law proposals and Amendments
Amendment to the “Balanced Budget and Account Rule By-law”:

Addition of:

5. The Treasurer shall be responsible for the preparation of a Statement of Cashflows reconciling the opening CUSID bank (cash) balance with the year-end CUSID bank balance. All line items of the Statement of Cashflows must be accompanied by appropriate receipts.

Presented by: Treasurer 2005-2006

Motion to approve, seconded

Passed unanimously, no abstentions or opposition

áOther amendments/proposals were contingent upon Alaska not being granted membership and thus, were dropped from the agenda)

New Business

Approval of the 2005-2006 CUSID Budget:

Revenues
CUSID Dues (35 Members * $10) $350.00

Expenses
Photocopying $(70.00)

Trophy Engraving $(100.00)

Bank Charges
Bank Charges $(60.00)

Website
Server Charges $(120.00)

Profit/Loss $0.00

o Passed unanimously, no abstentions or opposition

Election of the permanent 2005-2006 CUSID Executive Director:

o Joyce Thomas of University of Western Ontario

Platform (presented on her behalf by Kevin Massie)

Move the role towards a news anchor-type position, in order to move information into the regions and provide constant updates.

Technical abilities and lots of spare time.

o Julieta Chan of the University of Toronto

Platform (presented on her behalf by Jo Nairn)

Interim ED for 4-5 months

Updates CUSIDnet regularly

Implemented high school tournaments schedule

Past and current results page being updated

Laissez faire approach to moderation

Kevin: motion to move vote to a “closed eyes, raised hands” ballot

Passed unanimously, no abstentions or opposition

o Julieta: 16 votes

o Joyce: 1 vote

Julieta elected as official permanent 2005-2006 CUSID Executive Director

Final Discussion and Concerns:

Posting things that are wrong on CUSIDnet that don’t get caught

Teddy: Canadian-wide Worlds preparation/information compilation? (Not officially endorsed)

Joanna Nairn: There should be a motion at next CUSID GM to amend constitution to reflect desire of CUSID that non-Canadian members of CUSID be restricted to holding membership only in CUSID (i.e. not NDPA or APDA simultaneously)

Adjournment

March 20 and 21, 2004

Taken by Wayne Chu

1. Call to Order

Meeting called to order by the CUSID President, Konrad Koncewicz at 1:20pm.

2. Roll Call and Voting Rights

ACADIA

ALBERTA

CALGARY (VIA PROXY)

CARLETON

CONCORDIA

DALHOUSIE

DAWSON

GUELPH

HART HOUSE

HURON (VIA PROXY)

KING’S COLLEGE (VIA PROXY)

LAURIER (VIA PROXY)

MARIANOPOLIS

MCGILL

MCMASTER

MEMORIAL

OTTAWA

QUEEN’S

REGINA (VIA PROXY)

RMC

SASKATCHEWAN

SHERBROOKE

ST. THOMAS

TRINITY

UBC

UCCB

UNB

WATERLOO

UWO

YORK

3. Additions to and Approval of the Agenda

Motion to approve agenda by MAC seconded by WATERLOO.

Motion carries.

4. Approval of Previous Minutes

Motion to approve previous minutes by STU seconded by GUELPH.

Motion carries.

5. Executive Reports

A. President

Feels that most of what I set out to do was accomplished.

Major responsibilities were keeping peace and order, especially on CUSIDnet.  The role is a lot of behind the scenes work and to essentially peace keep.  In terms of order, there were a couple of incidents where we had to enforce bylaws.

First issue was the Atlantic Novice Championships, which was delayed by Hurricane Juan.  Ensured official process was followed despite objections by some in East to “central bureaucracy”.  In the end, executive approved change, and everything was settled.

Second pertained to changes to McMaster’s Leger bid.  It was a minor change but thanks to Nihal for being patient.  In end, the issue was resolved through proper channels.

Also ensured that by-laws were kept up to date, and were accurate, reflecting previously approved changes.

World’s Council

Regarding the stripping of Croatia’s bid, the concern and the reason why we voted no confidence was the quality of adjudication plan, training, etc. and an unrealistic team cap to host 400 team event (100 more than past record).  Croatia had not hosted an event that large before.  Also a lack of communication with Croatia was an issue.  Finally they did not present an updated budget.

We also approved a sliding scale break for ESL teams.  An official tabs system was approved.  One issue was Michael Smith’s style guide which contained some deficiencies.  It was passed because of fatigue.  This shouldn’t be an issue, however.

A 2005 North American DCA was selected – Kevin Massie will serve this position.

NorAms Style Guide

CUSID and APDA have adopted a “North American” style, like that used at Queen’s.

B. Executive Director;

(see written report)

C. Treasurer;

CUSID Surplus

We have it back.  It’s about $3000.  Looking into whether it can be invested for a period of one year.  Another issue was that Gavin left Canada without handing in CUSID East dues.  We’re waiting for him to get back and there shouldn’t be any problems.

In the future, every CUSID treasurer should do reconciliation from previous year to future year, to ensure everything is above board.

Details on expenses will be posted shortly.

D. Director of French Language Debate.

A big year for French debating.  We got everything starting again in Qeubec, and am proud to have a new member, Université de Sherbrooke.  We have also expanded our base of contacts throughout various schools, such as ETS, Montreal, etc.

Frnech Nats was big, relative to previous numbers.  The tournament ran very well.  I like to thank Ottawa for their leadership in hosting championships and wish the best of luck to Phillipe Boisvert, the next DoFLD.

6. Constitutional Amendments

A.      Amendment to Schedule A for new full memberships;

May Schedule A be amended so as to include the following schools as full members of CUSID:

1.       Dawson College

2.       Lakehead University

3.       Université de Sherbrooke

So moved by the CUSID President

Motion passed unanimously.

B.       Amendment to Article 42, duties of the CUSID President;

May Article 42 be amended so as to add

g. coordinating the schedule of CUSID member events.

So moved by the CUSID President

PRESIDENT – I did this task this year and it worked very well, resolving conflict issues that happened in the past.  In the East and West, took a much more laid back approach as there are not as many conflicts in those regions.

ALBERTA – Motion to amend to add “with the coordination of regional vice-presidents.”

Motion is considered friendly, so amended.

CARLETON – Is this a first come first served situation?

PRESIDENT – Not really.  President should attempt to coordinate.  Later by-law proposal deals with that.

CONCORDIA – What if a president is biased towards a school?

PRESIDENT – Again, this is dealt with the by-law.  President is just to attempt to coordinate.  This is not binding.

Call to vote motioned by TRINITY, seconded by OTTAWA.

Motion carries by voice vote.

C.       Addition of Article 53 under heading “Election of the Executive”;

53. Upon completion of the election, the newly elected officers shall take their respective offices two weeks thereafter. The intervening period of time should be used to transfer all necessary articles, effects, legal authorities, etc. from the departing Executive to the incoming Executive.

May all subsequent Articles be re-numbered to reflect the addition of the above article

So moved by the CUSID President

PRESIDENT – Transition periods are very messy and there is no clear line when one executive ends, and another begins.  Especially when there are loose ends that needs to be tied up.  For example, bank issues.  Also sets an official precedent on when a power change occurs.  This has been a problem in the past that should be cleared up

ALBERTA (yields to James Crossman) – Can we make this a month?  In the west, change in VP is usually a month before Nationals.

Motion to amend changing “two weeks” to “one month”.  Motion is considered friendly, so amended.

Motion carries by voice vote.

D.      Amendment to Article 8, grounds for loss of CUSID membership;

8. In the situation where a CUSID member has not participated in any CUSID sanctioned tournament for four two consecutive years or has not been a member in good standing of CUSID for four two consecutive years, that member will be automatically removed from Schedule A of the CUSID Constitution and will lose all accorded privileges. It is highly encouraged that the dormant member reapplies to gain status as a CUSID member and subsequently become a member in good standing.

So moved by the CUSID President

PRESIDENT – It deals with the lack of institutional memory as there is no way to know who participated four years ago.  It’s hard to recall.  A club that is dead in 2 years is also not the same club as before and should go through process again, to ensure proper constitution and executive is in place.

ACADIA – Atlantic has difficulty with this as people are leaving and coming back often.  This might make it harder for clubs to return.  With keeping records, the Executive Director should just keep those records online or some other alternative.

CONCORDIA – You have to consider that if you keep it 4 years, no mechanism is in place to ensure that the club is legitimate.  This is a greater safeguard that clubs are legitimate.

PRESIDENT – Perhaps compromise and make it a vote of the executive, instead of outright stripping of membership.

MARIANOPOLIS – CEGEP’s are quite susceptible to the 2 years in, 2 years out problem.

Motion to amend adding after the first sentence “upon vote of Executive and approval of their regional Vice President.”  Motion is considered friendly, so amended.

QUEEN’S – This only applies to sanctioned tournaments?

PRESIDENT – This was an oversight.  Perhaps another amendment?

Motion to amend changing “sanctioned tournament” to  “CUSID member event.”  Motion is considered friendly, so amended.

CONCORDIA – Does this mean that invitationals have to deny non-members?

PRESIDENT – No.  Events just counts towards the amount of inactive years.

HART HOUSE – Even with a vote of executive, clubs still can’t speak for themselves.  Depends a lot on regional VP remembering past particpation.  Either CUSID will keep voting to keep them in, or they will disappear quicker.

PRESIDENT – Currently, schools don’t have an appeal process anyways.

Call to vote, motioned by MARIANOPOLIS, seconded by UNB.
Motion carries 24 in favour, 5 against, 1 abstention.

7. By-Law Amendments

A.      Amendment to the Eligibility & Representation Rule on Hybrids, striking section 10;

10. To the best of its ability, CUSID shall discourage its members, in hosting a tournament, from allowing hybrid teams to attend.  The Executive may, however, decide to allow a tournament to encourage hybrid teams to participate.

So moved by Trinity College, University of Toronto

TRINITY – This is a fairly pointless by-law and no one enforces this.  This only covers invitationals.  This might give the wrong impression in CUSID that hybrids are actually discouraged.

Call to vote, motioned by ALBERTA, seconded by WATERLOO.

Motion carries by voice vote.

B.       Amendment to the Eligibility & Representation Rule on the definition of a CUSID debating year;

5.   A year shall be defined for the purposes of this by-law as beginning on September May first and ending on the following August thirty-first April thirtieth.

So moved by the University of Waterloo

WATERLOO – That way summer tournaments would not wreck peoples’ high school novice status.

Call to vote, motioned by ACADIA, seconded by MCMASTER.

Motion carries by voice vote.

C.       Amendment to the Bid Requirement By-Law on all-ages accessibility;

2.   A bid for a CUSID-sanctioned tournament should, wherever possible include information regarding:

e. Entertainment including, but not limited to, Non-Drinking & Underage events a commitment to the all-ages accessibility of all tournament events.

So moved by the CUSID Vice-President for the Central Region

VP CENTRAL – Meant to reflect philosophy of CUSID, and meant to ensure that people will include commitment to all-ages accessibility for sanctioned tournament.

MUN – Where we are, there’s not a lot to do other than a bar.  This could hamper a future bid.

MCMASTER – We appreciate the sentiment that there doesn’t need to be two separate events.

MUN – I can understand that it’s important in Central, but in East, this is not an issue.  Small number of underage people.

ALBERTA (yield to Rahool Agarwal) – A question to VP Central.  How would this work?  Would simply giving an address of a venue satisfy the requirement?

VP CENTRAL – This is not binding, and this is a commitment in principle.  If a school wants to sneak people into a bar, technically that works.

VP WEST – Problem with the word commitment, which implies that it is a CUSID policy.  Why not word it such as give information or something along those lines.

VP CENTRAL – Commitment is important – it is the CUSID philosophy that we should encourage this.

MUN – Don’t see the importance of commitment, judging by the general sentiment in the room.

MCMASTER (yield to Erik Eastaugh) – Very easy solution – just make sure that underagers can get in, if you don’t want to accommodate.

HART HOUSE – If a club makes a serious commitment, but it falls through, would they need to go to CUSID Executive to re-approve details?

PRESIDENT – Would be same as all commitments in bids.

ALBERTA – It’s only optional in the bid requirements anyways.

VP CENTRAL – The word commitment is based on a desire to reflect institutional philosophy.

Call to vote motioned by GUELPH, seconded by CONCORDIA.

Motion carries with 22 in favour, 7 against.

D.      Amendment to the Outcomes Rule on consensus judging;

3.    If adjudication is by consensus, the following rules shall apply:

f. Should the adjudication panel be unable to arrive at a consensus, the decision of the chair majority shall prevail;

So moved by the CUSID President

PRESIDENT – I assume the wording as it stands is the incorrect representation of the will of CUSID.

ALBERTA (yield to James Crossman) – The issue with consensus is if there are even numbered panels, then you need the chair to break tie.  Perhaps we should amend to give TD discretion, based on how the tournament should be run.

QUEEN’S (yield to Kevin Massie) – Motion to amend to add “in case of a tie, the chair will prevail.”  Motion is considered friendly, so amended.

Call to vote motioned by WESTERN, seconded by OTTAWA.

Motion carries.

E.       Ratification of a CUSID Code of Conduct By-Law;

See discussion in item 8-A

So moved by the CUSID President upon recommendation of the Ombudsperson Committee.

Motion to adjourn until tomorrow by GUELPH, seconded by SHERBROOKE.

Motion carries.

Meeting reconvened and called to order by the CUSID President, Konrad Koncewicz on March 21, 2004 at 12:11pm

SECOND ROLL CALL

ACADIA

ALBERTA

CALGARY (VIA PROXY)

CARLETON (VIA PROXY)

CONCORDIA

DALHOUSIE

DAWSON

GUELPH

HART HOUSE

HURON (VIA PROXY)

KING’S COLLEGE (VIA PROXY)

LAURIER (VIA PROXY)

MARIANOPOLIS

MCGILL

MCMASTER

MEMORIAL

OTTAWA

QUEEN’S

RMC (VIA PROXY)

SHERBROOKE

ST THOMAS

TRINITY

UBC

UCCB

UNB

WATERLOO

WESTERN

SASKATCHEWAN

REGINA (VIA PROXY)

F.       Creation of a Tournament Scheduling By-Law;

Tournament Scheduling By-Law

1. The purpose of this by-law is to minimize scheduling conflicts of tournaments hosted by CUSID members in order to ensure a maximization of attendance at those events in as fair and mutually beneficial a manner as possible.

2. For the purposes of this by-law:

a. an “invitational” shall be defined as a non-sanctioned tournament hosted by a CUSID member;

b. a “regionally-sanctioned tournament” shall be any of the Western Canadian Championship (McGoun Cup), Central Canadian Championship (the Leger Cup), Atlantic Canadian Championship and Regional Novice Tournaments;

c. a “nationally-sanctioned tournament” shall be any of the British Parliamentary Debating Championship, the French National Championship and the National Championship;

d. The definition of a “nationally-sanctioned tournament” shall also include the North American Debating Championship when held in Canada and by vote of the Executive when held in the United States. Further this shall also include the World Universities Debating Championship.

3. The President shall be responsible for coordinating the schedule of CUSID for a given year and the Executive Director shall be charged with publicizing this schedule, pursuant to their duties as outlined in the CUSID Constitution. The President may at his/her discretion request the assistance of the Regional Vice-Presidents in communicating with clubs in the various regions to further assist in creating a schedule.

4. CUSID members planning to host events during the Fall semester of a given CUSID year (September to December), shall be entitled to submit a list of dates, ordered by preference, to the President, to be reviewed without undue prejudice (subject to Section 6), no later than August first of that year. Submissions made after this date shall still be considered by the President and incorporated to the best of his/her ability however preference shall be given to those submitted by August first.

5. CUSID members planning to host events during the Winter semester of a given CUSID year (January to April), shall follow the same procedures as outlined in Section 4, however the date for submissions shall be September first of the calendar year preceding the proposed dates.

6. Subject to Sections 4 and 5, preference in scheduling, within reason, shall be given in the following order:

a. nationally-sanctioned tournaments;

b. regionally-sanctioned tournaments;

c. invitationals.

7. On dates where a nationally-sanctioned tournament is scheduled, no other tournaments may be scheduled.

8. On dates where a regionally-sanctioned tournament or an invitational is scheduled, no other tournaments may be scheduled which would also occur within the same region (West, Central, Atlantic).

9. Ultimately in the pursuit of creating a schedule for CUSID, the President shall be charged with mediating and solving any disputes that may arise amongst CUSID members. CUSID members dissatisfied with a decision made by the President have the right to appeal to the Executive, or if feasible, at a General Meeting of CUSID.

10. The success of the implementation of this by-law rests upon the goodwill of CUSID members. Attempts to circumvent the procedures and guidelines set forth in this by-law may lead the Executive to:

a. deny the event in question entry onto the schedule;

b. encourage CUSID members not to attend said event;

c. submit such an incident for consideration of the membership of CUSID at a General Meeting for possible further reprimand.

11. The Executive shall also be empowered to maintain a schedule, separate from the schedule established within this by-law, of non-CUSID domestic or international tournaments that may be of interest to CUSID member teams.

So moved by the CUSID President

PRESIDENT – Reflection of what happened this year.  This year was first come first serve, but it will now be that all bids are evaluated equally.  You can still submit dates after the deadline, but those who meet the deadline will be given priority.

GUELPH – For the winter semester, the date should be October 1, as the date isn’t set at our club until about that date.

Motion to change section 5, “September first” to “October first.”  Motion is friendly, so amended.

QUEEN’S (yield to Saposnik) – What kind of powers would this give to the CUSID executive to set the date and tell schools when schools have tournament and to avoid opposed tournaments?

PRESIDENT – All this does is reinforces power that the executive already has.  The Executive already has the power to deny publication on CUSID schedule.  Punishment beyond denying publication on the schedule has to go to the CUSID membership anyways.  This encourages fairness for all schools as there is a central authority coordinating, but this does not impede their rights.

RMC – Also a concern, for French debating, we are planning on having at least 3 tournaments.  These tournaments will inevitably conflict with English tournaments.

PRESIDENT – Section 6 states “within reason” so this concern is already dealt with.  There are still free weekends, as well, that we can schedule French tournaments (i.e. weekends that fall on high school tournament weekends).  Nevertheless, the by-law states “within reason.”  The Executive cannot force clubs to hold a tournament on a certain date, anyways.

ALBERTA – How does this deal with regional coordination?

PRESIDENT – You can forward requests to the Executive or other interested parties to consider.  This does not preclude inter-regional communication.

CONCORDIA – Don’t like the idea club of not letting community work out schedule.  We can’t use coercive measures of not being put on the schedule if we’re going to hope for “goodwill.”

PRESIDENT – The schedule on CUSID.ca and CUSIDnet are different.  Nothing precludes posting on CUSIDnet and nothing precludes the community to ignore the Executive.

VP WEST – Why are we not letting the regional VP coordinate in Central?

PRESIDENT – The by-law allows for coordination with regional VP’s.  President coordinated this year in Central because I was familiar with issues in Central.

MCMASTER – Motion to amend section 3, second sentence to “may at his or her discretion” to “shall.”  Motion is friendly, so amended

Call to vote motioned by ACADIA, seconded by UNG.

Motion carries.

G.       Amendment to the Nationals Participation Rule on Registration deadlines;

5. The host of Nationals shall be empowered, subject to Section 7, to establish a pre-registration deadline for schools planning to attend the tournament to submit all necessary deposits and team count information to the organizers of the tournament. The date of the pre-registration deadline shall be no sooner than two weeks prior to the scheduled date for the tournament to commence.

6. Pursuant to Section 5,  the host shall be under no obligation to honour the registration requests of schools who submit such information after the established deadline for pre-registration, though they are encouraged to attempt to do so.

7. If the host of Nationals establishes a pre-registration deadline as outlined in Section 5, the host shall be required to communicate that fact to the membership of CUSID with all necessary information, including the total cost per team and adjudicator, deposit requirements and accommodation arrangements. Such notification must occur at least four weeks prior to the scheduled date for the tournament to commence.

So moved by the CUSID President

PRESIDENT – This was motivated by an issue at this year’s Nationals.  Some schools don’t check CUSIDnet and interpreted the bylaw such that schools could just “show up”.  This places an incredible burden on host schools.

ALBERTA – Is two weeks going to be enough time, in terms of hotels, etc?

PRESIDENT – It seems reasonable based on past.

UNB – In terms of necessary deposits, would purchase orders count?

PRESIDENT – I’m sure it would count.

Motion to amend section 7 to add “in written form”.  Motion is considered friendly, so amended.

ACADIA

We should have e-mail because not every school checks CUSIDnet.

Motion to amend section 7 to change “communicate” to “reasonably communicate,”

Call to vote motioned by OTTAWA, seconded by YORK.

Motion carries.

H.      Motion to Re-Number.

Call to vote motioned by GUELPH, seconded by ACADIA.

Motion carries.

8. New Business

A.  CUSID Code of Conduct – committee report, consideration & ratification;

See attached Code of Conduct

Motion to allow Keven Massie, CUSID Ombudsperson to be the recognized proposing party by MCMASTER, seconded by OTTAWA.

Motion carries.

PRESIDENT – Please note that Kevin’s comments are not a legal opinion nor is he speaking in a legal capacity.  These are personal opinions based on the results of Kevin’s research.

MASSIE – Two things – a need for a Code of Conduct (COC) and the issue of liability.  The Ombuds committee has investigated a half a dozen incidents, and was charged by the CUSID executive to continue the ad hoc committee.

We need to create a more welcoming environment for current and future debaters.  While we have noticed an increase in female participation, we have noticed an increase of complaints, and increasingly shocking.

In terms of the construction, we looked at enforcement and liability.

Enforcement should be open.  This can only be applied to sanctioned tournaments.  But does CUSID have a duty to enforce in terms of invitationals?  A couple of questions.  Do we post announcements on a website we pay for?  Do we actively participate at these tournaments?  Do we regularly convene meetings at tournaments?  Yes.  Therefore, CUSID may be liable.

We felt the best solution was a strongly worded suggested.  We deliberately left out an enforcement mechanism.  The reason we used “must” was that if an invitational tournament doesn’t have an Equity officer, CUSID and membership could be shielded because we told them to have one in the first place.  I feel the best balance is between shielding CUSID and maintaining the independence of membership.

In terms of liability, this is a questionable issue.  Can you get sued for this?  You may already be liable if something happens.  The COC could provide a defense that you were not negligent.  More importantly, the reason why clubs have responsibility is because clubs might be protected by students’ unions/university and their liability insurance.  CUSID does not have this protection.

Furthermore, if someone does something really offensive and the Equity Officer feels that you can’t deal with it by yourself, you can go to the CUSID membership for further sanctioning, but the threshold for CUSID involvement is very high so clubs may maintain responsibility and liability.

With the code itself, there are two amendments.

Motion to amend Section 2A striking “disrupt or distract….debate….”  Motion is friendly, so amended.

Motion to amend Section 2C to add “gender and disability”.  Motion is friendly, so amended.

CONCORDIA – I don’t agree with how you define code of conduct.  A COC is where you express the values of the organization.  Disguised in this COC is a by-law that tells clubs how to run their tournament.  I think it is inappropriate to put this by-law in the COC.  After section 2, it ceases to be a COC.  This is an infringement of club sovereignty.

MASSIE – That’s why there is no sanctioning mechanism.  This is only a suggestion.  We recognize club-specific issues. At no point does this empower the CUSID executive to sanction a club that uses a different set of values and guidelines.

VP WEST – From a legal perspective, bringing this to 2/3 majority, will this violate privacy issues?

MASSIE – Most things that will go to the CUSID membership will not be private at that point anyways.  In a legal sense, by requiring issues to be filtered through the ombudsperson to deal with issue, the ombudsperson might be able to make sure this liability is avoided.

Motion to amend, adding “gender and disability” to section 1.  Motion is friendly, so amended.

OTTAWA – Does section 6 regarding CUSID Executive training open us to liability?

MASSIE – This is where we refer to the ombudsperson by-law.  We just outline procedures of what you may ask, or who you should call, etc.

ALBERTA – Regarding section 6, will the executive create these guidelines?

MASSIE – Those guidelines will have to be created, but this can originate from the ombudsperson committee.

WESTERN (yields to Erik Eastaugh) – If someone commits an actionable act at a tournament, regardless of sanctions taken, would CUSID be held liable for those actions, in the status quo?

MASSIE – Would never know until it goes to court.  But right now my opinion is that the argument is strong against CUSID and members.  We need to do something to intercept this argument.

HART HOUSE – Wondering how confidentiality in incidents will affect CUSID meetings ability to perform.  What justifies a suspension?

MASSIE – We don’t know exactly what justifies a multi-year suspension, but we take it on a case-by-case basis.  Standards can change as the years progress.  A 2/3 majority vote is an adequate reflection of CUSID values.

CONCORDIA – By not appointing an equity officer, the tournament would not be promoted on the CUSID website.

MASSIE – Executive has no duty to publish invitationals in any case.

CONCORDIA – We have heard a lot of legal questions.  We should get a legal opinion first.

MASSIE – A legal opinion will cost thousands of dollars and we would probably  need to get one in every single province.  Even an official legal opinion may not mean that the letter has any bearing in court in terms of liability.

WATERLOO – Further concern about equity officer.  Would this divert liability onto one person, the officer?

MASSIE – The standard that any court could apply is, has the equity officer reasonably performed their duties?  We feel there is probably no worry.  Furthermore, the university/student’s union could be sued.  This may discharges duty and offer a defense.

DALHOUSIE – If we don’t reveal the exact incident to the membership, will this hinder membership decisions?

MASSIE – This COC requires incredible due diligence by Ombuds office.  Issues like this will have to be in consultation with the office.

MCMASTER – This is a good idea.  This would help a lot of problems that we have had.  We need to protect novices.

CONCORDIA – Regarding 4A, shouldn’t the accused have right to confront accuser?

MASSIE – To have complaint, anonymity must be waived anyways.

Call to vote motioned by MCMASTER, seconded by GUELPH.

Motion carries with 28 for, and 1 against.

B.  CUSID-APDA North American Debating Championship Reform report;

Item tabled.

C.  Discussion on the promotion of French debating in Western Canada.

Item tabled.

9. Bidding for CUSID Title Tournaments for 2004-2005

A.  2004 CUSID British Parliamentary Debating Championship

Bidders:  Hart House

HART HOUSE

Hart House held world’s two years ago, as well as an invitational last year.  Interest in this idea came about because of interest in World’s.  We feel Toronto is a great place to encourage international teams to come.

· 5 rounds, break to semis

· Straight resolutions, world’s standard of knowledge

· Mix of model based motions and first principle motions

· Will consult Canadian DCA about resolutions

· POIs allowed

· 3 rounds of public speaking, top 5 break

· Every room paneled with at least 3 judges, consensus judging

· Open adjudication for round 1-4, closed on 5

· Pared down version of judge feedback from debaters.

· 50 point range, standard CP range, 36-42

· Tabs software will be same as last year, unless we can get NTU package

· Details will come after a tabs director is appointed

· Billeting option with cap

QUESTIONS

QUEEN’S – Will motions be reflective or world’s resolutions, or because this is a CUSID championship, will this also reflect Canadian type resolutions?

HART HOUSE – The goal is to have a mix, but more of a world’s flare.

Bid approved by voice vote.

B.  2005 SUCDI French National Championship

Bidders:  Sherbrooke

SHERBROOKE

Club started about a year ago and is happy to be a new member of CUSID.  Looking to expand French debating in Quebec and are close to French universities and show them that French debating can work.

We had a tournament in February.  We have experience organizing tournaments, and have made contacts.  About 15 members and just starting.  Hope to have 25 members next year.

· Format similar to that in Sherbrooke

· CP style, 5 rounds, squirrelable resolutions, PMRE optional, bracketed rounds

· Tentative date around March 11-13

· Bid available on CUSIDnet

QUESTIONS

MCMASTER – Hardware for FSL?

SHERBROOKE – Yes.

Bid approved by voice vote.

C.  2005 CUSID National Championship

Bidders:  Alberta

ALBERTA

· UADS established in 1908, and we like to debate.

· Around 50 active and casual members

· Western Times

· Tabs like UBC Nats, double redundancy

· Sharon getting hardware, the best hardware person in Canada

· Confident of judging pool in Alberta.  Alberta members will be judging.  N-1 judging requirement.

· Consensus model

· School Cap around 60 teams, but that may change.

· Looking at booking on-campus facilities for entertainment.  St. Patrick’s Day is day before, so early comers can partake in festivities.

· 4 socials

· Extremely ridiculously good time

· Tournament Directors are Arthur Tse, James Crossman, Sharon Ohayon

· In terms of formal communications, all through Sharon Ohayon

QUESTIONS

MCMASTER – Breaking 5 people, but 3 hardware?

ALBERTA – In west, break is natural break so there is no guarantee of how many people will break.

RMC – ESL award?

ALBERTA – Sure.

Bid approved by voice vote.

10. Elections for the 2004-2005 CUSID Executive

Elections procedure

- 4 minutes of statements

- Q&A session, limit of 10 questions, each candidiate has 1 minute to respond.

- Targetted questions allowed, other candidates can answer as well.

Motion to approve procedures by DALHOUSE, seconded by UNB.

A.  President

OTTAWA nominates Erik Eastaugh, seconded by MCMASTER

MCGILL nominates Gaurav Toshniwal, seconded by RMC

ERIK EASTAUGH

· First year law at Ottawa, English/history undergrad in Ottawa

· Fifth year in CUSID

· Couple of things to stress as me as a person

· Managerial style – minimalist by nature.  Let people do things on their own.  Don’t like to micromanage.

GAURAV TOSHNIWAL

· Primary role of CUSID president is to facilitate debate in Canada

· One of the biggest problems is a lack of training materials.  While CUSID itself doesn’t have a lot of resources, membership itself has resources.  We can put this online, make available.

· Judging is important.  The experiment with regional DCAs and publishing a style guide early was successful.

· Possibly come to a consensus for a unified scoring range.  Form a committee to see if there is universal consensus on this issue.

· Equity – flame wars on CUSIDnet don’t further discussion.  We should have forums, like that at Concordia.  Like to have one at next year’s nationals.

· Regarding interaction between regions, we should encourage this.

· With World’s Council, Canadian interests have to be considered and will consult with members.

· Regional autonomy – opposed to national committee to look into CP style.  Regional VP’s should have power to decide on regional issues.

QUESTIONS

DALHOUSIE – Elaborate more on inter-regional autonomy and the idea of standardizing CP.

ERIK – Wasn’t talking about standardization.  Looking at past year, lots of ad hoc changes are being made.  Not proposing a mandatory standard.  Simply poll general membership to see their thoughts.

GAURAV – Regional issues should be dealt with by the regions.

MEMORIAL – How are you going to try or is there a way to improve regional representation at nationals?

GAURAV – By publishing a style guide ahead of time, all regions could analyze and recommend changes.

ERIK – Particularly in CUSID East, to improve debate, you need more Central teams and Western teams to go out east.  CUSID should be used as a platform for fundraising to subsidize transportation costs.

GUELPH (yield to Shaugnessy Hawkins) – Your take on Women’s issues?

ERIK – Always been for the promotion of women’s issues and equity issues.  As an RA in residence, have dealt with sensitive issues and am qualified.

GAURAV – The way to promote equity concerns is to use forums as a mechanism to promote debate.

CONCORDIA – What to do with surplus?

GAURAV – This is a constant discussion.  The result of discussion was that we invest in GIC’s.  This is not a revenue stream.

ERIK – Agree with Gaurav.  No pressing issue to spend on.

WATERLOO (to Jon Gordner) – In terms of subsidizing travel costs, how would you distribute?

ERIK – Haven’t formed plans for this yet.  Discretion of regions.

GAURAV – As a national organization, we can lend the prestige to organizations to help them fundraise.

SHERBROOKE – Plans for French debate?

GAURAV – When it comes to new clubs, we need to integrate with CUSID community.  We should publish resources of CUSID so it can be used by new French clubs.

ERIK – (Response in French)

QUEEN’S (yield to James Crossman) – Other than Alberta Nats, do you have plans to go to a tournament out west?

ERIK – Debating at Diefenbaker Cup regardless.  Committed to participating out East as well.

GAURAV – Don’t have a lot of personal resources to go, but if I can get resources, will travel out to other regions.

ERIK:                      18 votes

GAURAV:              11 votes

The 2004/2005 CUSID President shall be Erik Eastaugh.

B.  Executive Director

ALBERTA nominates NICHOLAS TAM, seconded by MCMASTER.

HART HOUSE nominates Daniel Schwartz-Narbonne, seconded by WATERLOO.

NICK TAM

· Mostly, want to focus the infrastructure that has been developed.

· Initiatives to create new features

· Currently hold Internal Director at UADS, which is the same as the ED

QUESTIONS

CONCORDIA – What is your technical knowledge?

TAM – Computer science student, have worked with this type of technology with jobs.

SHERBROOKE – What about a French version of CUSID.ca?

TAM – I am not bilingual, but that initiative would be useful.  In terms of translation, would contact people who are fluent in French and seek assistance.

TAM:                                                     27 votes

SCWARTZ-NARBONNE:  3 votes

The 2004/2005 CUSID Executive Director shall be Nicholas Tam.

CUSID President yields the floor to KEVIN MASSIE.

MASSIE – Gordon Buchan has revoked CUSID server space in response to the passing of Code of Conduct.  CUSID should seriously consider spending money on server space so that we are never again put in a position where CUSID can be held hostage.

CONCORDIA – Buchan has contributed much to CUSID in the past.  This is a misconstruction of Buchan’s actions.  He has felt that he can no longer support CUSID.ca and we are being given a transition period.  He has done a lot of good things for this organization.

MASSIE – The intent was not to malign an individual.  When I say “holding hostage” I mean to say that we are being given a choice between keeping the code of conduct or keeping our web space.

MCMASTER – Can we ensure money is available to take care of this problem?

PRESIDENT – We cannot take into account the spending of the surplus, but in the future dues will increase.  In any case, money is available right now.

ALBERTA – Based on what we have heard from Concordia, if the sponsor changes his mind, what will we do?

PRESIDENT – We should leave it open ended, and the Executive Director will report.

Motion to strike a committee to empower the CUSID Executive Director to search for a suitable host for CUSID.ca and CUSIDnet.

Motion carries.

C.  Treasurer

MCMASTER nominates Emily Gusba, seconded by GUELPH

MCGILL nominates Alex Campbell, seconded by TRINITY.

WATERLOO nominated a novice who regrets it, seconded by GUELPH.

ALEX CAMPBELL

· Last year of economic degree next year

· Treasurer of the McGill Debating Union, other experience

· Can deal with issues on the fly

· The experience as treasurer can be used to help new clubs to answer questions, impart knowledge.  I am in a position to answer questions.

· Financial transactions will become more complicated with this new issue.

THAT POOR NOVICE

· First year student at Guelph

· Previous experience working with finance with work experience

· Has lots of time available to dedicate to CUSID

· Novice, need to diversify executive with age, gender

· Act also as “member-at-large”

· Surplus shouldn’t be spent and should be kept in GIC

EMILY GUSBA

· Not a math, economics student, but you need to be able to add, subtract, divide, use excel – can handle the job

· Second year debater, student, president of the club

· Can deal with issues on the fly

· Have created budget for French Nats, HS tournament, while being cheap

· Can impart knowledge

· Invest surplus, but if you have to spend surplus, it must be spent

· Look into charitable organization status – incorporation is not required.

· Like to help with fundraising with clubs/tournaments

· Easy to talk to, people know me

· Push to have bylaw to have reconciliation/audit at end of year

QUESTIONS

UBC – Have you talked about any concrete plans for fundraising?

EMILY – Haven’t discussed yet, but approach national organizations for money and products.  Based on CUSID’s needs.  I would first talk to members.

NOVICE – A lot more feasible for product.  Need to be realistic and should continue initiatives ie. Rental car discount

ALEX – McGILL has made major attempts to fundraise.  Lots of materials I have access to to help figure out who and what to approach.

MCMASTER – Aside from just Treasurer duties, how suited are you deal with other CUSID issues?

NOVICE– COC really positive – the role is one of member at large.  Living in residence, have experience dealing with issues.

ALEX – At McGill, ongoing dialogue with these types of issues.  Have experience and grasp of issues.

EMILY – As president of EDS, has learnt the value of communication between memberships.  Vital to have communication between executives.

ALBERTA – Charitable Society standing, elaborate?

ALEX – Not against making CUSID a charitable organization, but in terms of specific clubs, depends on relationship with university.  Know club-specific issues of charitable society.

EMILY – Will take into account club-issues when pursuing this.  Universities are also charitable organization and it’s possible to go through them.

MEMORIAL – Current surplus is being held by a GIC?  The money that CUSID has isn’t working for us and is staying as a static amount.

EMILY – Money is in a bank account.  Need to ensure low risk and reamin accessible – hesitant on putting it into long term investment.

NOVICE– Issue of risk vs. potential benefit.  Don’t want to invest in high risk.  Rather have static than risk losing any of it.

ALEX – We might need this money to act as cash flow.  Needs to be available.

ALEX:                                    21 votes

NOVICE: 1 vote

EMILY:                   6 votes

The 2004/2005 CUSID Executive Director shall be Alex Campbell.

11. Adjournment

Motion to adjourn by ALBERTA, seconded by MEMORIAL.

Motion carries.

Central Region General Meeting

March 21^st, 2004

Minutes

(Taken by Aron Seal)

1. Call to Order

Present:

Concordia University

Marianopolis College

McGill University

McMaster University

Queen’s University

Royal Military College (via proxy)

University of Ottawa

University of Toronto, Hart House

University of Toronto, Trinity College

University of Sherbrooke

University of Western Ontario

University of Western Ontario, Huron College (via proxy)

University of Western Ontario, King’s College (via proxy)

Wilfrid Laurier University (via proxy)

York University

2. Additions to and Approval of the Agenda

Motion to approve the agenda by Queen’s, seconded by RMC.

Motion carries.

3. Call for Bids for the 2004-2005 Central Canadian Championships

Bidder: York University

Motion to approve the bid by Queen’s, seconded by RMC.

Motion carries by voice vote.

4. Adjournment

Motion to adjourn by the University of Toronto, Hart House, seconded by the University of Ottawa.

Meeting adjourned.