Despite MIT claiming the victory for APDA, CUSID had a strong showing this year. In addition to the McGill finalists, CUSID’s team from UBC (Evan Choate & Joshua Sealy-Harrington) finished as semifinalists, teams from Queen’s University (Adam Hetherington & Christine Wadsworth) and another team from McGill University (Vinay Mysore & Sophie MacIntyre) finished as quarterfinalists, and two Hart House teams (Richard Lizius & George Trotter and John Ashbourne & Erin Fitzgerald) as well as another Queen’s team (Adrienne Lipsey & Mark Rubenstein) finished as octofinalists.

CUSID also secured the spots of top novice speaker (Tim Abdulla from McGill University), top novice team (Deirdre Casey & Sam Greene from Hart House), and 8 of the 10 top speaker positions:
#1 Richard Lizius (Hart House LT)
#2 Christine Wadsworth (Queen’s HW)
#3 Adam Hetherington (Queen’s HW)
#4 Adam Goldstein (MIT GM)
#5 Sean Stefanik (McGill SS)
#6 Saro Setrakian (McGill SS)
#7 John Ashbourne (Hart House AF)
#8 Sophie MacIntyre (McGill MM)
#9 Alex Campbell (Stanford CM)
#10 George Trotter (Hart House LT)

Overall, this was a good year for CUSID. Next, we’ll find out who Canada’s top debaters are at the National championships this March in Edmonton.

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.

Also, the site is now running the WordPress CMS, so feel free to sign up for an account. If you have any comments, criticisms, or suggestions, send me an email at ed@cusid.ca.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congratulations Amy!

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

Link.

The tournament also recognized Richard Lizius as the best speaker, McGill’s Sean Husband as the best novice speaker, and Seans Stefanik and Hayward, both also from McGill, as the joint best public speaker. Finally, McGill’s Calvin Rosemond and Joe Bricker were named Novice Champions at the tournament.

Many thanks to Queen’s University, fabulous hosts once more.

Congratulations also go to the new Novice Champions, Hart House’s George Trotter and Giorgio Traini, who defeated the University of Alberta’s Ian Burch and Byron Tse in a round on Telecom Immunity. Canada’s Top Public Speaker is McGill’s Vinay Kumar Mysore, who defeated Hart House’s Alexander Levy by explaining his absence from the American presidential campaign. The Top Novice Speaker was Giorgio from Hart House.

The new CUSID Executive includes Adam Coombs from Carleton University as President and Rudi M. Lof from York University as Treasurer. Joining them are the returning Executive Director, Alex Amar, from the University of Ottawa; Guelph’s Shaughnessy Hawkins as the new Vice-President for the Central region, Alberta’s Emily Cliff as the new Vice-President for the West, Matt Edmonds from St. Francis-Xavier as Vice-President for the East, and Carleton’s Yannick Veilleux-Lepage as the Director of French Language Debates.

Other business from the Annual General Meeting included the allocation of the 2007-2008 National Championships to the University of Saskatchewan and the ratification of Saint Mary’s University as CUSID’s newest member.

The Central Region General Meeting granted the 2007-2008 Central Canadian Novice Championships to Carleton University, and the L?ger Cup to Toronto’s Trinity College.

Many thanks and congratulations to Dalhousie University for an impeccable tournament.

Congratulations to the novice champions, Andi Wilson and George Trotter, also from Hart House, and the novice finalists Jeremy Larkins and Emmett Soldati from York University.

Josh Bone from Yale University was the Top Speaker and Vinay Kumar Mysore from McGill University was the Top Public Speaker. Princeton’s Zayn Siddique was Top Novice Speaker and 2nd Speaker.

At the World University Debating Championships, hosted this year by Bangkok’s Assumption University, the Hart House teams of Nick Shkordoff and Jeremy Opolsky, and Gordon Shotwell and Richard Lizius, finished as octo-finalists. Gordon was 13th speaker at the competition; Richard was 9th. The McGill team of Padraic Scanlan and Catherine Evans found themselves 33rd in the competition, joined in missing the break on speaker points by Leon Grek and Vinay Kumar Mysore, also from McGill; Christine Wadsworth and Sheldon McCormick from Queen’s University, Alan Cliff and Julia Lisztwan from the University of Alberta, and Amir Mohareb and Rudi M. Lof from York University. The University of Toronto’s Jason Rogers won the public speaking competition, with the University of Alberta’s Sharon Ohayon as 1st runner-up, and Hart House’s Monica Ferris placed third at Comedy Night. Finally, University of Toronto Alum Joanna Nairn served as a Deputy Chief Adjudicator and judged the Grand Final, won by Oxford.

Finally, CUSID alumni are faring well in the CBC’s Next Great Prime Minister challenge – Rahim Moloo (Queen’s, UBC) and Meg Wilcox (University of Ottawa) have advanced to the Top 10.