WUDC South Africa: 12 Reasons to Vote for WUDC South Africa 2016

1) A Cheaper Reg Fee

We know that cost can often be a barrier to teams attending WUDC. We are determined to help as many people as possible to attend WUDC South Africa, which is why we have a registration fee of 330 euros.

2) Responsible Finance

We are currently running a 2.5 million Rand surplus on our budget, and are embracing transparency through external auditing and a planned inspection by Worlds Council. We could spend this money, but we haven’t planned to (yet) as we want to ensure that there is no financial scenario which could endanger an excellent Worlds.

You can read more about our budget here and here.

3) An Expanded Team Cap

Too often, Worlds registration is a competition between newer institutions trying to get a team, and more established institutions wanting multiple teams. This hinders inclusion and the spreading of debating, as well as preventing the top institutions from sending teams which could well win the championship.

We aim to expand the team cap to 520 teams and are confident our logistical plans will allow us to. This means that it is more likely you will be allocated the teams you want as early as you want, meaning you can come, and you can also book flights earlier. So now, you and your partner are more likely to be able to come and meet us under the rainbow.

4) Excellent Tabbing

In Bob Nimmo and Richard Coates, we are convinced we have found the best tab team possible. Between them they have tabbed over 100 competitions including multiple Worlds and Euros.

They have also completely redesigned Tabbie, including the creation of e-ballots, and also created the ‘OverCoates’ judge feedback system. This level of understanding is vital to running a competition of this scale, and we are certain they can deliver. You can read Bob’s analysis of how to run a competition of 520-600 teams here.

5) Adjudicator Subsidies

We recognise a tournament of the scale we plan requires an excellent adjudication pool. To that end, we not only plan to provide upwards of $100,000 USD in subsidies and registration waivers, but also plan for our CA team to extensively monitor national circuits to identify and cultivate judging talent. More details can be found here in our Adjudicator's Vision Document.

6) Regional Representation and Spreading Debating

Europe has hosted 38% of all worlds whilst Africa has hosted only 8%. WUDC South Africa intends to develop and amplify the debating culture in this developing region. WUDC South Africa will collaborate with major regional organisations to secure funding to create further training programs to be focused on regions that are historically under-represented in the adjudication pool of WUDC

We have also secured 22 debate scholarships and will be increasing the number as more sponsorship comes in. This means more teams who would not otherwise be able to attend should be able to do so.

7) A World Class CA Team

Between Saddiq, Pam, and Dessi, our CA team has been on the adjudication core of four major international competitions and several dozen other competitions. They have also been on the orgcomm of WUDC and numerous other large competitions, and have debated across four regions, and to the top of their respective language categories.

Collectively, the team holds too many speaker awards for us to list here. They are a pretty qualified bunch. You can read more about them here, here, and here.

8) Professionalization and Inclusion through Training

Our training will be divided in two parts: workshops for debaters aimed at helping them improve their debating skills and workshops for adjudicators aimed at developing and building judging talent. All members of the CA Team will make themselves available to give workshops before every major competition in their respective regions.

In order to benefit as many debaters as possible, the CA-Team will compose and publish online material, lectures and training exercises for teams and societies starting in early 2014 and continuing until WUDC 2016.

9) A Commitment to Debate Education and Training

Saddiq, Pam and Dessi can usually be found on the Adjudication Cores of most major competitions in their regions. In their downtime, you can usually find Saddiq travelling Asia providing debating workshops, Pam coaching debating at schools across the UK, and Dessi coaching debaters of all experience levels as the Head of Training for the Berlin Debating Union.

Our team's commitment to debate education and training is undeniable. Whether it's Pam coaching debating to underprivileged youth in East London, or Saddiq CAing Australs and Asians BP, debate training and education is in the blood of our team. Our Adj core also intends to come down to judge at all major regional competitions (E.g. EUDC, Australs, North Americans, etc.).

10) Speedy Visa processing

The orgcomm, in collaboration with the South African Presidency, will appoint one special Visa officer who’ll be available to assist Visa processing from the month of May (when reg opens). Since South Africa Worlds intends to open registration 5 months prior to worlds, Visa processing can be planned accordingly.

The orgcomm has also secured a deal which allows quicker 'Streamline Visa' processing for Worlds participants during a specific time frame. It means we'll open up a special counter in all Visa processing countries to accommodate Worlds Participants, expediting the processing of your visas. If you are to DHL your passports (Group VISA application), the processing will be even quicker.

11) It’s South Africa