Pre-Sessional Debate

[OhhMy]

Quoting exnihilo from 09:38, 3rd Aug 2006
I was thinking possibly one to which I was entitled.

I think perhaps sky blue combat fatigues would be the most apropriate form of dress for the overseas debate.

[Dave the Explosive Newt]

Quoting exnihilo from 09:38, 3rd Aug 2006
I was thinking possibly one to which I was entitled.

Ah, the KLitt gown then?

[hr]

Mmmmmmm, cake.
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102114

[OhhMy]

Quoting Dave the Explosive Newt from 14:38, 3rd Aug 2006

Quoting exnihilo from 09:38, 3rd Aug 2006
I was thinking possibly one to which I was entitled.

Ah, the KLitt gown then?

[hr]

Mmmmmmm, cake.
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102114

Is that a reall degree? a KLit. Because it sounds very simular to.......

[Anon.]

Pas de merde, Sherlock.

[Dave the Explosive Newt]

Quoting ohhmy from 15:26, 3rd Aug 2006

Quoting Dave the Explosive Newt from 14:38, 3rd Aug 2006

Quoting exnihilo from 09:38, 3rd Aug 2006
I was thinking possibly one to which I was entitled.

Ah, the KLitt gown then?

[hr]

Mmmmmmm, cake.
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102114

Is that a reall degree? a KLit. Because it sounds very simular to.......

It was conferred on Mr Joss some time ago by the debating society, thanks to Biggles' order paper typing skills.

[hr]

Mmmmmmm, cake.
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102114

[Al]

Being a Knight of Letters would be quite impressive though.

[Cain]

for what it's worth, I plan on being in attendance.

Sans gown.

[hr]

I hold an element of surprise

[Mr Comedy]

I should in attendance. If for any daft reason I should need to have letters after my name I should be referred to as Dave Vinton GCSE, ASBO.



[hr]

"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung

[Eliot Wilson]

Does anyone know which dazzling orators will be performing, on the off-chance that I drag myself to Fife for Pre-Sessional Week?

[hr]

Bill and Ted beat the Grim Reaper at Twister

Bill: "You played very well, Death, especially with your totally heavy Death robes."

Death: "Don't patronise me."

[Guest]

Last year, the pre-sessional debate was the'Overseas Debate', held the Sunday at the beginning of Orientation Week. This year however, the 'Overseas Debate' will be on the Wednesday of Week 1, that's Wednesday 27th September. The motion will be up on the website (address in my previous post) asap, along with the term card for the rest of the semester.

Holding it at the very beginning of Freshers Week means that very little publicity can go out before the debate, with the exception of emails, but this only covers people already signed up to the list. By holding it in Week 1, we hope that as many people as possible will come along, hopefully making it a packed house, rather than a half-filled chamber.

Never fear, the annual 'Overseas Debate' has not been scrapped at all. Far from it, it has been moved forward ten days to facilitate publicity and make it as good an event as possible.

Rachael

[Laura]

Purely for information, the reason why overseas debates are usually on the first Sunday of Pre Sessional week is because traditionally a lot of overseas students arrive a bit early and it is really meant to cater for them so they have something to go to- its why we call it the Overseas debate and it usually has an international theme. Although the Overseas debate is sometimes dropped, it is never the main event, and there has always been a big debate in pre sessional week as well as it.

[hr]

"When I came back to Dublin, I was courtmartialled in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence."

[exnihilo]

Indeed there has, and traditionally we communicated this information to overseas students via the Overseas Society and their mailings and to home students via the Freshers' Pack - doubtless another casualty of the paperless (and thus informationless) Association.

[Laura]

The Association has a freshers guide ('The Book') and an orientation guide, which all new students receive, and will contain details of both events.

[hr]

"When I came back to Dublin, I was courtmartialled in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence."

[exnihilo]

Which I'm sure will be, in many and important ways, as good as a debates specific booklet.

But then, surety is such an outmoded concept.

[Dave the Explosive Newt]

Quoting exnihilo from 20:42, 23rd Aug 2006
Which I'm sure will be, in many and important ways, as good as a debates specific booklet.

But then, surety is such an outmoded concept.

In terms of being significantly less likely to be chucked in the bin, I'd say a great improvement. This way, we're more likely to get students who have flipped through the guide to look for an event that might be fun to go to rather than die-hard school debaters.

[hr]

Mmmmmmm, cake.
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102114

[Al]

I am not sure that people who would chuck a debates specific booklet in the bin are likely to be enticed by a smaller mention of debating in a larger book.

[Eliot Wilson]

I don't wish to be unduly churlish, but it was possible in the past to have a well-attended Overseas Debate on the Sunday preceding Freshers' Week and a well-attended Pre-Sessional Debate during Freshers' Week. I've seen nothing to suggest this is no longer possible. But then, the UDS got into the habit of not sending out a booklet to soon-to-arrive freshers. Coincidentally, that was about the same time that Overseas or Pre-Sessional Debates became less well attended than previously. Funny, that.

I wish the current Convenor and Board all the best, but, please, let's not pretend that what has happened in the past didn't.

[hr]

Bill and Ted beat the Grim Reaper at Twister

Bill: "You played very well, Death, especially with your totally heavy Death robes."

Death: "Don't patronise me."

[Laura]

On not pretending what happened in the past didn't, I didn't have a debates booklet sent out to all freshers before they arrived, but I did have a full debates guide with our own design included within the freshers guide, plus all our frshers events included within the Orientation guide. My freshers week was unbelievably successful (we turned a huge group of people away from both events due to lack of space, and the atmosphere at both events was brilliant) I think Will is right, in the sense that people who are not interested in debating may be tempted not to pay that much attention to a guide to the society, but they do try and fill up their evenings in freshers week by looking through the guides (which they have to do to find out other vital information)
I resent it when people say the last few years have been shit in terms of attendance during freshers week, because last year just wasn't.

[hr]

"When I came back to Dublin, I was courtmartialled in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence."

[Lid]

It was the Evolution Debate before I managed to attend a debate. Not for want nor trying either. I was turned away from two debates for being over-capacity.

The first debate I did manage to attend, I was sat betwixt Seth Ewin and what appeared to be a member of the cloth. Rather interesting baptism of fire, that.

[hr]

We are not drunks, we are multi-millionaires

[Eliot Wilson]

I certainly wasn't pointing the finger or attacking you, Miss Wilson, and I do apologise if you thought I was. But there have also been some lacklustre Pre-Sessional Debates in recent years. Which is not the same thing as the concept itself being flawed.

[hr]

Bill and Ted beat the Grim Reaper at Twister

Bill: "You played very well, Death, especially with your totally heavy Death robes."

Death: "Don't patronise me."