Dear Taiwan Schools Debating Community,

Greetings!

 

The Taiwan Debate Union formally invites all of you to the official team selection events for the national team to the 2016 World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) to be held in July 19th to 29th in Germany. For this year's selection, we are proudly co-organizing 2 events with Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages and Soochow University. The debating societies and authorities of the two institutions have offered generous help to ensure that the events remain low-cost and accessible to all without compromising the quality. The Union is sincerely grateful to their contribution.

 

The selection process is divided into 2 stages. At the end of the 2-stage selection, we will finalize members qualified for the Training Pool, who shall be eligible to participate in formal trainings and entitled to contest for the 5 slots of the official national team to compete in Germany.

 

Stage 1 will be conducted through the 5th Wenzao Cup Debate Tournament held from February 1st to February 3rd, 2016. The tournament is an integral part of Wenzao Debate Workshop, beginning on January 28th, therefore by signing up as a workshop participant, one is by default registered to compete in the tournament. However, you may also choose to join the tournament alone but not the entire workshop, if doing so happens to be in your best interest. A minimum of 10 speakers will be chosen into a Training Pool for the national team. However, Taiwan Debate Union reserves the right to expand or shrink the pool depending on the relative merits of the participants. Performance qualifiers to be used in selecting the pool may include total speaker score, elimination rounds performance, team performance, and/or other metrics of holistic debating performance.

 

All initial candidates will be alerted on February 3rd, 2016 of their qualification. In instances where qualified member cannot attend WSDC Germany or choose to forgo the chance, the selectors will contact replacements immediately. Depending on their placement level in Stage 1, some chosen candidates may be required to attend Stage 2 tryout to further secure their qualification. Those who cannot make it to Stage 2 need to provide meritorious excuse in order to be evaluated further. In this case they will be compared in absentia against other present contestants. Standards will be raised for debaters who are unable to go through Stage 2 screening and hence the organizers highly encourage complete attendance.

 

Stage 2 will Fuhsing-SCU Joint Intensive Debate Workshop running from March 13th to 15th, 2016. The event invites foreign trainers to conduct a series of lectures and drilling with an intra-tournament incorporated at the end of it. Participants will be going through trainings alongside university-level debaters for the first 2 days and the tryout happens on the 3rd day. At least three debating rounds will take place with motions covering diverse fields. In instances where evaluation is required, selectors may intentionally fix matches and/or team composition to test the strength of particular speakers. Evaluation will be done primarily on individual basis.

 

Candidates who were unable to participate in Stage 1 due to meritorious reasons may be allowed to participate the Stage 2 selection, but extreme discretion will be exercised on validity of excuse. Likewise, standards will be raised for debaters who were unable to go through Stage 1 screening and hence the organizers highly encourage complete attendance.

 

Thank you very much for your time and we look forward to a stronger national performance for Taiwan Debating.
 

Yours truly,

 

Board of Executives

Taiwan Debate Union