What is debating?
There are different formats of competitive debating, however at the UEA debating union we will be focusing on few of them (mostly British Parliamentary for competitions’ purposes). This format seems complicated at first but that should not scare people who are not familiar with it. What we will be doing while debating British Parliamentary is examining ideas and policies with the aim of persuading people within an organised structure. We will also have training sessions to get people comfortable with this style of debating, the different roles within the format and the most effective ways to make debating speeches. However, those people who are just coming along to work on their public speaking will find a safe and friendly environment to do so as we have a variety of activities such as games, balloon debates and informal debates to help people do that. The bottom line is that we welcome people with different levels of experience, if any. All you need is enthusiasm and an open mind.
What do we do as a society?
WEEKLY GENERAL SESSIONS (MONDAY, JSC 1.01)
The purpose of this society is to allow students who are passionate in debating to participate in competitions and to improve their debating skills in BP. However, for those of you who do not wish to compete and just want to have fun or to improve their public-speaking skills we have weekly sessions every Monday in JSC 1.01 where we do a variety of activities that are very fun and informal in order to help you become more confident with speaking in front of a large audience. The society is also a great social environment and a great way to meet people with similar interests as yourself. We also go to the bar after every session (if you don’t want to drink that is fine, we go there for the discussions and socialising rather than for the alcohol).
WEEKLY TRAINING SESSIONS (TIME TBC, LOCATION TBC)
While it is important to provide people with a fun and safe informal environment to practice their public-speaking skills, we do put a lot of emphasis into preparing people to compete and getting a really good sense of the British Parliamentary format of debating. That is why we have weekly training sessions that are heavily focused on getting a grip of the structure of competitive debating. While we will still use a variety of activities, these sessions will be a bit more formal than the general sessions on Monday. These trainings will be compulsory for those who want to go to competitions. If not, they are completely optional.
COMPETITIONS
The list for the upcoming competitions is still being worked on and depends on the amount of people that want to participate inn them. However, we are expecting competitions at least once a month. Most competitions will be in the UK, however there are possibilities for competitions abroad. The union will subsidise most of the costs for the competitions.
SOCIALS
Debating society will be hosting various socials this year. These will range from events around Norwich, such as bar crawls, laser tag, bowling, escape rooms and more, through to opportunities to better explore Norfolk, such as trips to the coastline.
COMMITTEE (2019-2020)
President : Ines Raycheva (email: [email protected])
Vice- President : Alice Middlemiss
Secretary : Dominic Wood ([email protected])
Treasurer : Adam Stewart ([email protected])
Social Secretary : Niahl Hubbard ([email protected])
Union Rep : John Dows ([email protected])
Training Coach : Odysseus Kalantaridis ([email protected])
Health and Safety : Bethany James ([email protected])
Equality and Diversity: Helen Willaims ([email protected])
Feel free to contact us either personally (through FB or our emails) or via or on the debating email [email protected]. Also we have a Facebook page that we check regularly https://www.facebook.com/UEAdebating/?modal=composer¬if_id=1564935706840459¬if_t=aymt_upsell_tip&ref=notif