Many thanks to all those who helped to make the alumni debate last week a great success, and thanks also to everybody involved in our IV teams at Strathclyde and Edinburgh (results online as soon as we have them). This week we’ve joined up with the East Asian Research Society to hopefully provide a decent crowd for:

Motion: THW lift the sanctions on North Korea
Date: Thursday 2nd March
Place: ARC Conference Hall, from 8pm

We still need quite a few speakers for this debate - email us ASAP if you want to have a go, and we’ll give you some help putting together a case for whichever side you prefer. Don’t worry if you don’t know a great deal about the topic; there are lots of general principles that you can apply to the motion.

Also, our AGM is coming up next week, and time is running out for you to stand for committee. We still really need a treasurer (no accounting abilities required except for basic fraud) but if there’s another job title that you think we should invent, then that’s possible as well. Email us or come along to the debate.

This week is one of the highlights of the term: several great speakers from the past decade and a half of debating at Leeds are coming back for the alumni debate. It’s going to be your best chance to see a top-quality debate without going to watch an IV, and we strongly recommend that you don’t miss it.

Motion: THW never go back to the way things were
Date: Thursday 23rd February
Place: Council chamber, reception starts 6:15pm

The reception will start around 6:15 with free nibbles and wine, then we’ll move through to start the debate itself after about an hour. Also, from 9pm there’s a charity event in aid of STAR taking place at the Fav, and we’ll be encouraging you to head over there afterwards.

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GETTING TO THE COUNCIL CHAMBER: go to the Parkinson Building (you know, the big white pointy one) and then go up to the first floor (i.e. the level that looks down onto Parkinson Court). There’s a balcony walkway thingy that runs along the length of Parkinson Court - the council chamber is about halfway along. Drop us an email if you’re still not sure of how to get there.

Many thanks to all those who came last week for a well-attended and good quality debate - and thanks also to judges and competitors who took part in the Nottingham IV on Saturday (results will be on the forum as soon as the final tab is published). We’re having a training session this week; speeches will be seven minutes, so it should be a great chance to develop your ability to analyse in detail:

Motion: Unseen - to be revealed on the night
Date: Thursday 16th February
Place: ARC Meeting room 2, from 8pm

It’ll be your last chance to sign up for our IV teams heading to Strathclyde and Edinburgh, and we’ll also be looking for volunteers to earn some money doing a demonstration debate in front of a 1st year Sports Psychology group (email for more info if you’re interested and free from 9-10 am on Tue 21st Feb). And also…

Drop us a line or come along for a chat if you’re interested in running for a committee position in our AGM on March 9th. We’re still looking for candidates for Treasurer, IV Secretary and Social Secretary, so you’d probably be uncontested if you ran for any of those posts.