Month: October 2020

I am attaching details of two online tournaments I am running for OSDU members, and have sent this to as many current and previous OSDU members as I can and I will post on the OSDU website. I would also ask if regional coordinators could help distribute this.

Saturday, November 14 – OSDU Junior Tournament
Saturday, December 5 – OSDU Senior Tournament

Schools must be members of OSDU to compete, but both events, along with any other OSDU events this year, will have no registration fee. These are great opportunities to debate across all regions and hopefully will be accessible to those who might not otherwise have attended. All of the details can be found in the attached document. Some further technical details will be put together over the next while and sent to registered participants and/or posted as needed.

The first event I realize is coming up fairly quickly! I am hoping there are no conflicts with other events, but I have done my best to pick what I think will work best.I hope you will find this of interest! I look forward to hearing from you.

For information contact Chris George.
Click on the events on the calendar page to find the detailed invitation.

We are pleased to announce the annual OSDU BP Championships will take place on Zoom, on Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1. The top teams in the senior and U-15 categories will advance to the National BP Championships to be hosted in November by the Alberta Speech and Debate Association. Click on calendar item below to get tournament invitation.

Ontario British Parliamentary Championships

Workshop full. Others TBA.

OSDU is pleased to announce the first session in our Fall Workshop Series, Intro to Debate and British Parliamentary Style. This workshop will take place on Tuesday October 13th from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, and will take place via Zoom meeting. A zoom link will be sent to only registered participants the day of the workshop.

Workshop Description:
This workshop is geared to newer debaters who are interested in learning about how debate works, and want to get started with the British Parliamentary Debate Style. This workshop is a great resource for students interested in participating in the OSDU Provincial BP Championships, to take place October 31 – November 1, 2020. This workshop will cover the basics of debate and an intro to the BP style via a more structured presentation, which will then be followed by an opportunity for debaters to practice and ask questions of the workshop leaders.

Workshop Leaders:
This workshop will be led by Nicole Ratti and Violetta Nikolskaya, with additional support as needed depending on the size of the workshop and registration levels. Nicole is a former British Parliamentary National Champion, and has been the President of OSDU for 7 years, serving as Tournament Director or judge at dozens of British Parliamentary provincial and national events. Violetta has served on the executive of the OSDU Board for over 5 years, and competed at the high school and university debate level, is a former President of the McMaster University debate team, and has broken as a debater and judge at many tournaments. They are eager to share their experience with new debaters, and those interested in honing their skills in British Parliamentary debate! As life long friends, their energy and excitement for debate will make this a fun workshop for all!

Please note, this workshop will be limited in size to 60 students, and will provide one instructor per 20 students so that small group sessions and practice is possible. Once the event is full, registration will close. If there is still interest in the event, OSDU will work to host a second event shortly afterwards for all those who were not able to attend.

There is no cost associated with this workshop.
A chaperone is not required, however parent consent is needed as part of the online registration process.

If you feel this workshop isn’t for your students, additional workshops will be offered in October including Coaching a Team, How to Run an Online Tournament, and Advanced Debate/BP Style. Later in the Fall, OSDU will be offering more workshops tailored to CNDF Debate Style in preparation for Regionals. If you have any suggestions for debate workshops please do not hesitate to contact us directly!