WUDC Berlin 2013 Scholarship notifications

We are glad to be able to announce that the first positive WUDC Berlin 2013 Scholarship notifications went out today. The process in which we email everyone who has applied will take about ten days.

If you have applied, please wait for your notification. You will definitely hear from us. Once we have sent out all notifications to all applicants, we will post a note about it.

Essential reminders

Three very important points.

1. Open balances: Lots of institutions will have to pay a small open balance in cash upon arrival in Berlin. It is paramount that you settle any open balance you may have on December 27th/28th, i.e. before round 1. If you or your institution fail to do so, your teams will not be able to compete until the balance is settled. We will post and send you the up-to-date balance overview at the end of next week. Note that the one from FastRego is out-dated.

2. Visa: Please get informed about visa regulations asap! If you need a visa, also have a look at the information about "Schengen". It may turn out to be easier for you to get a Schengen visa from a non-German embassy. Then: If you need any paperwork from us, contact us quickly! We understand how important it is for you to receive the right documents but if you contact us last minute, we cannot guarantee for anything.

3. Independent adjudicators: You should have received an email about your online boarding process. If you have not, please contact Head of Registrations Teresa Widlok.

Berlin Worlds independent adjudicators

These are the sixty people chosen and confirmed by the A Core to serve as independent adjudicators at Berlin Worlds.

Alex Worsnip, Amit Golder, Anat Shapira, Andrew Ford, Andrew Tuffin, Anne Valkering, Ben Woolgar, Brett Frazer, Bronwyn Cowell, Buzz Klinger, Colin Etnire, Daniel Warents, Danique Van Koppenhagen, David Stephens, Dino De Leon, Ely Zosa, Eoin Kilkenny, Ewan MacDonald-Russell, Filip Dobranić, Fred Cowell, Gavin Illsley, Harish Natarajan, Jack Watson, James Dixon, John Sadek, Jordan Anderson, Joseph Ware, Kate Falkenstein, Kimera Chetty, Kiran Iyer, Kirsty MacDonald-Russell, Leela Koenig, Loke Wing Fatt, Mary Nugent, Michael Baer, Michael Shapira, Monique Hardinge, Nate Blevins (TBC), Nick Derrington, Nina Ubaldi, Nishita Vasan, Omer Nevo, Philip Belesky, Philip Williams, Pranay Bhatia, Richard Lau, Romeo Maione, Rosie Unwin, Ruth Faller, Sam Block, Sam Natale, Sean Stefanik, Sella Nevo, Shengwu Li, Simone Van Elk, Thoriso M-Afrika, Tom Jackson, Tomas Beerthuis, Will Jones, Zheng Bo.

Additions from December 4th: Dominic Guinane, Jacqueline Yates, Jonathan Leader Maynard, Milan Vignjevic, Nupur Upadhyay, Paul Gross (TBC), Tarit Mukherjee.

Reminder for registration deadline on Sunday

Reminder: Please note that phase 4 of our institutional registration procedure ends on Sunday, or in 53 hours.

We cannot guarantee that participant data submitted after deadline will be taken into account. Those include roommate preferences, language status, dietary requirements and excursion options.

For details see previous post.

WUDC Berlin 2013 Scholarship update

To all WUDC Berlin 2013 Scholarship applicants:

We are receiving your messages asking for updates and we would love to move forward rather today than tomorrow. We are sorry the waiting period turns out to be way longer than expected.

The first reason for the delay is a positive one: some 600 persons have submitted formally correct applications, which are many more than anticipated. We are happy that our efforts find this kind of appreciation, although it took us a long time to evaluate each of them with the appropriate attentiveness. Secondly, the allocation of funds is a complex business. Despite, and because of, the generous grant from the Open Society Foundations we are obliged to move prudently for the sake of this important programme. We are determined to find the best possible solution for this and all ensuing technicalities.

And no, we cannot set a date yet. We understand your situation and proceed as fast as possible. As we said earlier: If you have applied, you will definitely get a response. When this process is completed, we will post a note about it.

The WUDC host community: VDCH Land

The Berlin Debating Union may be the host society of the WUDC Berlin 2013 but as the organizing team has grown since its beginning in 2010, it has also spread far beyond Berlin. Today most Berlin Worlds organizers are, in fact, from other cities. This world championship has become a project occupying people all over Germany, and beyond.

This is working so well because the debating societies of the German-speaking area form a unified, well-organized debate circuit, often referred to as "VDCH Land". The VDCH is the umbrella association for more than 70 clubs in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. VDCH Land has a common, German-language tournament series (called ZEIT DEBATTEN, after the main sponsor) and debate league (Freie Debattierliga). Also, there are a common “national”/language-area championship and regional championships, run by the VDCH and organized by its member societies. These institutions, comprising about 15 tournaments each year, keep VDCH Land together and make it a strong community.

World Debate Forum Berlin 2013

The World Debate Forum (WDF) is taking place in Berlin for the third time right after a Worlds, bringing together different groups of debate enthusiasts. Debaters, professors, development workers and others give TED-like talks and discuss them with the audience.

January 4th is departure day at Worlds, plenty of time to transfer to the WDF hotel and meet the other participants. The event itself is held on January 5th and 6th. Logan of Malaysia is once more the organizer of the Forum, we from Berlin Worlds are hosting it.

All the details can be found on the WDF website.
The registration has opened!

Things happening at the moment

As Berlin Worlds are approaching, the number of things going on is increasing. For your overview:

Registration: More than 1,000 people in 51 countries are entering crucial participant details into our registration system. The deadline for this is October 21st. More people from further countries will follow suit once we have final lists of independent adjudicators and scholarship recipients.

Scholarship: Although the selection process for our scholarship programme has been completed, we need some more time to fine-tune the allocation of funds. We don't want to tell anyone they have been accepted without being able to provide any financial details. This is a fairly complicated and time-consuming process and we have to ask for some more patience.

Independent adjudicators: Just a few names are still to be confirmed. Once we have a final list, we will post it.

Masters' Cup: Berlin Worlds Convener Patrick Ehmann has won the German Masters' Cup last weekend. As for our Worlds Masters' Cup, we are about to appoint/confirm two CAs. Feel free to to start forming a national team representing your country.

Public Speaking: We are seeking two CAs here as well and have confirmed one so far. We will announce them together as soon as we have them both on board.

Language: Tasneem Elias completes the leadership of the Language Review Committee. Michael Saliba and Anne Valkering are the other two heads of this body, as we announced earlier.

Equity: We are about to appoint Equity Officers. Before the tournament they will play a key role in drafting the WUDC Berlin 2013 Code of Conduct (CoC). The CoC implements certain standards and procedures (besides those of the Germany law) that are "binding upon all participants" (WUDC Constitution Art. 32,5).