2015 Debate Elections

Elections are coming up - please check out the Facebook event and join us at Tuesday, March 3 at 6:30pm.

Because we are all strong believers in the enriching effects of participating in the democratic process, we're publishing all the candidate's manifestos in order of submission. Please have a skim!

President

Angus Hally

Claudia Hyde

Vice-President

Hannah Tyndall

Claudia Hyde

Secretary

Jamie Capp 

Esohe Uwadiae
Keisha Ong

Treasurer

Jamie Capp

Hannah Tyndall

Training Officer (x2)

Billy Wildi

Daniel Bramble

Social Secretary

Misha Chapman

Vivienne Gao

Publicity Officer

Julia Slupska

Non-portfolio officers

Angus Hally

Esohe Uwadiae

Misha Chapman

Keisha Ong

a. Committee position

b. What makes you appropriate for this position.

c. What your plans are if you are elected.

d. Your favourite debate-related memory.

JULIA SLUPSKA

a) Publicity Officer
b) I did it last year, I take a lot of pictures and spend too much time on Facebook
c) Try to do more show debates, record some debates in tournaments and put them online, do Novice Cup
d) Oh god

JAMIE CAPP

Positions standing for: Treasurer, Secretary

Why am I a suitable candidate?

I have previous experience in organisation, administration and management both in the real world and in societies.

Back at school I took a leading role in the debating society responsible for working with other societies across the local area while also serving as the editor of the school magazine for two years. During my gap year I served as the Campaigns Officer for the official opposition in Wiltshire’s local government where I was responsible for political campaigns, media and policy. These experiences have make me a capable administrator who gets things done while also taking the lead on projects to take the groups I work with forward. Recently I have also taken up the role as Vice Chair of a national political youth branch.

I am not only experienced but also a good people person who looks to include new members it what we do and support them in their wishes to improve.

In short I am suitable because I have a record of achievement and experience backed up by a friendly face to make sure we are a welcoming society that looks to move forward.

What are your plans if you are elected?

I believe our society does the basics well.

As a member of the committee I will use my record of achievement and experience to see how we can do more and advance our society.

I want to work with the previous treasurer or secretary to see what our best practices have been and make sure these are locked in for the years to come. Alongside this we should also find out what has gone wrong and how we can improve these for the coming year.

Once we have sorted this I believe we can then look to how to develop as a society and where we are looking to go over the next few years be this more show debates, outside speakers, working with other institutions, prospective sponsors or other things.

I believe, alongside other candidates, I will provide a solid foundation with my experience and previous achievements that we can work from to think over the coming years what we as a society wish to achieve. Through the committee I will work to support other members to achieve this and make sure we continue moving forward.

I would like to help steer our society in the right direction and make sure we honour the ambition many people have for the LSESU Debate Society.

Favourite debate-related memory?

I definitely have a few from the last year!

Whether it was convening the Valentine’s Cup, debating in comedy motions or partnering some great people across the country it is hard to choose.

Though my favourite was probably my first competition after coming back from a year after debating- the UCL President’s Cup- because I felt so very included and remembered how much I enjoyed debating that I decided that I just had to keep coming along. Since then I haven’t looked back!

BILLY WILDI

a. Training Officer

b. Extensive judging experience, including chair judging at EUDC, and judge breaks at London Pro-Am and Queen Mary. 1 year of teaching assistant experience, 5 years of teaching skipping on youtube.

c. More detail will be given at elections on these:

i. Handouts at all training for those new to BP
ii. Profiling members for strengths, weaknesses and strategies to improve.
iii. An open case file.
iv. Recorded training sessions
v. External London debaters for thursday sessions.
vi. More integration with VP in deciding partnerships for tournaments.
vii. Feedback system on training.

d. Well I just made my first break, so that was convenient.

ANGUS HALLY

Running for: President, Non Portfolio

What makes you appropriate for this position?

As Secretary for the society, I have been involved in the day to day organization of the society: booking rooms, managing email and keeping everyone in the society up to speed with the weekly newsletter.

I also convened the London Pro-Am along with Chris Benson and Jamie Capp which I’m happy to say was a huge success. We almost doubled attendance from last year and managed to run 4 rounds of debating, plus a semi-final and a final, all in one day. Many will tell you that sort of efficiency is impossible in debate tournaments – but it isn’t!

Other than this I have also helped with cross-society events such as a debate with the feminist society, LSESU schools and LSESU Open.

Overall my two years with the society has taught me a huge amount: how to work with others, particularly those who can be a help/hindrance to LSE Societies including the SU, Conferences (in charge of room bookings) and Security. I’ve also learned what works well in Debate Society and what doesn’t, where the society is strong and where it could be better.

Manifesto:

Below is what I want the Debate Society to be and how I intend to achieve it. I think the three most important areas are 1. creating a friendly open atmosphere that attracts and retains new debaters. 2. Making Debate Society a platform for success to allow our debaters to achieve at national and international competitions. 3. Running the committee effectively and efficiently.

1.     Creating a friendly, open atmosphere

· What I love about Debate Society is that it is hugely inclusive and goes to great lengths to get people interested in debating. I sincerely want this to continue and improve so as to ensure we continue to recruit and retain new members. There are three areas I see as being important for achieving this:

· Firstly the first weeks in particular are pivotal for this – this is when we pick up the most new people and so we have to be at our best. I want to have everyone in the committee at the first 3 training sessions to help out and interact with our new people.

§ We also need to have a plan for freshers events: including freshers fair, our give it a go session and how to make best use of the first tournament of the year -UCL Presidents Cup.

· Secondly we should advertise debating to a wider audience by showing off our talents through collaborative events with other societies:

§ These events will happen on Wednesdays so as not to interfere with training.

§ These events are nice for some of our members to attend and are also good for showcasing debating to the rest of LSE including the SU

§ Furthermore the greater standing Debate Society has within LSE has tangible benefits for our interactions with SU, and getting funding from them.

· Thirdly the Debate Society should be welcoming for new people throughout the year, this includes the introductory courses policy that I talk about in point 2.

· In order to achieve this I will:

§ Help to plan, organise and run events, especially in the first few weeks.

§ Foster a community atmosphere within the society

§ Work with members of Debate Society and others to provide collaborative events.

§ Work with the social secretary to provide great socials  

2.                   Platform for success

· Training

· Training sessions are the heart of the Debate Society and something we do extremely well.

· In particular this year I helped establish and run the introductory courses for beginners who turned up during the year. This policy is great as it means people can join throughout the year and still catch up. It has had notable results with attendants continuing to turn up to trainings.  

· In order to achieve this I will

§ Support the training officers in any way I can,

§ This includes helping them to find external speakers to run specialised training sessions.

§ Be present at all training sessions (except in event of world catastrophes) to help run sessions and build a community within the society

§ Continue to offer introductory sessions throughout the year, and increase the advertisement of this.  

· Tournaments 

· We want to make sure we are giving our most committed members priority in going to tournaments, both those that are talented and those that show potential.

· We also need to give people more advance warning of which tournaments they have been selected to go to.  

· In order to achieve this I will:

§ Make sure all members know what they have to do and contribute in order to be selected.

§ I will establish with the new committee the criteria for going to tournaments. This will be made public and readily accessible so that anyone who wants to go to a tournament has the ability to do so.

§ Work closely with and support the Vice-President in team and judge allocations 

· Worlds University Debating Championships & European University Debating Championships

· The LSESU Debate Society is one of the best in the world and I want it to continue to succeed if not improve.

· In order to achieve this I will:

§ Make sure our teams are picked as soon as possible so they have plenty of time to train together.

§ Help arrange extra support and training for our teams, get external speakers and alumni to run special training sessions for them, run extra training sessions and prioritize them for speaking spots.

§ In return we expect them to commit a lot of time to helping run the society and to pass on their experience to new debaters.

§ I therefore wish to review with the committee our criteria for trialing and the extent to which we enforce the criteria to avoid double standards.

§ This criteria then needs to be clearly publicized and advertised long in advance of the trials.

§ I also think that it is unfortunate that LSE is one of the few societies not to cover travel for its international teams. I have had personal experience of fearing my partner may not be able to attend Worlds/Euros because they simply cannot afford to.

§ Hence I want to discuss with committee and treasurer abursary for debaters who show exceptional talent and commitment to the society to help them cover at least part of the travel costs.

3.                   Efficient Committee

· The Debate Committee is full of talented capable individuals. As President I would do my utmost to get the best out of them and support them in their work.

· In order to achieve this I would:

· Have monthly meetings with the committee as a whole, and meetings with the executive every two weeks.

· Listen and promote constructive discussions we have as a committee and be there to make decisions based on the discussion.

· Encourage the previous committee to pass on the experience they have learnt. We currently host a “handover” session- I would like to see this done and on top of this a guidebook to be created so we can pass on experience every year.

· This goes not just for committee positions, but also for tournaments.Having a document telling you dates, rooms required, good caterers, people that need to be contacted in conferences and security etc. would really help future conveners.

· Further on tournaments I would choose who was going to host tournaments sooner so that each convener can be given room booking rights.

· Lastly, I do not believe that the SU rules of how we divide work within the society and what positions there are is necessarily the best. I therefore want to open to suggestions proposals for better division of roles within the society which will be discussed and voted on by the committee.

Favourite Debate Memory?

Ouch, tough question: the Christmas social, competing at worlds, judging the final of London Pro-am, it’s hard to choose a favourite. Since I have to choose it would be when I walked into a debate training session a few weeks into my first term. I was still finding my feet at LSE but the second I walked in people recognised me from the previous week and said hello. Everyone from first to third year was really welcoming and it made me feel at home. That’s what I love about Debate Society and that’s what I intend to continue.

HANNAH TYNDALL

1) Vice-President, Treasurer. 

2)   I have been committed to debating both throughout school and university. I believe myself to be organised and dependable. I enjoy organisation and lists, and spreadsheets adding up makes me actively happy. I have previously worked as a secretary, where I developed large amounts of administrative skills. I also believe myself to be approachable and enthusiastic about debating and the society. I was the co-convener of LSE Open in 2015, the division of responsibility meant that I primarily dealt with registration, managed the email account and as well as distributing information.

3) I believe both roles are about being dependable and organised, so I would promise to be efficient. 

I think the Vice-president should liaise more with the training officers about appropriate team allocations and try harder to ensure everyone is in an appropriate pairing. This should involve asking people directly about pairings before tournament allocations, and monitoring who speaks with who at training. I think a more systematic approach to tournament allocation should be introduced, this means judging externally and internally as well as attendance are more systematically rewarded. Moreover I believe that the executive should take a more active oversight role in the convening of tournaments. I think there should be a more direct responsibility for external events, rather than on an ad-hoc basis, and this may fall under the remit of either President, Vice-President or publicity. 

In terms of treasurer, I would be happy to lead efforts for more cooperate funding and liaise with businesses. Assuming that the society continues to be well funded, there may need to more other sources of funding, whether that be travel or more on socials. I would communicate with at least on e of the tournament delegation about the payment status at that tournament, to avoid misunderstandings. I would attempt to make claims forms more easily available to committee members, and subsequently ensure the process went though a middleman less often. Although, this would mainly be routine tasks. 

I'm also happy to convene the LSE Open again! 

4) My first ever final. LSE Schools in 2011, it was with my best friend and we'd had fun all day. The final opened with a West Wing clip, I felt at home. 

ESOHE UWADIAE

Positions: Secretary and Non-portfolio committee member

What makes you appropriate for this position?

A large part of being secretary is the ability to stay organised. This requires time management skills and an ability to prioritise different pieces of work. These are skills that I have used repeatedly when acting as HACH’s Thurrock Youth Cabinet Representative and as Head of HACH’s Yearbook Committee. These roles required me to undertake various administrative tasks including convening with the head teachers of various schools in Thurrock, the booking of rooms for events and informing all relevant parties of the progression of tasks that were being completed. Furthermore, I was required to take minutes at weekly Youth Cabinet meetings and make this available to all who wanted it. It is necessary as secretary to have a high level of attendance and this can be seen by my diligence in ensuring that I have been to all my lectures and classes this year, a feat which even required commuting in from Essex on crutches with a broken metarsal bone. I have experience with newsletter writing having regularly contributed to my Sixth Form newsletter and am now a writer for the Beaver.

Plans if elected?

As the committee are the most consistent members of the society, if elected I intend to make more prominent who the committee are so that new members of the society have familiar faces to go to if they have any concerns regarding the society. This is especially important at the beginning to help with retention. Methods of achieving this would include a committee only debate and an open committee meeting where members can ‘meet’ the committee. In addition to this, I will discuss with the Beaver editor about having a fortnightly article about the society including upcoming tournaments and any social events we may have. I will also liaise with other societies to see what possible events they are hosting that we could make into collaboration events so as to further increase the exposure of the society to the general populace so they can see how amazing it is.

Favourite debate-related memory?

My favourite debate-related memory was at the London Pro-Am 2015. I’d been to one debate training and the back to school debate and was struck by how nice and welcoming everyone was. I don’t really know the people in the other societies I’m part of despite regular attendance but regardless of the stress of the day, everyone made the effort to talk to me and to get to know me. I immediately felt included in the society and I believe that this is what makes the debate society as great as it is and by far my favourite one.

MISHA CHAPMAN 

Positions: Social Secretary, Non-portfolio member.

What makes you appropriate for this position?

I am a committed and organised member of the debating society and though I have only recently joined, I have learnt a lot and had a fantastic time. This enthusiasm is what I believe makes me most appropriate for this role as through the events I organise, I intend to enthuse others in a similar way. I would recommend this society to anyone and I think I would be a good advocate for encouraging people to join. I will endeavour to always provide alcohol and food, which is an incredibly important part of debating society. Having acted as Senior Prefect, I have experience with liaising with various groups in the organisation of large and small scale events; this includes various fundraising events for charities such as fetes and fun days, the last day of sixth form event and local concerts.  In addition to this, I was responsible for handling the budgets for these events and have dealt with the finances of Greggs. If people have any ideas, I will always be open to listen to them and do my best to see it done!

What your plans are if you are elected?

I’d like to assist in providing a more fun and interesting appearance for the debating society, thus encouraging more people to join, and keep existing members coming, because without these people the society would cease to exist. I would like to create a more unified society, where everyone is well-acquainted. I would do this by running more social events, many of which would involve the consumption of alcohol (and I hear karaoke is a big thing among debaters too!).  A continuation of debates with other societies is also something I believe should be done as well as collaboration in social events.

Your favourite debate-related memory

I enjoy debating on the side of a topic that opposes my own views, forcing me to challenge myself. However, my favourite debate-related memory was the entire experience of the Manchester IV in which I felt welcomed by the whole society, despite being only a new member. It is the kindness of the people of the debating society that have kept me coming, and I hope others will, in the future, have a similar experience to me.

KEISHA ONG 

Committee positions: Secretary and non-portfolio officer

Former experience:

Leadership and organisation

Chairman of Debate society at Methodist Girls’ School 2010

Vice President of Debate society at Anglo Chinese School (Independent) 2012

Debate coach at Methodist Girls’ School 2013

Achievements and awards

Semi-Finalist at UCL President’s Cup 2014

Champion of LSE SU Novice Cup 2014

Finalist at Bristol Pro-Am 2014

I have a strong administrative and leadership background for the organisation of debate society activities. This includes the organisation of internal and external competitions and liaising with external organisations such as the Debate Association of Singapore. I have also championed for and successfully pushed for social activities such as camps in order to foster a friendly spirit within the debate community.

Future plans:

1. Increased feedback and communication between the members of the debate society and the executive committee.

• Feedback sessions post trainings to understand the needs and concerns of members.
• Online forms and polls to determine debate activities such as the specific training topics and potential social activities.

2.              Learning from debate alumni and prominent debaters

• Regularly inviting debate alumni to give presentations on debate topics and judge internal debates.
• Increased emphasis on Pro-Am debates to bolster novice development, with the possibility of alumni involvement.
• Inter-university training sessions

3.              Debate travel trips

• Overseas trips for debate tournaments which are not limited to just EUDCs and WUDCs so as to provide more opportunities for debate society members.
• Social element post-tournament for bonding and cohesion
• Goal of one non-debate related fun society trip a year

Favourite debate-related memory:

Social at Billy’s after Novice cup! That was the moment when debate society felt more like a family rather than just any other society. It is truly a small but tight-knit community and you can trust the members to offer support for both debate and non-debate related issues. Debate society is basically just a bunch of individuals who are oddly and seriously passionate about debate. It is very enjoyable to be amongst such individuals.

VIVIENNE GAO

Applying for: SOCIAL SECRETARY

The first time I ever came into contact with the debate society was through the Lent term social last year, and it remains a part of why I decided to join—it was a wonderful opportunity to meet the people in a non-debate, low-pressure setting.

Socials are particularly important to an activity like debate, where much of the actual interaction is so structured. I think I’d be good for this job in part because I’m a fairly approachable and un-intimidating person, and on the other hand because I can organise socials, whether or not they involve drinking.

On a practical level, I’ve been in charge of the last alumni dinner, which involved bookings and setting dates; I know how to order pizza and set up tables, and I’ve been alcohol-shopping with Greg the last couple of competitions, so I know where to go, and what to ask for.

If I were social secretary, I’d have more events targeted at the marginal group that could join us with a little push, as well as more activities that a group of friends would enjoy, beyond regular trips to the pub. This would include things like show debates, internal competitions, karaoke, pub quizzes, and potentially more cross-society events.

One of my favourite debate-related memories was meeting the lawyer in charge of prosecuting Milosevic at dinner at Inner Temple for an intriguing discussion on the morality of international law. Another was preparing the rooms for LSE Open, where a group of clever, opinionated, passionate people couldn't agree on how to set up tables in a room. Perhaps the best part of debating is the community, and socials give us fantastic opportunities to be friends once the debate itself ends.

CLAUDIA HYDE

President/Vice-President

I joined about nine societies during Fresher’s Fair. Aside from a brief friends-with-benefits type arrangement with UN Society in my experimental phase, LSESU Debate Society was the only one I stuck with. In hindsight, I made the right decision.

Frankly, my devotion to this society is almost religion-like. I have pretty much attended every single training since the beginning of my degree (and to the detriment of the latter) as well as every social and LSE tournament. It is truly a community that I feel part of and central to. But on a more boring level, I also know the society and everything to do with it inside and out. Serving as Treasurer for a year was a crash course in the behind-the-scenes working of the Society and everything that is necessary in order not only to make it function, but to make it work well. As a result, I can navigate my way around the labyrinthine bureaucracy that is the LSE Students Union and, having worked closely with the President and Vice-President throughout this year, I have a strong grasp of what it requires and, more importantly, how we do what is required as best as possible. Having debated for a long time, I also know the debate circuit in general very well, so would be able to provide helpful advice but also call in favours from and maintain strong relations with other debate societies.

Convening the LSE Open, moreover, while it was an experience that I will doubtlessly be discussing with my shrink for years to come, showed me that I can work in a team, I can get things done when they need to be, that I have strong organisational skills, that I am reliable and that I can just about hold myself together and respond when crisis comes. My strengths as President would be thinking ahead. Throughout my experience as a convenor and treasurer, I have been thinking about what needs to be done next and have been planning in advance to ensure that everything we can do, can be done, and to some success. As convenor, assisted by Hannah, we convened one of the largest tournaments in Europe which is indubitably the society’s most important event of the year, rather miraculously running to time and providing an enjoyable experience for everyone. As Treasurer of the society, I have emailed countless firms with individually written sponsorship proposals to secure our funds for next year; I secured us 1/6 of the SU’s budget for our activities; I got us more money than any other society or project from the Annual Fund; I have overseen the budgets of the three tournaments we host in addition to our excellent socials, working with other committee members; and I have paid for endless tournaments, and crucially, no-one has been cut under my watch. That’s quite a lot of work, and I think it has prepared me well for the roles of President and Vice-President.

What I would do

I do not have many particularly flashy proposals but a few things that I think would make the committee and the society on the whole a bit better:

1.     Help form a stronger community right from the start of the year. This is what allowed me to assimilate so much into the society when I first joined, and I firmly believe that organised fun is the best kind of fun. Hosting events such as the beginning of year social and show debate are always great, but it’s important this happens throughout first term, especially since we rely on volunteers to help tournaments run well. I think we can simultaneously help foster that community spirit and get people interested in competitive debating by having another internal tournament at the beginning of the year, but one which is open to debaters in all years, akin to an internal pro-am. Debating with someone more experienced than you is not only incredibly helpful but very fun.

2.     Stronger committee. I think it’s incredibly important to make sure all the committee members stay engaged throughout the year, and we had difficulties with this regarding our postgraduate officers. We need to have a committee meeting and some kind of bonding activity such as a committee dinner right after the elections, and lay out the plan of action then. If individuals each have a defined role and a project to work on, it becomes a more rewarding experience for everyone, but also is useful in terms of delegation of work load. Certain positions and tournaments can be very hard work, so having individuals who are both willing and able to help would be very advantageous. In general, there should also be more committee meetings, which I would organise on a monthly basis.

3.     Tournament convening. The three external tournaments are definitely the three pressure points of the society, and require a lot of co-operation and communication between committee members. There should be meetings with the exec and the tournament convenors so that they can check their progress and assist them in any way they can. Moreover, as I proposed at the open committee meeting, they should be given room booking rights so as to be better prepared and plan for themselves.

4.     WUDC/EUDC trials. These are very stressful and we can seriously reconsider their format. Firstly, they should be a day long- I have heard this feedback from all the judges who conducted our trials this year. This makes for far fairer trials and means you aren’t immediately disqualified for having a bad round. Secondly, we should consider holding EUDC trials later on so that teams have longer to prepare and so that we know for sure whether or not we will get enough teams.

5.     Alumni relations. Essentially, we don’t make the most out of our alumni, who can be incredibly useful resources, and that should change. Therefore, I propose setting up a formal alumni network. This could consist of a group set up via a facebook page and a mailing list, whereby all those that sign up are sent a monthly newsletter about what we’ve been up to and our upcoming events. This allows alumni to keep in touch with us which is lovely as they are often nice people who want to remain included in the great community we’ve managed to great. It can also have material benefits like coming to give training sessions or judging our tournaments. I would make sure to set this up and expand its reach as far as is possible.

6.     We should do more with the website! It's one of the first things people would think to look at but not much has been done with it. In conjunction with the publicity officer I would make sure it's updated to include all our events. In conjunction with the training officer I would also put resources online, and think we could establish a kind of forum where people share useful resources with one another, enabling anyone who wants to become a better debater. 

Favourite debate-related memory

This question is discriminatory against those of us who are routinely drunk. However, if I had to pick, I would say my favourite debate-related memory is probably at the social after this year’s LSE Open. The majority of the troubles had subsided; we had pulled off a heist and avoided getting in a lot of trouble; everyone was having a great time at the social, but more importantly, I was reminded of why on earth I would choose to go through all of that in the first place.

DANIEL BRAMBLE

Training Officer

What makes me appropriate for the role

• I have done the role of training officer for the last year, with some moderate success so know the role and what can plausibly be done. This means I will not be trying to figure out what I am doing at the beginning of the year meaning it will be quite easy to start out.
• I produced most of the training materials for this year, especially all powerpoints for basic training, that means I can refine those more clearly.
• I have CA’d a few competitions so have a large number of motions to run (so can cover Tuesday trainings).
• I have several judging breaks, meaning I can offer very useful adjudications and feedback to speakers in training.
• Many speaking breaks and experience of successfully debating at international tournaments so have a large amount of things to share with our debaters.

My plans

• Improve Thursday training (these have been poor this year)

• Make some topics or weeks are specifically assigned to a trainng officer so they have clearer responsibility to find people to do training that week. It makes planning far easier.
• Utilise alumni more.
• Have a far more clearly laid out plan in advance.
• Feedback mechanisms more clearly provided for members to report back on what they want to learn.

• I want to run an internal competition, probably involving some nature of pro-am, with another society like UCL or Imperial on a Tuesday or Thursday, which allows embracing more variety in people speaking against and would be pretty fun.
• Have more engagement with the Vice President on selecting teams

• Feedback more clearly on people’s attendance and improvements in trainings so people can be rewarded for putting the required effort in and actually succeeding.
• When knowing the potential team allocations for future competitions we can allocate these in training to allow them to practice, whereas current system relies on speakers knowing who they will debate with and report that themselves.

• Clearer training on judging

• When getting debaters to judge, get the more senior judges to provide feedback and help for them.
• Better judge training sessions.

• Lobby harder for training officer beer fund

Favorite debate memory

Breaking at worlds. Not a big shock there.