Australian Capital Territory Debating Union

The Australian Capital Territory Debating Union (ACTDU) is a not-for-profit incorporated association promoting school-level debate in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. [ [http://www.hotfrog.com.au/Companies/ACT-Debating-Union-Inc] , retrieved on 15 September 2007] [ [http://lernen.bildung.hessen.de/bilingual/Englisch/cur/meth/deb] , retrieved on 15 September 2007] [ [http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/Education/Teachers/Facilitating+A+Parliamentary+Debate/FoundationLearning.htm] , retrieved on 15 September 2007] [ [http://www.radford.com.au/cocurricular/oratory.html] , retrieved on 15 September 2007] [ [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:llc3IN9-iiMJ:canberrac.act.edu.au/aug05.pdf+%22ACT+debating+team%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=au] , retrieved on 15 September 2007]

ACTDU organises school debating competitions in Canberra and surrounding regions, and is responsible for the entry of a representative team into the annual National Schools Debating championships. ACTDU runs competitions in both the Australian style (two teams of three) and in the British Parliamentary debating style (two teams of two on each side).

The Ford, Murray and Douse competitions are the Junior (school years 7 & 8), Intermediate (years 9 & 10) and Senior (years 11 & 12) Australian-style competitions. These are conducted in the evenings over a number of weeks, starting towards the end of first term. Schools are generally sent nomination forms in late February and the competitions will typically climax with a grand final in the middle of third term. [http://www.lynehamhs.act.edu.au/school_policies/competitionsdebating] , retrieved on 15 September 2007] [http://www.cgs.act.edu.au/debating.html] , retrieved on 15 September 2007]

The Crime Prevention Week debates are sponsored by the Australian Federal Police and are conducted in the British Parliamentary style. ACTDU run Junior (years 7-10) and Senior (years 11 & 12) Crime Prevention competitions, with nominations usually being called for during third term, with the competition over early in fourth term. Again, exact dates are listed on the calendar.

Beyond school-level debating, ACTDU coordinates debating tournaments for adults and provides a range of debating services to the wider community, including adjudication and communication training. [ [http://www.trinity.wa.edu.au/plduffyrc/subjects/english/drama/debate.htm] , www.trinity.wa.edu.au, retrieved on 15 September 2007]

ome ACTDU History...

(from ACTDU webpage, with their permission)
*"The ACTDU started in 1961 when some public servants set up a debating society to organise competitions between government departments in Canberra. In its early days it was extremely active, with sixty or more teams from departments, social clubs, churches and other organisations taking part in three separate grades.ACT schools took part in the statewide NSW knockout school debating competition (organised by the NSW Department of Education) when it begand in the early 1970s, and the ACTDU helped with the organisation those debates in the ACT. In 1973, the ACTDU began its own school competition, the Murray Trophy, for teams in Year 11 and below. This filled a gap, because the best Year 12 debators were taking part in the NSW competition. The trophy was named in honour of Brian Murray, who had been instrumental in establishing the competition.

In 1978, in response to suggestions from schools, we began the Douse Trophy for Year 11 and 12. For a year this ran in competition with the NSW statewide knockout, but ACT schools stopped taking part in the NSW competition the following year. At about the same time, the Murray competition was lowered to Year 10 and below following the introduction of ACT senior colleges, which made the distinction between Years 11 and 12 much less important than before.

The Douse Trophy is named in recognition of the man who, more than anyone else, got schools debating going in the ACT. Mike Douse came to Canberra in 1970, served as president of the ACTDU for several years until he moved overseas in 1977, before he laid the foundations of ACT School Debating that was both broadly based and of a very high standard. Under his coaching, the ACT team became one of the top three national schools debating teams with NSW and Queensland, a remarkable achievement for a city with just twenty-four teams in its competitions in 1974.

The Ford Trophy grew out of the Murray Trophy, because the Murray was becoming both impossibly large and also very diverse with students from Year 7 to Year 10 in one competition. In keeping with the practice of naming trophies after successive ACTDU Presidents, this trophy is named after Margaret Ford, President in 1977, who laid the groundwork for the junior school trophy.

Today the ACT has proportionally more school debaters than any other city in the world. In absolute numbers the ACT has as many teams in its competitions than in the entire English national competition.

In 2000, the ACTDU settled a dispute with one of its former employees that left the organisation in financial difficulty. As a result, the fees charged to schools for competition entries had to be increased and the position of central administrator was abolished. [ [http://www.actdu.org.au/notices/2001/welcome_to_debating_in_2001.html ACTDU 2001 noticeboard] , www.actdu.org.au, retrieved on 15 September 2007] Subsequent to this Harry Greenwell officially took over from the recently resigned Christopher Erskine.

Best Speaker Trophies & Prizes

In 2008 ACTDU formally honoured a number of their alumni and past contributors by naming a series of prizes after them. The Best Speaker Prizes for the Ford, Murray and ANU Douse Trophies were named after the 3 debaters who had most contributed to ACTDU organisationally, had most aided in facilitating debating overall within the ACT, and were the most worthy of recognition. The medals for the best speakers in the Grand Finals were named after the best debaters, who had also met a threshold contribution test for ACTDU. An independent sub-committee was set up to determine who should be chosen. The results were the introduction of:
*The Greenwell Prize for the best speaker overall in the Ford Trophy, named after Harry Greenwell.
*The Driscoll Medal for the best speaker in the Grand Final of the Ford Trophy, named after Rose Driscoll from Canberra Girls Grammar.
*The Farrell Perpetual Trophy for the best speaker overall in the Murray Trophy, named after Jeremy Farrell.
*The Moss Medal for the best speaker in the Grand Final of the Murray Trophy, named after Madeleine Moss from St Clares College.
*The Barnsley Shield for the best speaker overall in the ANU Douse Trophy, named after Paul Barnsley.
*The Wood Medal for the best speaker in the Grand Final of the ANU Douse Trophy, named after Nick Wood from Narrabundah College.The Zapari Medal was also introduced, sponsored by the Zapari Motel chain, to recognise the best and fairest speaker overall from the 3 competitions, taking into account sportsmanship, contribution to debating within their school, improvement as a speaker and speaking ability.

Past Winners

External links

* [http://www.actdu.org.au/ ACTDU official site]
* [http://www.adf.asn.au/ Australian Debating Federation]

References