The Queen’s Debating Union (QDU) is pleased to invite you to the 2008 British Parliamentary National Debating Championships. Located in beautiful Kingston, Ontario, the tournament will run from Friday, November 21st – Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 at Queen’s University. We are excited about hosting such a prestigious tournament and are committed to making it a success.

Due to the later date of this year’s BP Nats, it will serve as an excellent preparatory tournament for teams planning to attend Worlds. We are committed to attracting debaters from across North America and would be thrilled to have APDA teams join us in making this tournament more broad based and competitive.

Debating Style and Format

The tournament will consist of 5 rounds of British Parliamentary debate using standard Worlds speaking times of 7 minutes, with a break to semi-finals. The style guide will be the same as that of WUDC. More information will follow closer to the tournament date.

There will also be 3 rounds of Public Speaking, breaking to the Top 5 speakers.

Judging/Tabs

We are very proud to announce that Michael Kotrly will be the Chief Adjudicator for Queen's BP Nationals. Mike is a former CUSID National, Cambridge IV and WUDC Champion. In addition to his substantial debating accomplishments, Mike was also the Chief Adjudicator of the 2007 Guindon Cup. The QDU will also be appointing an internal DCA at a later time.

The QDU has a very committed membership who will be judging at this tournament. Queen’s CUSID Nationals 2007 boasted a very strong judging pool that we hope to recreate and improve upon for BP Nats 2008. However, due to the prestigious nature of the tournament, we will also be looking to increase the number of external judges. We will waive the registration fee of any judge who has broken at a previous BP Nationals or at the World University Debating Championship. We are confident this measure will allow us to increase the depth of our judging pool by a significant extent.

We will be imposing the standard n/2 judging rule, with some flexibility for schools from other regions on a case by case basis.

Our Tabs Director will be Joanna Adams, who has tabbed numerous tournaments here at Queen’s, as well as the 2008 Leger Cup at RMC.

Food & Socials

The QDU is known for our awesome food and socials and you can expect the same quality for BP Nats. Debaters will be provided with dinner on Friday, three meals on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch or brunch on Sunday. While Socials locations have not yet been finalized, we are hoping to book many of the same locations that we used for CUSID Nats last year. We are looking into Ale Canteen or a similar venue for the Friday night social. We have booked the Vimy Ridge Officers’ Mess for the Saturday night banquet, which boasts a classy ballroom and bar. Additional details will be announced over the next few months.

Registration

Registration will be $125 per team and $60 per judge. As mentioned under the Judging section, we will waive judges’ fees for anyone who has broken at BP Nats or Worlds in the past. When registering, please note the name of the judge, which tournament they broke at, and the year in which they broke. There will be an initial soft school cap of 6 teams per institution, however flexibility will be possible. There will be a soft team cap of 64 teams.

We will be imposing a sliding deposit policy. Schools must pay 50% of their total fees one month prior to the tournament (Oct. 21, 2008), and the full fee 2 weeks before.

Accommodations

The official hotel for this tournament will be the Confederation Place Hotel located at 237 Ontario Street, a short 10 minute walk from the Queen’s campus. Participants are offered quadruple occupancy rooms for $99/night plus tax. Please contact the hotel directly at (613) 549-6300 or 888-825-4656 to reserve your rooms; make sure to mention that you are reserving as participants with the Queen’s Debating Union/British Parliamentary Nationals to ensure the above rate. We have rooms blocked off until October 24, 2008, after which time availability cannot be ensured. For further information, the hotel website is: http://www.confederationplace.com/.

Billeting, if required will be provided on a case by case basis subject to availability. If teams require billeting they are strongly encouraged to notify the QDU as soon as possible.

The entire QDU is very excited to be hosting BP Nats. Further details will be posted on the APDA forum as they become available. If you have any questions or would like to send us a rough estimate of teams you intend to register, please contact our Tournament Director Ashton Teulon at ashton.teulon@hotmail.com or our QDU President Christine Wadsworth at christine.wadsworth@gmail.com. We look forward to seeing you in November!


Ashton Teulon
2008 BP Nats Tournament Director

Christine Wadsworth
165th QDU President

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