We facilitate meetings where students can participate in actual debates following a variety of formats, as well as debate and public speaking-related activities to help students become more comfortable with expressing themselves in front of others.  We also coordinate with related organizations like the NLSDU (who run High School debate events) and the United Nations Society (who run UN-style student conferences that also involve public speaking, etc.)

Location: UC 6009

Contact Email: mundebates@gmail.com

Typical Volunteer Duties: Students can either act as an Executive Member or a General Volunteer.

MUN Debate Executive Positions

1. Vice-President Internal: Decides on weekly debate topics and/or games, and works with society members to ensure their interests and needs are being reflected.
2. Vice-President External: Focuses on outreach and advertising of the society and its events, as well as liaising with other third-party organizations.
3. Vice-President Finance: Manages the spending of the society, collects any funds relating to our events/activities with an entry cost, and acts as a bank account signing authority.
4. Vice-President Admin: Attends all (or the majority of) weekly meetings and facilitates/runs the actual debates and activities as a consistent judge and/or moderator to explain rules, etc.

MUN Debate General Volunteer Positions:

1. Judge: At events involving more students, additional judges are often needed to ensure multiple rounds can be held simultaneously. (This is a low-commitment, per-event role and does not require committing continuously).
   2. Tabulator: For tournaments, processes the scores from each round to determine pairings for subsequent rounds, and determines cut-offs for making it to the finals, etc.

Commitment:

Executive Members can expect an executive meeting every two weeks (or perhaps every week when a major event is coming up). They would also generally be expected to attend a two-hour weekly debate meeting every two weeks or so if they are able to (less frequency is an option as well). The Vice-President Admin generally should attend a weekly debate meeting every week.

General Volunteers can expect to volunteer 2-6 hours at an event they attend, on average.

Registration: Email mundebates@gmail.com expressing interest in a specific role or position!  It's fine to attend a meeting or judge a round at one of our events to see how it feels and go from there if that helps.  At the moment we're looking to appoint new Executive Members as well.

Requirements: Past debate experience and/or comfort with public speaking would be helpful but is not strictly required.  Students should have the necessary time to commit to their role and be comfortable working in a team.