WHY YOU SHOULD ORGANIZE A

DEBATE SOCIETY
Starting a debate society is not easy: it’s an endeavor that will probably take much of your free
time as a student, and there’s no guarantee that your efforts will have a lasting impact. But
don’t let all this discourage you; helping to build a debate society can benefit you in many ways:
As an organizer, it will test (and improve) your leadership and your ability to negotiate and
manage conflicts. You will learn to network, to manage projects, to fund-raise and get
sponsorships.
Debating has a strong impact on the communities it reaches, and so you might be building a
school of civic values and political engagement.
As a debater, you will complement your academic training by learning critical thinking,
active listening, and communication skills that will be invaluable in your personal and
professional life. You might be using these skills already in your academic life. Debating might
have a very positive impact on the way you approach questions on a test, how you respond to an
oral exam, or how you tackle writing an essay or thesis.
Debating will always give you more and better reasons to believe in what you
believe. It will help you to listen better and understand better. It will foster
tolerance, as you will be more capable of “walking” in other people’s shoes.
You will not only improve your language skills in your native language,
you’ll improve your English as well since most international debate
tournaments are held in English.
The skills debating helps you develop make you very attractive to prospective
employers.
THE STRATEGY
ANALYZE THE CHESSBOARD. How do you develop a strategy? What resources do
you have? What have you accomplished? Create a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats) diagram where you determine these characteristics of the
group. Strengths and weaknesses are respectively positive and negative aspects of
your situation that derive from internal characteristics of the organization or
project—like the experience of your debate squad, your financial stability, or the array
of expertise you have at your disposal. While opportunities and threats are respectively
positive and negative elements inherent to the external context in which you operate—
like the existence of other debate societies nearby that can help you organize
workshops and or the financial constraints current or potential sponsors have because
of the economic climate.
DEFINE YOUR GOALS AND MAKE REALISTIC GOALS. It’s really important that
you establish a time frame for achieving your goals. Let’s say that your goal is
to participate in the next IBP-Sponsored Law Schools Debate. You first might
want to set up an inter-year level debate among the law students of WLC or
organize weekly/monthly discussions of various legal, political, and social issues
to prepare your minds for the intellectual battle ahead. Of course, since you are
just starting a debate society, your immediate goal is to participate in inter-
school debate competitions.
HOW DO YOU WANT TO BE PERCEIVED?
REPUTATION. Debate societies have friends and reputations. To a large
degree, a debate society exists only once a certain number of people in a
specific community recognize it. It won’t do your debate society much good to
exist on paper if the students and administration aren’t aware of your
existence. To achieve a higher profile, you must create friends—usually
other debate societies—that confirm your existence.
Your first step is to raise awareness of your existence, but that’s not enough.
You have to develop a brand statement that explains why people should not
only pay attention to you but actually like you (and, if possible, love you and
have your babies). What do you have to do? You have to create an image that
spells: AWESOME.
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS AND POTENTIAL ALLIES. Your friends are your best allies. It is vital that
you create and maintain a network of individuals and institutions that like your debate society.
These include those who might be interested in helping you out and who have the
ability to assist you financially or offer you their expertise. Don’t forget to establish personal
relations with:
Your entire network. Tell everyone about your society. Show them how thrilled you are about it.
Post it on Facebook. Show pride. People will sense you confidence and feel attracted to the
project.
Parents: In the Philippines, students are still dependent to some degree on their parents. Your
debaters will travel a lot, spend late hours organizing events, or skip classes to go to a
debating workshop, so make sure their parents support what they are doing. Persuade parents
that debating is good for their children. Remember, parents will probably be your biggest
sponsors and supporters at workshops, tournaments, etc.
The School President, The Dean and The Professors: Try to earn the respect and
admiration of those who call the shots. The success of your debate society will also be
dependent on how difficult they try to make your life. Explain what the
school/faculty stands to gain from a debate program. Try to understand what kind of
people they are and what they value. Read their strategic plans, go to their
conferences, and determine how you can help them realize their goals and how they
can help you achieve yours. Earn their trust personally as well; show them you are
reliable and accountable.
Press: If it’s not in the news, it didn’t happen. If you don’t have access to media, try to
get to the social media first.
Administrative staff: There have been many activities that were only possible because
staff members were willing to close their eyes when you just need an extra room now
and have no time to wait for the department’s approval and lend a hand. Truth be told,
they are the ones that make it happen inside most institutions, especially in the
Philippines where informal connections play a big role in how things get done.
Other student groups: Sometimes they are your competition (people can’t join every
group), but most times they are your allies. Majority of law students don’t take part
in extracurricular activities. They just go to classes, go home, watch Halik and doze off
to sleep, unless there’s a party somewhere. Indifference, lack of attachment to school,
over-focus on studies and/or parties are your biggest challenges, not other student
groups. Becoming engaged with one group usually leads to joining others. Collaborate
with other groups to maximize your impact and make your message reach new people.
Other debating societies: You are not alone. Thousands of people around the
world are involved in debate. These folks are articulate, great fun, inspiring,
smart people who organize wonderful events for one another, who like to learn,
talk, and listen, to drink, and to read. Many in this community will be thrilled to
learn that you are starting a debate society and will gladly help you.
Inspire yourself by learning what’s being done elsewhere, talk to people
about their experiences, ask them for advice, visit different groups just to see
how they run their societies, organize workshops together and ask trainers from
other institutions to come train your debaters.
WHO IS GOING TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT. No good team can be made without good individuals.
Recruit from the most talented and hard-working students and show them why this project is
worth their time and passion. But, good individuals don’t always make a good team. If you have
only nerdy students or fast-talking loud mouths on your team, you’ll have a hard time
starting a debate society. Try to create a team of diverse people, but especially of people with
complementary skills who know how to work as a team.
Get leaders: people who make a difference, who take the initiative, who volunteer to go the
extra mile and inspire people to go the extra mile with them.
Get communicators: people who know everyone everywhere they go and make friends in a
snap.
Get advisers: tap consultants from other debate societies and get an adviser to guide you as
you move along.
THE POLICY MANUAL AND VALUES
STATEMENT
POLICY MANUAL. It’s a good idea to create a policy manual that spells out both the roles and
tasks of different members. A policy manual makes procedures more transparent, avoids
conflicts that can easily spur from case by case decisions on things like travel subsidies, for
example, and ensures that information is widespread and easily accessible to those who
need it, and that similar cases are treated in a similar way.
VALUES STATEMENT. It’s important for the organization to understand and incorporate the
values of the society. They should reflect the mindset of the people who make up the group.
These values can be set down in an ethics code and help members keep a steady course in
times of change. Some of these values are: Chivalry (we aim to raise brave, respectful, and
honest leaders); Independence (we are democratically run and are independent of political,
religious, philosophical, and other groups of all persuasions); Diversity (we cherish diversity in all
its shapes and forms, inside and outside debates, as springboards for the progress of ideas);
Unity (we believe in the power of synergies among different people and institutions); and
Ambition (we are passionate about serving the community, we aim to do it better and to lead
through example).
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
What you do greatly depends on what you are trying to achieve—so do stuff that
helps you reach your goals. This is hard at times because you might have lots of
ideas, plans, and invitations, and you might not be able to implement or take
advantage of them all. So you must decide what’s important to you at any given
moment, what puts you closer to your goals.
But there’s very thin line between being a visionary and being a lunatic. That line is
called success. There are many things that you will not be able to do (at least for the
time being). There are even more things that are not worth doing (at least now)
because they are, or could be, too resource consuming and you have other priorities. So
think if your idea is likely to succeed and about the comparative consequences of
different levels of likely failure or success, but also if it is worth doing at all given other
ways in which you can use the available resources.
TRAINING SESSIONS AND WORKSHOPS. You learn a lot and develop all sorts of skills by debating.
But attend-ing debate workshops is also a great way to improve your skills. It’s a very good
idea to bring in experienced debaters and trainers for these sessions since a good trainer can
help participants improve significantly in only a few sessions. It’s hard for debaters to improve if
they don’t have trainers who can teach them the skills they need, so bring in these people or
go to where they are. Of course, it’s a lot cheaper to fly one trainer to a workshop than
to fly 10 people to the trainer. However, if you can’t get a trainer, you have some options:
You may not have many experienced debaters, but you may have some theater, rhetoric, or
communications professors who can teach lots of skills useful in debating.
If you are near another debate society, your group may be able to attend its training sessions or
send a good debater there so she can learn and then teach the rest of club. Maybe your groups
can organize common training.
If you know something about debating, if you have a certain skills useful in
debating, if you have something to share, you have something to teach. Do your
research and prepare. You’ll find lots of free materials for your research
online.
DEBATE MODELS
 MODERATED DEBATES. In moderated debates, hosts negotiate the ground rules ahead of
time with the debate participants. This is usually the case with presidential debates that
typically are hosted by major TV networks or universities. Typically, each participant makes
an opening statement in a prescribed period of time. A moderator then asks a question of
one of the debaters, who is allocated a certain amount of time to respond. Other
participants then can respond. This is called a "rebuttal.“ Some moderators allow for a good
back-and-forth among candidates.
TOWN HALL DEBATES. This format often is popular with politicians whether they are
running for the highest office in the land or for a seat on a city council. The town hall format
calls for a moderator to take a microphone and walk around the audience, letting attendees
ask debaters questions live. In some cases. the moderator will also ask questions that
people pose via social media or other digital platforms.
THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS FORMAT. This is an open style of debate, named for the famous series
of debates between U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858.
Participants typically agree on time limits and topics ahead of time. Many high school and
college debaters are familiar with this format because it is very structured. A typical Lincoln-
Douglas format lasts about 40 to 45 minutes with a structure as follows:
Speaker A: Making the case–6 minutes
Speaker B: Cross-examination of speaker A–3 minutes
Speaker B: First rebuttal–7 minutes
Speaker A: Cross-examination of speaker B–3 minutes
Speaker A: First rebuttal–4 minutes
Speaker B: Final rebuttal
Speaker A: Closing rebuttal
THE OXFORD-OREGON TYPE.