On September 17, the Debate Club hosted their kick-off event in order to explain their new structure for this 2018-2019 academic year. As a way to interact and discover the debate skills of the future members, the Club decided to have an informal open floor debate on the topic of “Are Stereotypes Unfairly Stereotyped?” Certainly, it is a highly controversial topic open to discussion, but above all, familiar to everyone due to the international background at IE.
The main idea was to hear all the different points of view the participants had about stereotypes. Some argued they can serve as a tool to categorize people, others that stereotypes are just a way to pre-determinate a person and make a judgment based on that. The whole discussion went pretty well and the debate flowed naturally.
The Club also had another two events in the last couple of weeks, the first being a Coffee House Debate, in which a few people met at La Colonial to discuss some topics of interest while drinking a good warm cup of coffee.
On Friday the 28th, they hosted their first MUN Mock in which the Committee discussed a Resolution about Natural Disasters. Most of the participants were highly involved and seemed to be very interested about the topic in discussion.
Overall, both events were very successful and allowed the Leadership Team to see the motivation and potential behind each member, two factors that definitely have to be exploited in this club.
Regarding the Debate Club itself, this year it is going to be divided into 3 branches in order to make it easier for members to differentiate according to their interests: Formal Debate, MUN and Social Debates.
The MUN Branch’s goals are attending three international conferences (such as Geneva International MUN, Harvard MUN in Madrid …) and two local conferences (Barcelona International MUN, Universidad Carlos III MUN …). In addition to this, they want to hold monthly MUN Mock Conferences and to have weekly trainings with a Professional Coach, in order to prepare themselves for future conferences and gain more confidence while debating.
Concerning the Debate Branch, they aim to attend one tournament, having coaching sessions focused ¾ on Public Speaking, possible internal tournaments and for sure, debates on demand are more than welcomed.
Last but not least, the Social Branch will be focused on having weekly Coffeehouse Debates on Friday Afternoon and monthly debate pre-Drinks to work on the team/club spirit.
The Debate Club is open to anyone and everyone, regardless of previous experience. Their main goal is to encourage anyone with interest to join but mainly to provide a fun and different way of learning and meeting people, therefore contributing to the creation of a community.
