Welcome to Auckland Schools Debating for 2025. We hope you were able to have a good break, and that your 2025 has started well. This post sets out the entry process for 2025 as well as other information for the year ahead. If you have any questions regarding any information in this email, the year ahead with ASD, or feedback on debating in 2024 please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Important Links
- Website – www.asd.org.nz
- 2025 Registration Guide and Competition Information
- 2025 Calendar
- 2025 Changes
- How to Debate Guide
Registration Deadlines
- Teacher in Charge Confirmation Form – Due Wednesday 26 February
- Seasonals Championship Registration Form – Due Monday 24 February
- Premier Grade Registration Form – Due Monday 3 March
- Open Grade Registration Form – Due Monday 3 March
Tournament Dates
- Counties Manukau Regionals – Saturday 22 February
- Seasonals – Saturday 1 March
- Auckland Regionals – Saturday 23 March and Sunday 24 March
Changes in 2025
Following feedback on changes to the competition in 2024 the committee are going to continue with the updated time slots for Advanced Open, Premier Junior, and Premier Advanced, allowing student adjudicators in Senior Open, and the delayed draw release for open grades.
Based on feedback from teachers in 2024 the committee is proposing trialing the following changes for the 2025 season:
- Introducing a third zone for Advanced Open. This zone will take place online.
This zone will co-exist with the two current zones (central and north). This means that teams who debate in the online rounds before the break will only debate against other online teams. There are two reasons for this change. First, it will relieve pressure on the central AO zone which means the competition can continue to accommodate more teams, and allow the committee to avoid enforcing team number caps. Second, it will allow schools who are far from central, or north, Auckland to participate in AO without an excessively long commute.
AO Online will be judged by ASD accredited adjudicators over zoom.
- Running the Northern Advanced Open grade on a different schedule to the other zones
As indicated on the calendar linked above, we have changed the weeks on which AO runs on the North Shore. AO North will now run on the weeks indicated as “AO North” and not on the weeks just labelled AO. We appreciate this change may be a little confusing as we introduce it so we will send reminders on the appropriate weeks for the impacted grades.
We are implementing this change to help ensure judge and convenor availability for AO North. By running AO on consecutive weeks we allow our judges and convenor to reliably fill this time lot with ASD. This ensures that we will have sufficient judge numbers available as AO north continues to grow in size.
- Registering ASD as an incorporated Charitable Trust
Finally, the committee is currently in the process of incorporating Auckland Schools’ Debating as a charitable trust. ASD currently operates as an unincorporated society which is no longer suitable for the organisation’s size and reach. As such we are in the process of incorporating as a charitable trust.
We currently intend the Trust’s board to be composed of former members of the ASD committee. The Board will function in an oversight role meeting around 4 times per year, or as needed. The day to day management of ASD will continue to be done through the committee and managers.
Moving to a trust structure will benefit ASD in three ways. First, as ASD grows we are expecting to cross the GST threshold in 2025 (as discussed under entry fees), being incorporated makes it easier to ensure we comply with our obligations on this point. Second, this will formalise ASD’s management. This allows the trust to employ managers to oversee the competition while retaining experienced community members to provide guidance and oversight. This will help us to continue to grow ASD’s competitions while providing a consistent tournament and grade experience. Third, this will allow direct engagement between the board and teachers.
ASD welcomes feedback on these proposed changes to be emailed to us at info@asd.org.nz prior to Friday 14 February.
Entry Fees
Due to recent growth in 2025 ASD needs to start collecting GST. To avoid a 15% increase relative to 2024 the committee has decided to temporarily cut our base fees for 2025. This means that, including GST, our fees for 2025 will be 10% higher than 2024.
As in previous years, we will be offering fee subsidies to schools who need it. We will be reaching out to schools which qualify for the automatic fee subsidies individually. If you believe you will have issues paying but have not been contacted, please get in touch with the committee via email.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any further questions.
Kind regards,
ASD Committee 2025
