As I wind down, temporarily, from studies now would be a suitable time to sum up KDS’s progress this year.
A year ago, there was no debating society. About May time last year we finally got the society ratified and, with a hand-picked team of enthusiasts we went about setting it up.
Less than a year later we have nearly sixty members, have sent teams to national debating competitions (including the presitigious Inner Temple IV) and have held debates on everything from the detainment of Santa Clause to abortion.
Not that we want to dwell on past success, I’m still thoroughly disappointed with debating at the University of Kent. That may seem like a particularly negative thing to say but its more a consequence of my own impatience. While we have achieved a lot this year, the aim has always been to set up a society akin to the debating societies other universities have and we still have a long way to go.
That means having 100s of members, sending teams to competitions nearly every week and running our own competitions. However, the mega challenge in achieving this is not getting those members or getting the funding, its doing all that but without losing Kent Debating Society’s best quality: its atmosphere.
The members we have had this year (well those that attend most weeks, big thank you to those that signed up, paid up and never showed up; I can confirm your membership made for some great pizza for the rest of us!) have been a fantastic bunch and the friendly, welcoming and unintimidating atmosphere they have helped foster is something I must commend them for. Some of them are leaving this year and will be sorely missed but we hope that they come back when they’re outstanding in whatever they decide to do and take part in a guest-debate or two.
On May 19th our elections for next year will be held at our AGM, signalling the end of my enjoyable time as President, I won’t be around next year either to run for anything, but I will be keeping tabs on things from afar to make sure the society is even better when I come back.
So committee, whoever you will be, watch your backs.
To a successful future!
Tom
