CHAMBER DEBATING

The Hist’s Wednesday night chamber debates are our flagship event and not to be missed! Every week, we meet in the Graduates Memorial Building at 7:30pm to debate a motion or topic.

It is customary to hold private business at the beginning of every chamber debate. In this section, the Auditor asks the Officers of the Society a series of questions so that they can give updates about what the Society is up to at the moment, but it’s mostly just a silly tradition we do because we have done it for over 250 years. After private business, the Chair calls the house to order and our Record Secretary reads “the minutes from the last public business meeting”, usually in the form of a funny speech that has absolutely nothing to do with the last public business meeting. Once that’s done, the debate begins!

A combination of students, experts, and distinguished guests go head-to-head in a battle of words, wisdom, and wit in order to persuade the audience to vote “aye” or “nay” at the end of the evening. All speakers are given only seven minutes to captivate the audience, however the audience has ample chance to provide their input too! We encourage everyone to offer ‘Point of Informations’ (or POIs) during speeches. Sometimes, audience members are also able to give floor speeches. These are impromptu two-minute speeches that can add more nuance to the debate as a whole by contributing a new perspective or argument and a great way to get started in chamber debating!

Motions can cover a broad range of topics, from economics and politics to art and international relations! You can give us suggestions for topics to debate here.

We welcome all members to sign up to speak, whether you’re completely new to public speaking or are an experienced debater. If you are new to chamber debating, we will also be holding our “Talk the Talk” workshops throughout the year, where you will learn how to do chamber debates in your sleep. Each workshop will be led by a different former member of the Hist who is now a professional who uses public speaking skills everyday!

Make sure to check out our social media and register to become a member of the Hist for weekly updates via email. You will be able to find out what debates we will be hosting, as well as sign-up to speak in them. We love discourse in the Hist, but we also adore discussion. We plan to host plenty of panels throughout the year in order to platform topics we feel need an in-depth look.