Getting Involved

We know that public speaking and debating can feel a bit intimidating when you start out, so we make sure that we have a number of different ways new students can get involved with the Hist in an environment that is comfortable for them. We run a number of events exclusively for new debaters, as well as speaking events that are more informal and laid back. If you have any questions you can reach out to the Auditor (auditor@thehist.com), the Records Secretary (recsec@thehist.com) or any of our officers who will be happy to answer them!

There’s a lot of material in this guide, so here are some tips:
New to Debating? Take a look at Novice Training, Maidens (1st Semester) or Internals (2nd Semester) and Derbies of Rhetoric
Getting More Involved? Take a look at Judging & Committee, Subcommittees and Convenorships

Maidens

Maidens is the flagship event for students new to university debating (Novices). Maidens runs throughout the first semester, with 5 qualifying rounds followed by 2 elimination rounds and a Grand Final. For the first 4 rounds, you get the motion and the side you’ll be debating the weekend before and have plenty of time to prepare before your debate, which will be in a timeslot during the week which works with your classes. The 5th round is a lightning round, where you get the motion and your side 15 minutes before the debate, and you can do as many debates as you want.

Every speech is scored individually, meaning even if you are in an especially strong room, your speech will be scored on its own merit rather than how it compares to the people you are debating against. After the 5 rounds have concluded, for all students who have debated in at least 3 rounds, we take your best 3 scores and add them together, then the top 32 speakers break to the Quarterfinals. The Quarterfinals and Semifinals work similarly to the first 4 rounds, only the top 4 speakers in each quarterfinal advance and the top 3 speakers in each semifinal advance. The top scoring speaker who wasn’t in either top 3 will also advance to the Grand Final, and the last spot will be up for grabs in the one day Oscar Wildecard competition (similar to the lightning round), which any novice speaker can participate in even if they hadn’t spoken in Maidens previously! If you like the sound of Maidens, you might also like other competitions!

Novice Training

We run Novice Training every year for new students to explain the basics of public speaking and debating, helping students learn how to form arguments, deliver a speech and engage with other speakers even if they have never tried any form of debating or public speaking before. At Novice Training, we explain a concept of debating like giving rebuttal or weighing arguments, and then do a short drill focused on developing that skill. If there are specific areas of interest, anyone is welcome to submit suggestions or feedback on Novice Training and we can tailor it to what novices would like to see! It’s all about getting a bit more comfortable with public speaking, learning how to get your points across, meeting new people and having some fun!

Chamber Debates

Our Chamber Debates are our main events every week, and even if you’re not sure about speaking in one yet, you can come watch! It’s very easy to get casually involved with a debate, audience engagement is encouraged so you are free to cheer for speakers or offer them Points of Information (questions or comments) during their speeches, or you can ask to give an impromptu floor speech at the end of a debate! If you are sure that you’d like to speak on a topic, sign ups for chamber debates are always open and spots are allocated on a rolling basis, so just sign up for any debate you’re interested in. We try to ensure we have some new speakers in Chamber most weeks, so if you put down a few different debates you’re very likely to get allocated one of them!

We also have the R&L (Records & Libraries, we’re not sure why it’s called that either) debate in second semester, which is a fresher takeover debate where freshers set the motion, give the minutes, organise the social and deliver all of the speeches! The R&L is a great way to give Chamber a go if you’re less sure about speaking in a regular debate, and there are many ways to get involved even if you don’t want to speak!

Derbies of Rhetoric

Derbies of Rhetoric are organised by the Robinson Subcommittee, and are a more relaxed type of event than a typical debate. They usually have a central theme which speeches are based around, but these themes tend to be pretty broad with a lot of room to make your speech your own (such as pop culture, science fiction and history). There’s a soft limit of 7 minutes, but speeches are often a variety of different lengths, and there’s optionally a time for questions afterward. You don’t need to sign up in advance to speak in a derby, so you can just go to watch and decide if you want to speak on the day. Derbies always have a relaxed atmosphere and people are very supportive, so they can be a much easier way to get into public speaking. (They also usually have snacks!)

Internal & External Competitions

There are a variety of different competitions both inside and outside of Trinity that you can get involved in no matter what you’re interested in. Our internals are exclusively for members of the Hist, while external competitions are ones we attend at other universities. We also convene our own competitions which attract speakers from Ireland and abroad, which we always need judges and volunteers for, and we often have speaking spots for these too.

The internal competitions are Harneys, Grattans and Freshers’ Masters, which are all generally similar to Maidens with slight twists. Harneys follows the Maidens format, but is exclusively for Female and Gender Minority debaters of any level. Grattans also follows the Maidens format, but involves historical motions and is also open to debaters of any level. Freshers’ Masters is a competition purely for novices, and is very similar to the Wildecard, but takes place at the start of the second semester.

There are a range of external competitions you can attend, in Ireland, the UK and across Europe. Many competitions are IVs (Intervarisities) or Opens, with teams of varied skill levels, but some are exclusively for Novices or ProAms (pairings with one experienced debater and one novice debater), and some have specific themes, so there are plenty of different opportunities depending on what you are interested in.

Judging

If you aren’t sure about speaking, judging can be a great way to still get involved, see some speeches and build up your confidence. We always need judges for competitions, and you can judge at a variety of different levels depending on what you are comfortable with. There are judging opportunities for our schools competitions, internals, externals and the competitions we convene. If you’re new to judging, we’ll make sure you get paired with a more experienced judge who can help guide you through the process, and we have plenty of resources you can use to help get yourself familiar with judging.

Committee, Subcommittees and Convenorships

If you’ve been enjoying your time in the Hist and would like to get more involved in the organisational aspects, there are a number of different areas you can help with.

The Committee runs most of the Hist’s activities and is in charge of the day-to-day management of the Hist. You can run for Hist Committee once you’ve acquired enough speaks (link to election info). The Committee consists of a number of officers and members of committee (MCs) who are divided into departments dealing with different areas of the society. If you’d like to learn more about a department you should reach out to the officer in charge of it, or if you’d like to learn more about the committee in general you should reach out to the Auditor!

Subcommittees are set up to handle specific tasks or areas which don’t have standing officers in charge of them. The largest subcommittee is the Robinson Subcommittee, which organises panel discussions and Derbies of Rhetoric, but there are also subcommittees pertaining to elections, feedback and other areas. For Robinson applications are opened during the Summer with candidates being chosen by the Auditor and Records Secretary, and for other Subcommittees the application process is determined on a case-by-case basis, with information being made available in the weekly emails or in Private Business.

Two of the internals, Harneys and Grattans, are run by appointed convenors rather than by an officer, although the appointed convenors can be members of the Committee. Applications for these convenorships are usually opened in the first semester, and then the convenors run these competitions in the second semester with guidance from the Debates Convenor. Usually a primary convenor is appointed with one or two pro-convenors who assist them. Experience is one factor we consider when appointing convenors, but we also consider any novel ideas the applicants have proposed and their explanations for why they want to be involved.