| Australian Catholic Universtity (NT) | Johnathan's Angels |
MUDS AGM 2006
The 2006 MUDS Annual General Meeting was held on the 24th of May, and ushered in an updated constitution and a new Committee! See details of the new committee under the "About Us" tab.
The Constitutional changes included altering the structure of the committee- something that will be reflected in how we vote in our next AGM in September.
MUDS Dominates at the DAV President's Cup!Congratulations to all the MUDSians who participated in the DAV President's Cup this weekend. MUDSians Seamus Coleman (DAV Adult Services Officer) and Phil Barker (DAV Training and Development Administrator) did an excellent job running the tournament. MUDS was represented by both teams in the novice Grand Final, with the winning team Kingston Town (Tom Kelly, Tony Kung and Tim Hickman) being full of some MUDS stars. The runners up of the main Grand final, Clapham Omnibus (Duncan Kauffman, Seamus Coleman and Daniel Kinsey) was none other than Melbourne 2 for Australs this year! Congratulations to all involved!
Novice Champions - Kingston Town
MUDS Members Win National AAT Moot Grand Final
Our Vice President Nicole Lynch and Public Debates Officer Sarah Kemeny finished off an amazing run by winning the National Administrative Appeals Tribunal Moot over Bond University.
The Grand Final was held in Sydney, with the winner promised fame and glory! Nicole and Sarah won the moot by 0.5 points.
Congratulations!
Freehills Grand Final!Congratulations to Phil Barker, Dan Kinsey, Jaani Riordan, Anna Blair and Will Morris for taking out the Freehills Cup!
Photos and more details up soon!
Australs Teams Announced!
See the details of the MUDS 2006 Australs Contingent... ready to take on the best in snowy New Zealand! Click here for full details! |  |
MUDS Public Debate... a resounding success!
In the lead up to the Victorian State election, the Melbourne University Debating Society proudly hosted a debate on a key election issue...
If you do the crime, you should do the time!
That we should introduce standard minimum sentences for criminal offences.
The debate featured 3 Victorian MPs, the Chief Magistrate of the Victorian Magistrates Court and the President of Liberty Victoria. An excellent event - thank-you to everyone who attended!
More details...
MUDS Reaches Quarters at Easters!
MUDS has returned from ANU Easters with success after success! MUDS sent a massive contingent of 10 teams and 15 adjudicators who all did exceedingly well. MUDS broke five teams and three adjudicators to the finals. Our all novice Melbourne 8 (Sienna Merope, Tom McCarthy and Catherine Smyth-McMullen) made it all the way to the quarter finals! In the Grand Final, MUDS was represented on the adjudication panel by Liz Sheargold (Chair) and Tim Washington. To top it all off, three MUDS speakers finished in the top 10 on the speaker tab!!!
A truely impressive effort by all involved!
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The MUDS Contingent
| Melbourne 8 - Quarter Finalists
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For more details about this year's Easters, click
here.
Commencement Dinner
The 2006 Commencement Dinner was held at Nyonya Restaurant in Lygon St followed by an after party at Phoenix Bar on Flinders St.
Wow, what a fantastic night! For those who came to the dinner, you would know that it was filled with fun times, good conversation and slightly warmer than usual surroundings. We honestly hope that you enjoyed it, and take it as a signs of things to come around MUDS.
A big thank-you to Liz Ames and Michael Symons for organising the dinner!
Photos will be up soon.
MUDS' Success at Worlds!
MUDS has achieved outstanding success at the 2006 Dublin World Universities' Debating Championships. All teams spoke very well and were in contention for the break going into the final day. Melbourne 1, Lucia Pietropaoli and Elizabeth Sheargold, broke in an amazing 8th place, both ranked in the top 20 speakers and made it all the way to the Quarter Finals where they were knocked out by two Grand Final teams. Two of our adjudicators, Maryam Jahanshahi and Catherine Muhlebach also broke to the finals. In another success, Jess Moir won the comedy prize with a speech that receieved a standing ovation (and not just from Australians!).
Congratulations to all involved!
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Melbourne 1 - Quarter Finalists
| Jess Moir - Comedy Champion
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News from 2005...
Melbourne Mini!
This year, once again, Melbourne Mini was an incredibly successful tournament enjoyed by all participants - which included teams and adjudicators from interstate and overseas. Congratulations and thanks must be extended to the organising committee, for running such an excellent tournament. MUDS also was highly successful this year at Melbourne Mini, with two MUDSians, Liz Sheargold (Monkey Magic) and Seamus Coleman (Hatchback Crusaders) making the Grand Final, as well as Maryam Jahanshahi (Chief Adjudicator) and Tim Washington adjudicating on the Grand Final panel. Congratulations also to Liz Sheargold for being equal best speaker for the tournament.
For more details, click here!
Sydney Mini!
MUDS had a fantastic time at Sydney Mini over the first weekend of December - sending a contingent of 9, we had two teams break and Melbourne 1, Liz Sheargold and Daniel Kinsey, proudly represented MUDS in the Grand Final on an exciting debate on the topic, 'That this house would try Saddam in private'. Congratulations also to Liz Sheargold for being ranked third best speaker at the tournament.
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Daniel Kinsey and Liz Sheargold |
Full details here.
The passing of Hamish Malcolm
It is with the deepest sadness that we would like to inform members of Hamish Malcolm's death. He suffered a sudden cardiac arrest, and though he was resuscitated, his brain had lost too much oxygen, and Hamish had to be taken off life support last week. He was only 25.
For those who knew Hamish, debated with or against him, spoke to him, or even was just aware of his presence, you would know that Hamish was very keen on debating and fascinated by political issues. His friendly British accent will be sorely missed at MUDS.
MUDS, on behalf of its members, would like to pass on our regrets to Hamish's family and friends. Know that he will certainly not be forgotten at the debating society.
If anybody would like to attend his funeral (Monday 31st Oct) or would like to find out more about his birthday event to honour his memory, please email us at mudsonline@gmail.com and we will forward them onto you.
Advanced First Principles Training
The aim of this day is to provide debaters with an opportunity to expand upon their skills through an intensive and quite long matter session. The day will be taken by 3 old (one quasi current) MADies who have a lot of experience with 1st principles.
This training day will NOT have practice debates - the day is aimed at gaining knowledge, and hence, it's important to note that it will go for a while and (hopefully) be advanced. This is not to disuade anyone from attending (sorry if it sounds like that)! Just remember that it'll be like 1st year policitcs/feminism/legal theories/economics squeezed into one day.
So, here are the details! The exact outline of the day is still being confirmed, but remember to keep this date open if you're interested!
DATE: Saturday November 19th
TIME: 10am-5pm
VENUE: Monash Clayton Law School
TRAINERS: Tim S, Kylie and Kim Little
Tim Sonnreich
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Kylie Lane | 
Kim Little
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The Novice British Parliamentary Competition
MUDS is again hosting the Novice BP Competition on Sunday 23rd October! This is a great chance for those new to the BP Style to fight (and debate) our Monash cousins for the ultimate prize! Meet on Concrete Lawns at 11:45am. more...
Melbourne University Concrete Lawns |  Winners of last year's competition - 'The Toy Boys' |
The DAV Annual Dinner
Held at the Harbour Kitchen in the Docklands, the Debaters Association of Victoria's Annual Dinner on the 14th October was one of the best to date. With two courses, free drinks (well...after the $40 fee) and lots of funny awards, the Brownlow/Eurovision combined style worked well. Everyone had loads of fun, so to see people having loads of fun, visit our galleries page!
Dublin Worlds Contingent Announced!
Best of luck to our Worlds Contingent who will be competing in Dublin in a mere 10 Weeks! MUDS will be proudly represented by the following teams and adjudicators:
Melbourne A: Lucia Pietropaoli and Liz Sheargold
Melbourne B: Nicole Lynch and Liz Ames
Melbourne C: Jess Moir and Duncan Kauffman
Adjudicators: Maryam Jahanshahi
Lauren Knight
Catherine Muhlebach
Congratulations to Seamus Coleman and Duncan Kauffman in taking out the Law Students' Society Junior Mooting Grand Final!
This competition is held by the Law Students' Society at the Melbourne Law School for first year law students. Seamus and Duncan (with the help of Liz Sheargold as pseudo-coach), beat many highly skilled teams in their year level to win this very prestigious competition. MUDS would like to congratulate our two members, and have no doubt that our great training program helped them to win!
In other news, your President and Vice-President, Tim Washington and Nicole Lynch, have made the LSS Negotiation Grand Final! It will take place next Thursday, 20th October in the Law School, room G27 at 6.15pm. Come along and support MUDS in winning another LSS Competition!
Congratulations to Liz Sheargold and Liz Ames for winning the Australian Womens Debating Championships
This year, the tournament was held by the team at the Australian National University. 'Team Liz' beat two Sydney teams and an ANU team in the Grand Final - A fantastic effort! More...
More exciting new appointments!
