Spotlight

IBACC and Debate Festival

As the tenth of August neared all of us were getting excited. It was time once more for the celebration of youth, for celebration of life and above all time for another Debate Festival.

Back in 2006 when the debate championship was arranged by IBACC, we were doing a lot of things for the first time. This time with a more experienced team we were adamant in surpassing the last year's performance from every angle.

Both volunteers and debaters worked hard before the tournament. Volunteers worked relentlessly to put up a show that would be flawless. The debaters on the other hand were more than serious about giving an immaculate performance. The visions were the same from both the parties - to make IBA an epitome of success. But even with all these concerns and pressures in our mind, needless to say, we enjoyed our work. Here goes a brief recap of the beautiful memories from behind the screen, on the screen and out of the screen activities carried out by all the members of IBA Communication Club at this event.

Behind the Screen
To begin with, the very name which should be uttered before every description of the event is Mr. Syed Munir Khasru, Faculty and Moderator, IBA Communication Club (IBACC). He was the man with a lamp when there was darkness around. He led our effort and made our dream of shaping a beautiful and structured committee - a committee which would be capable of holding an event with all its grandeur and splendour possible.

He had a few efficient hands to help him out throughout the event. The President of IBACC Md. Shadman Sadikin was evidently the most powerful hand, who had his presence at every step. He, under the supervision of his captain could successfully lead his team. To name a few of his associates, Morhed ul Arefin (the General Secretary), Shaikh Waheed Mahmud, Ardina Rahman, Fahmida Sultana, Saif ur Rahman, Abhishek Paul, Zannatul Ferdous - all were like the members of his family. Each of them led his/her own committee efficiently.

With the club divided into several committees, we worked smoothly towards achieving our objectives.

Debaters! Wake up!!!
When there is a debate going on, nothing is more important than the debaters themselves. The Inter University Liaison Committee (IULC) has been set up to meet the prime objective of supplying this basic raw material of the tournament. And IULC is the only segment of the entire workforce that has actually worked for the last six weeks!!! None of its members enjoyed the semester break and was always busy with their cell phones calling up different universities. Besides increasing the revenue of different cell phone companies, IULC members also increased revenue of different rickshaw-pullers and CNG auto-rickshaws as these were used abundantly to deliver the invitation package. This package included an invitation letter, debaters' profile template, adjudicator information form and a detailed rule of the tournament. IBACC has also followed a strict principle of confirming the teams names two weeks before the event.

During the tournament, this committee maintained liaison with the guest teams and tried its utmost to satisfy them. IULC succeeded in bringing 72 talented debaters from 17 institutions. The names are given in another story.

IULC had another target to meet. It's the adjudicators. Since IBACC considered and implemented to host 8 debates simultaneously in five sessions a day, a large pool of adjudicators had to be called up. We invited all the renowned and senior adjudicators to ensure the highest possible quality of adjudication.

We want our ground to look grand!!!!
In order to make the IBA campus look bright and colourful that would match the grandeur of the National Debate, the decoration battalion headed by a 'General' got real busy way before the tournament. The ground was covered with papers and foams with volunteers working tirelessly with the aid of the General of Decoration, Zannatul Ferdous (Papri).

The hall turned out to be an ambience of beauty, which reflected the rejuvenated face of IBA. Volunteers decorated the rooms and walls and corridors of their second home.

Media took us on air!
The tagline of IBA Communication Club is "Excellence Communicated" and we, the media committee, always tried to communicate excellently. The media committee headed by the committee coordinator Fahmida Sultana went on to bring IBA in the limelight during the event. All of the core members, Siza, Shoaib, Nazi, Tausif and Alim worked with the media people hand in hand. The media partners: The Daily Star, Channel I and Radio Foorti became a partner of our life (for those days obviously). Our first exposure was through a press conference, which was held at IBA auditorium before the tournament. It was actually a dress rehearsal of the real programme and it went on very successfully. We had correspondents from more than 15 newspapers and 6 TV channels attending the press conference and covering the news.

For the coverage of the tournament, we literally chased the journalists of different newspapers and channels. We called them up several times, faxed the press release everyday, and sometimes went to their offices to provide them with news and pictures of the tournament and what not. It was always nice to have the support from the media partners, other media and members of other committees. Sometime it so happened that we had to work till late night for composing the press releases, confirm the media people and make sure that the news of our tournament was getting proper coverage.

We started our journey in September last year while organizing the IBA National English Debate Championship, 2006. Since then we have made some extensive changes and we are now a lot more organized than we were the previous year.

The main responsibility of this committee is to ensure that the events launched under the umbrella of IBACC is carried out successfully. Some of the memories are filled with laughter and enormous fun; some were full of depression and to some extent anger. But what we always kept in our mind is that, we have to have our work done. In all, we had a great experience and it was actually worth working with the committee.

Therefore, the team with a huge responsibility in shoulder for the arrangement of this event was the Finance Team. As the Coordinator Ardina Rahman puts it-“Anybody who's been in finance will know exactly what I mean when I say handling finances is a thankless job.” Around me, people in Decorations, Inter University Liaison and Venue and Logistics were literally going to pieces before the tournament. I only wish I could say my team and I had been the ones on the other side, smiling smugly. Yeah right. Starting from signing my name as one responsible for all the funding in the tournament, to writing out numerous cheques, which has resulted in only having five leaves left in my chequebook, to lugging huge sums of money around over the last one week, hearts beating wildly, nearly having coronaries at the slightest footfall behind us the finance team has literally forgotten what it's like to smile, let alone smugly.

My team has the unenviable job of counting and recounting every taka that has been spent in this hugely successful tournament. I don't even want to imagine what mess Zahed, Ruhul, Bayezid, Nayehan, Hasib, Siddique and Bidhan and I are going to have to sort through, account for and present by the end of this week. Who said finance people had it easy? We have worked prior, during and after the tournament. Mr. President, I hope you're reading.

All complaints aside, it was fun and it was hugely satisfying to see the tournament ending so successfully. We, as one of the teams who provided, literally, the means to get this show on the road feel very proud of IBACC's achievement this year. The best part was our constant interaction with each of the teams…although I'm sure that interaction was laced with jharis, jharis and even more jharis. I hope you guys will overlook that little…let's call it over-enthusiasm.

I think my write-up should include a lot of praise for my team members, since finance people are barely remembered except when people need money. Therefore, my congratulations to my team members who have handled the prior and during tournament part of their job description with aplomb and efficiency. Let's hope the rest of it is a smooth sailing as well.

Food-Food-Food!! That's the main part
Events Organizing and Food Committee is perhaps the most important component of IBA Communication Club (IBACC).

By the grace of the Almighty, we have been able to organize all the events with great success and earned appreciation from all quarters. All the members of this club worked day and night to make sure that the standard of IBA is maintained throughout the events.

Another important side of this committee is to see that no one goes hungry during the main events.

We always try to give the very best to our guests. We have three refreshment breaks a day during the events- one for morning snacks, another for lunch and the last one for evening snacks. So we have to work continuously from morning session till the evening session since as soon as the morning session is over we have to rush to get the lunch for the guests and the same goes for the evening session.

Orders for food are placed with well known food outlets of the city at least two days before the main events and we always try to make sure that nobody complains about the cleanliness and hygiene condition of the items served. Soft drinks and mineral water are also served along with the food items. Decoration and Venue and logistics are the other two sectors taken care of by the event organizing committee. The decoration team works day and night before the main event to make the campus colorful and lively so as to create an aura of festivity in every corner of IBA.

The venue and logistics committee goes through a hard time since all the furniture that needs to be moved from one place to another is done by them and not by the stuff of IBA. The event organizing committee of IBACC carries out some of the most important tasks that are essential to add feathers to the glory of the club's success. In the end it can be said that the committee will always try to improve the quality of the services learning from the experiences gathered so far and continue to set standards tougher to reach by others.

On the screen:
Registration for the debaters started from 8:30 a.m. From all over Bangladesh the teams arrived and registered and became a part of the festival. The registration committee was busy round the clock. By 9:30 in the morning the debaters had registered themselves and after the introduction by the moderator, president and general secretary of IBACC the tournament commenced.

At 10 o' clock the motion for the first session was declared. The 24 teams were divided into eight groups each consisting of three teams. The teams were taken to their prescribed preparation rooms from the IBA auditorium where the introduction took place. Then the adjudicators briefing started. Everyone was provided with breakfast as the festival went along.

At 10:20 sharp the first session started. The Venue and Logistics committee had prepared the eight IBA rooms for debate the prior night and so the championship started without any further delay. Many of the IBACC members got to relax as soon as the tournament started. It was now time for us volunteers to get our breakfast except those few who were overseeing the progress of the tournament. Unfortunately I was among those few.

The first debate session finished. Once more the debaters were taken back to the auditorium and after a slight briefing the motion for the second session was announced.

In due course the motion for the third session was declared and once again the actions started. Debaters were taken to their designated rooms and adjudicators were briefed. With flow of time the session ended and all debaters were back in the IBA auditorium. The winners from each group were declared and the second round debate was about to start. The motion for the second round first session was declared the debates started.

The best part seemed to be the socializing of so many youths. We usually do not have the chance to mingle with students of so many universities under one roof due to the boundaries set by time and place. As we looked at the smooth flowing of activities and satisfied faces and heard the happy buzzing of so many voices we were convinced of a job well done. However it was not over and the second day was yet to come.

By 11:15 this session ended and teams for the quarter finals were selected. Breakfast was served and at 11:40 the motion for the quarter finals was announced. By 12: 30 the quarter finals finished and the four teams that qualified for the semifinals were IBA-1, IBA-3, NSU-1 and DUDS-1.

By 3:00 the motion for the first semi-final was announced that is to be held between IBA-1 and DUDS-1. The debate started at 3:35 and it was a very lively debate. DUDS represented the government side and IBA-1 the opposition. We were keeping our fingers crossed knowing that beating DUDS won't be an easy task. The debate ended and IBA-1 was declared the winner. The whole auditorium erupted in a deafening roar.

For the first time in the tournament the possibility arose for the facing of two IBA teams. Can IBA-3 make it to the finals? By 5:00 the motion for the second semi-final between NSU-1 and IBA-3 was announced and by 5:30 the debate started. IBA-3 gave an excellent start to the debate defining the motion in a most unusual fashion. NSU was taken off guard as the opposition. But they fought back brilliantly and in the end by the decision of the honorable adjudicators NSU won. Everything was running seamlessly and it was soon time for the finals that is to be held between IBA-1 and NSU-1. In due time the motion was declared and at 8:00 the debate started. The bill proposed by the government, NSU-1, was “Parliamentary Democracy Does Not Suit Bangladesh”.

Both the teams put up a lively show. NSU-1 having reached finals had no intention of making it easy for IBA-1. The IBA team also opposed the motion brilliantly. The debate finally ended with a suspense embedded. The results were to be declared in the championship dinner on the day after at Radisson Water Garden Hotel. Which team would be the champion?

The Grand Finale
Finally the long awaited day came. All tensions relieved. Only fun awaits. The GRAND FINALE came on screen on 12th August, 2007. After few moments of intense silence, the Chief Judge of the final, Dr. Abdun Noor Tushar announced the winner…. IBA and Mohammad Arbaaz Nayeem of IBA adjudged to be the best speaker of the Championship.

The award giving ceremony was followed by a splendid cultural show offered by the IBA students. The initial dance on a traditional song bid all the guests a very warm welcome. A comic drama on the current political scenario of Bangladesh made everyone burst into laughter. A fusion dance brought a sophisticated mood in the event.

Finally, the guests were invited to dinner. After the dinner, famous singer Arnob took the floor and kept the audience spellbound with his amazing melody.

At the end of the ceremony, the guests took the memory of the hospitality of IBA community and a small token of appreciation (a bag full of gifts) home. Now IBA is waiting for the next gala event! Let the country wait for it too!!!

Writers: Fahmida Sultana, Nazi-ur-Rahman
Bijon Islam, Ardina Rahman, Treasurer, IBACC, Zannatul Ferdous, Morshed-ul Arefin, MD Saifur Rahman (Saif), Vice- president (event organizing and food committee), Shoaib M. Siddiqui