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Step-by-Step Debate Guide

Organising your debate...

Running your debate, Reporting your debate

If you have any questions regarding running your own debate please contact john.jackson@chwaraeteg.com

Step 1: Organising your debate

Congratulations on deciding to run a debate and the good news is a debahnte is simple to organise, here are the key stages in brining your debate to life:

Decide who your facilitator will be
Decide who your note take will be
Decide how many women you would like to have take part in your debate. We’d suggest if your facilitator isn’t experienced in running debates keep it small and have 4 participants in addition to the note taker and facilitator. With an experienced facilitator we’d recommend a maximum of 8 participants
Decide on a date and time for your debate. This can be any day between Monday 8th and Friday 12th March and at any time. The debate should take no more than an hour.
Identify a venue. All you need is a room with a table and chairs this could even be your own kitchen. If you are organising the debate in your workplace your employer may well offer you a room to use, if not your local council, library or community centres for example may well be happy to offer you a space to hold your debate.
Once you have decided on the date and location for your debate you can start to invite women to take part. This can be a group of your friends, work colleagues, members of any groups or societies you belong too. You will find it easier to invite women you know to join you for the debate.
Debates can be run in Welsh or English.
One week before your debate it is worth double checking your arrangements and also contacting all your participants to ensure they are still going to attend. You can also use this opportunity to email or send details of the debate topics to your participants. By having this information in advance they have the opportunity to think about them, which will allow the debate flow on the day.

Step 2: Running your debate

On the day try to arrive at your venue half an hour before the debate is due to start, and if possible set out paper and pens at each place around the table.
The facilitator should sit centrally at the table with the note taker to their side.
When all your participants have arrived and are seated you are ready to start your debate.
Begin by explaining how the debate format will run (please see the separate Facilitator Notes) and then introduce the first topic
When all the topics have been discussed and statements agreed for each of the topics your debate will be complete. At this point thank your participants and advise them that you will be forwarding the statements to Chwarae Teg for inclusion on its website.

Step 3: Reporting your debate

Your agreed statements can be forwarded to john.jackson@chwaraeteg.com
Please also include details of your debate to include:
Where and when your debate took place
Who took part
Any further comments you have regarding the debate
Any digital photographs you have taken at the debate. Please note if you do take photographs with the intention of forwarding them to Chwarae Teg for inclusion on the website we would ask that you seek agreement from your participants before doing so. On receipt of any digital photographs we need you to confirm in your email that all participants have agreed for the image to be sent to us for inclusion on the website.
You will also be able to view the agreed statements from other debate groups on the Chwarae Teg website.

Do also refer to:

The Facilitator Notes document as this provides a useful guide to managing the debate itself.
The Debate Topics document, which you can issue to your participants ahead of your debate.