As a Leader

Own Experience

The University Debate Club is a powerful club across the country. We have more than a hundred debaters that achieved valuable prizes in national tournaments. Not only in nationwide competitions but also we have had several online debates with debaters from China, India, and the United States. I am the President of the club. Despite the activities of the club inside the University, we do not own an official position toward the University headship. As a leader, I realized that this is a big problem. The best solution to get rid of this issue was having a conversation with the University chancellor.

There are many concerns between debaters about the future of the club. Some debaters are going to graduate this semester and they are worried about the sustainability of the club. To illustrate, we arrange ”Debate Training Sessions” for new students but when we graduate, there will be no one to continue this action because we do not have an official office inside the University to coordinate with graduate students who are experts in debating and to invite them to train new debaters. As a result, the club will fall down in a short time and there will be no debater to participate in tournaments as the representatives of the University. That is why most of the debaters were disappointed about the future of the club.

To solve this problem, it was my challenge to find a rational remedy for this issue. As a leader, I recognized that I should speak directly to the chairman of the University. Before that, I arranged a meeting with the members of the club to hear their suggestions. Most of them agreed with me that we should talk to the chancellor. I asked the best debaters to come with me and bring their trophies with them to attain the attention of the University chairman because he will not help us just by saying that we are debaters and we need an office, funds, or support. We have to prove ourselves that we achieved precious awards for the University. In the meeting, I was speaking to the chancellor as the representative of the team and it was difficult to deal with him to get support and funds. The chancellor disagreed with our proposal and he said where you before were? All of the students were disappointed because they believed that was the end of our club. After two days, I received a call from the secretary of the chancellor that my presentation was great and the chancellor agreed to support the club. There, I believed that I did my responsibility toward the club and my colleagues.

To sum up, the problem of having an official debate club supporting by the University was a headache for the debaters. As a leader, it was my responsibility to find a solution and lead my team in the right way. By offering a great proposal and a powerful presentation to the University headship, I succeed to make the University support us and to make the effort in debaters for participating in tournaments stronger than before.