Adjudicators

Among our family of volunteers are the adjudicators. There are three adjudicators at each debate: one chief and two assistants. They mark students according to the Concern Debates marking sheet.

We are always looking for new adjudicators to join our amazing network. Generally, adjudicators will attend one debate per month during the school year, but they are free to adjudicate at as few or as many debates as they wish.

No expertise is required to become an adjudicator but an open mind is essential. You must be able to see both sides of an argument and be able to give constructive, positive feedback.

Full training is provided for each volunteer adjudicator and Concern will happily provide a reference for each volunteer who participates.

When a Debate is happening in your area, you will be contacted by us to check if you are free to adjudicate. If you are then available to adjudicate, Concern will send you all the details of the debate, such as venue and motion. Debates generally begin at 8pm and are over by 9pm.

After the open forum session, the chief adjudicator will give some feedback on the debate, going over various parts of the marking sheet and offering advice for future debates.

They will then announce that the motion has been carried (won by the proposition) or defeated (won by the opposition).

As of 2019, all Concern Debates Adjudicators must be Garda Vetted in line with Concern’s new safeguarding guidelines. Your Garda Vetting will last for three years with Concern. When you complete the volunteer sign up form, Concern will add your basic details to the An Garda Síochána’s online e-Vetting portal. You will receive an email communication inviting you to log on and enter additional information required by the National Vetting Bureau to complete the vetting process.

You can also request a manual form from Concern to complete and Concern can enter this information into the e-Vetting system on your behalf.

When you do this, Concern will submit the application to the National Vetting Bureau. The Bureau will conduct the check and Concern will receive a report of criminal conviction histories of those relevant volunteers (or not as the case may be).

For more information on the process, please contact [email protected]

Here are the top three reasons to get involved with the Concern Debates.

If you need any more convincing, our wonderful past and present adjudicators got together to say why they got involved in the Concern Debates and how it has left an impact on them.

We have plenty of resources for people interested in adjudicating our debates. You'll find everything from timekeeping sheets to speech templates in the list below.

If you like what you’ve heard so far, please sign up below and a Concern member of staff will be in touch with further information.