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Welcome to the DAV Website
The DAV is a non-profit association which exists to promote debate. It is the peak debating body in Victoria and runs large competitions for adults and for schools across Victoria. It provides training and resources for debaters, teachers and adjudicators.

Schools Competition
(Yr 9-12 Debating)

Forfeits and Postponements

We understand that there may be instances where schools are unable to field teams in every debate. When this occurs, schools have two options open to them. They may request to postpone the debate, or they may forfeit the debate.

Postponements

The DAV highly encourages teams to investigate postponing the debate wherever possible. However, please note that opposing teams are under no obligation to take part in a debate outside the regular published schedule. Schools requesting a postponement will be charged $30 as an administration fee. Here are the steps to completing a postponement.

  1. Contact your opposition team, requesting a postponement. It may worth suggesting some new times/locations for the debate.
  2. Once you have received confirmation from your opposition that they are happy to go ahead with the postponement, please fill in the following form to book an adjudicator. Please note that the DAV requires 5 business days notice in order to provide an adjudicator.
  3. If your opposition is not avaliable for a postponement, you will need to forfeit the debate as per the process below.

Forfeits

You must follow these instructions to forfeit. Schools which fail to notify their opponents, the DAV Office and the Host School will risk suspension from the competition. There are also fines for forfeiting - if you forfeit on the day of the debate, you will be fined $50, if you forfeit before the day of the debate, you will be fined $30. If you give no notice of the forfeit, or do not notify all three parties you will be fined $80. If you have an exceptional reason for your forfeit and wish the fine to be waived, please email Kim Hitchcock at the DAV office.

  1. Send one e-mail detailing which team/s are forfeiting to the opposition school, the host school and the DAV.
  2. You should have a list of the names and contact details for the other debating coordinators in your region pack at the start of the year. These are also available upon logging into the website.
  3. The DAV Forfeit Policy is available in the Schools Competition Handbook.