Development Officer's Welcome

Hi, my name is Eoghan McSwiney and I am the development officer for the 159th session of the UCC philosophical society. If you have taken the time to look at this then the first thing you must be asking yourself is what exactly goes on at this “development” business. Well basically it’s a service provided jointly by the philosoph and lawsoc where we teach you how to debate and speak in public. Firstly let’s think about the benefits.   From an academic point of view this will be a life saver when it comes to giving presentations or doing moot courts in law. It’s not fun to watch classmates shitting the proverbial cavity block but much less fun to be one of them. Later on in your career these skills are again essential when presenting a case to a jury, presenting business proposals and anywhere else where you need to be able to argue, think on your feet or present information in a clear, logical way to convince. Aside from the practical bread and butter of what we do at development, the sessions give you a place where you can take a topic, think it through and then argue your case for all your worth. Then in the pub, you do it some more! The only prerequisite of development is that you be stubborn enough to enjoy this.   Another question you might ask is; what happens if I find I do like all this “development” and “debating” craic? Well societies sends you to IVs. IVs or intervarsities are competitions run by other universities. We send to UCD, Trinity, Galway, Limerick and possibly a few more that havn’t been finalised. At all Irish competitions, the societies will pay your registration for the competition and your accommodation. The host university usually organises free stuff and social events throughout the weekend. UCD is first of these and registration is already open on the forums. Also if you progress to a high level then you can think about representing the society in competitions such a Euros which was held this year in Newcastle.   On a final note, there are the people you meet. Rarely if ever was there an event that attracts such a wide range of opinion or just sheer oddity as you will find nightly at development. For anyone interested we meet weekly in the Kane building G19 at 19.30. If anyone should wish to contact me then I can be reached at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . I will very gladly provide information or help out in any other debating related issues that people might have.