This is an addendum to Two Years in BP Debate Union — Stepping Down. That post told the story. This one talks about the things I built, the things I am leaving behind, and the things I did not do well.
What I Built & Why
BPDU Apex Debaters
During my presidency, I set up the BPDU debate team known as BPDU Apex Debaters. The idea was simple: provide a radical, high-intensity learning and debating experience for those who genuinely sought rapid improvement and real clashes — not another casual practice session, but something closer to tournament conditions.
It did not last. When the second semester came, half the members left — some for personal pursuits, some for internships. We did not have many to begin with. At the same time I was burnt out and unable to host training sessions consistently. The team quietly dissolved.
Next semester I am going to try something different: establish my own debate team, if possible, and host up to two tournaments by invitation rather than public recruitment. We will see how it turns out.
I am not going to intervene in how the team runs in the future, and that is not part of what I want to do. But I will say this — organizing a team like this is challenging, and it is also a lot of fun. In the process you will learn things and gain thoughts that are genuinely valuable. I hope to see what you build.
Bowen Cup
I will not say much about it here, since you already know.
BPDU Official Website
I built the website firstly out of love for this club. Later it grew to carry more and more responsibilities.
During my presidency, making presentation slides for the club was a constant headache. Part of what drove the website’s development was the need to log almost everything — events, audits, achievements, certificates — and to archive what our foreign teachers have done with us, so they can easily prove their contributions and apply for service hours.
I also built BPDU-SlideGen, so you can generate BPDU-themed HTML presentation slides without wrestling with PowerPoint every time.
Documentation
I set up dedicated internal documentation for BPDU.
I have complained about the notification system in mainland China’s universities for a long time — most of them dump everything into WeChat, which is a messaging app, never built for important notices. My approach, which I tried from the very beginning of my presidency, was to notify in the WeChat group but update formal notifications in our club manual. The manual was also built for team use: I put internal files, documents, and accumulated knowledge there, so that future presidents would not have to explore and ask everywhere from scratch.
What Still Stands
These are the tools I am leaving behind. You do not have to use all of them, but they exist so you do not have to solve the same problems again.
Event Management on the Website. The website already has a functioning event management system. You can create events, let people book, approve or deny bookings, and export participant lists. If you are hosting anything — a tournament, a training session, a workshop — start here instead of collecting names in a WeChat group.
BPDU-SlideGen. A set of skills for AI agents — usable in Claude Code, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, and others — that generates BPDU-themed HTML presentation slides. Whenever you need a presentation for a hosted event, hand the topic or motion to an agent with SlideGen installed and it will produce a ready-to-use slide deck. See the full writeup for how it works.
The Website as a Record. The pages and posts on the website already log our major events, audit what has been done, and archive our achievements. Before you start writing something from scratch, check what is already there. And if you ever need a .pptx file — for presenting the club during annual audit or any other occasion — give the website link to an agent, ask it to investigate what we have done, and let it generate the file from that.
The Documentation System. Internal documents, governance files, accumulated knowledge — it is all in the club manual. Consult it before you reinvent something. Update it when you learn something new.
What Is Worth Carrying Forward
Not everything I want to pass on is a tool or a system. We built a lot of traditions — fist bumps, night runs, night snacks, frisbee, badminton — all of which built bonds between members and within the team. These things are easy to overlook, but they are part of what made people stay. I hope you carry them forward.
What I Got Wrong
During my presidency, I tried to carry out at least seven different forms of events, each targeting a different audience at a different level, each designed for people who sought different things. It sounded right in theory. In practice, it made the team exhausted and forced core members to constantly adjust alongside me. Looking back, I am not sure it was the right decision. Variety can be a strength, but not when it stretches a small team so thin that no single format has time to take root.
I also underestimated how much administrative work the presidency carried, and overestimated how much I could sustain on willpower alone. The burnout I wrote about in A Self-Audit on Burnout did not come from nowhere — it came from trying to do too many things at once and refusing to let any of them go.
If there is one thing I would tell whoever comes next, it is this: do fewer things, but let each one breathe.
After you get familiar with this legacy, you will find that it provides far more value than what I wrote here. Make good use of it. We often overrate what we can do in a month, but underrate what we can do in a year. When I was writing this post I did not know I had so much to pass on — and I was not able to log it all, one by one, because there is simply too much. I am sure you will feel this too during your presidency. Take it easy and build your own BP Debate Union. Have fun.
Leave a Reply