QuizFest 2009

Posted 28 Oct, 2009 03:31 PM by Ryan
Hopefully by the time that you're getting this message you've been able to catch up on some sleep and recuperate from a long weekend. This just don't seem quite as hectic this week! Thank you all so much for being a part of this past tournament and I hope that you can all make it back next year. If you have any kind of feedback whatsoever please feel free to email that to me while things are still fresh on your mind. If anything can be done to make Quizfest a better experience from year to year your feedback would be a valuable part of that process. There are a few particular areas that I would like hear about and if you'd take the time to respond to them that would be great as I consider options for next year and beyond. Since I intend to be doing this for awhile and I know that there have been different directors with different kinds of schedules and with different bracketing systems I am hoping that some of your feedback will be helpful in finding a system that meets as many of your expectations as possible. I know that it's impossible to please everyone but there's no harm in trying, right? First, I would like to hear what some of your priorities are when it comes to the tournament rounds. There is a huge variety of options as far as selecting a bracket system for the tournament rounds. Rather than going through that long list, though, I'd rather hear about your priorities. For those traveling a long way for the tournament ending at a reasonable time might be a top priority so no one is having to drive late into the night after a long and draining day. For teams living closer, time might not be as important. Last year the tournament lasted much longer and had far less teams actually there at the end of the day and so the distribution of awards basically happened as teams were hurrying out the door to get on the road. This year the tournament ended at a reasonable time but with a more cut and dry bracket system. Sometimes achieving one priority comes at the cost of another and I just want to hear what you prefer in a tournament bracket. Second, along with the end time, what are reasonable expectations for start times? There's really not too much flexibility in this area as we need teams to arrive soon enough that we can make as many corrections as possible to team rosters and get everything loaded onto the computers. And with a pretty packed day with the prelim rounds things really need to get going shortly after 8am. But what are your expectations as far as coaches/captains meeting, opening session sharing with the quizzers, or the check in process? Third, I want to hear about your thoughts on the functionality of facilities. Do you feel the facilities meets your needs and expectations as you and your team navigate your way from room to room, register, or just have a mid day lunch together? Do the quiz rooms themselves provide what you need in terms of space and lack of hallway noise? Hopefully, having lunch in the gym versus room 100 and providing marked maps at least helped in some ways but if there is more that can be done let me know. Lastly, I would like your feedback in regard to the issue of a quizzer asking a QM for the question/answer on their sheet. As I said in the meeting that morning, over the course of the week a pretty lengthy and helpful discussion amongst the officials had taken place over this issue. It was divided pretty evenly between those that thought we should and those that thought we shouldn't. Different issues and concerns were discussed but a majority of those were about what "could" happen rather than what has been happening. This is an issue that may be new to some of you so if you have any questions about it feel free to ask. That morning I did forget to express my feeling that in providing the information on the QM's page we as officials are in no way handing the captains a challenge that is ready to serve. In my opinion there are so many things that go into a challenge (understanding the material in it's greater context, understanding the importance or significance of individual parts and their meanings, developing a legitimate argument) that providing the question/answer is only giving a small portion of what's needed for a challenge to be effective. I would like to know many of you were able to discuss this option with your captains and how often was it utilized and if it was utilized did it result in a challenge that was accepted or overruled? I will be continueing this discussion with the officials as well as we look at what actually happened at Quizfest this year in regard to this issue. From what I've heard there were only a few requests per room for the prelim rounds and few if any challenges that resulted from it. It would be helpful to know to what extent the quizzers were able to be informed by you, their coaches, about this as the day progressed. Thank you for your help in this matter. It will be interesting to see where this all ends up as there are a variety of issues to be considered. Hopefully this past tournament can provide something more substantive than speculative to the discussion currently taking place. And as a special reward for those willing to read this far into my message you can now go to centralregionbq.org and see the stats that are already posted. If I get a message asking when stats will be up I'll know you didn't read my message!!!! Thanks for all that you do for Bible Quizzing in general and your quizzers in particular! You're all awesome! In Christ, Ryan Kuehl