10/30: I emailed PACE asking them if they would consider certifying Solo and Masonics.
11/11: I emailed them again, since they never got back to me.
11/18: I emailed them again, this time cc'ing several people since they never got back to me.
11/19: I sent them the sets, since they told me they would consider them.
11/25: I got an email asking me why the 3rd Tiebreakers in Solo were so short. I replied the same day.
12/3: I got an email saying that I would hear something soon.
12/4: I got the message below from Mike.
12/28: I sent a reminder that PACE was supposed to get back to me about Masonics a few weeks earlier.
1/3: I sent this timeline to PACE and reminded them that I still had not heard back about Masonics. I got an email back saying that they will get to Masonics by Sunday and that they have a lot to do to improve the program. When I asked them if it would be better for them to publicly acknowledge the shortcomings of the program or for me to do it, I was told that I am welcome to post my opinion.
Just to be clear, I don't have a problem with them turning down Solo, and I won't have a problem when they turn down Masonics. I just want to make sure that nobody is under the false impression that this program is being managed well. Since PACE doesn't want to say it, you're stuck with this post.
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Here is the message I got on 12/4:
(As a parenthetical note, I'll point out that the phrase "it is thought to be" does not appear in the set. This is not important--I am only saying it because I find it amusing.)PACE wrote: Hi David, we are unable to certify the Scobol Solo set as exemplary. There are many great questions in this tournament and it's clearly an above average set. However, we had the following concerns that prevented us from ranking the set as exemplary:
1. Question length - The questions seemed quite long compared to a regular high school quizbowl tournament.
2. Tossup difficulty - This may be a result of having to produce such a large number of tossups compared to a regular tournament. Some examples include r-k, closed, EVT, Miro, and San Martin. One suggestion we have in this area is to not shy away from repeatedly asking about figures in the core canon. Rather than asking about Miro, for instance, you could ask about Van Gogh's Starry Night and Van Gogh's Night Cafe as separate tossups. Some other questions had accessible answer lines but were very top heavy with the clues, such as the Beethoven tossup.
There were a few other minor issues around things like tightening up some of the language (removing clauses like "it is thought to be"), but the two reasons above were the main issues that prevent us from ranking this set as exemplary.
We will try to get back to you within a week or so about Masonic. We're a little swamped with some other sets at the moment.