Sep 1 to 8: Tournament organization and direction

[First Chairman]

The next PACE Special Discussion will focus on the intricacies of tournament organization and direction. I intend to open the discussion for the week of September 1 to 8.

Please tell everyone who may be interested in this discussion to register and join us.

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1) Describe the timeline to organize your tournament. How many teams, how much food, how many rooms...

2) How much time do you need to write "enough" questions? How much do you spend on questions?

3) How do you outreach to teams to participate in your event?

4) How do you train your officials and moderating staff?

5) Do you actually make money off your event?

6) For those who are doing so, please comment about the challenges and advantages of collaborating/co-hosting a tournament with another group.

[dtaylor4]

This is all based on my first Solo tournament:

1) I created it around Thanksgiving, and sent the word out immediately. I originally placed no cap on it, and didn't need it. For food, I gave an hour for food since there were a lot of places nearby. For rooms, I had the treasurer reserve an entire floor and a small lecture hall for everyone to fit.

2) I wrote 85% of them myself, and delegated the rest to people that I knew could produce quality questions. I spent the majority of my winter break (a month) writing 15 a day, and ended up with 16 rounds.

3) I sent emails to coaches in the area, and had it published in the State Coaches' Association quarterly newsletter, not to mention this site.

4) I asked my fellow teammates, who have experience, to staff, and offered a discount for competent moderators. Due to conflict, I ended up reading, along with my own parents, who were competent for it being their first time.

5) For the club, I don't have exact figures, but I netted a couple hundred. It wasn't a big event (19 players), but still made a decent profit.

6) N/A

[msuter]

Although I am retired from active coaching, I am still involved in organizing and running Spotswood’s ACT I and II invitational tournaments. We will host our 17th ACT I November 18 and our 13th ACT II in March.

TIMELINE I generally begin making preliminary plans in late August or early September. We have found that the most teams we can handle and staff comfortably is 36, so I plan to use 18 rooms on one floor in the same wing that are not directly adjacent to one another (loud moderators’ voices travel easily through concrete block walls). I also take into consideration the teachers whose rooms we will use—some are very cooperative and some are absolute pains.

A side note here about room use: Let teachers know at least a week in advance that you will be using their rooms for the day, which gives them notice and time to stow valuables. Draw a diagram on the board as to how the room is arranged before you move anything and return the furniture to that same order when you finish. If you move anything on a teacher’s desk, return it. If you cover up posters, maps, etc. on bulletin boards and walls, uncover them. Gather up all trash when you’re finished and empty the trash cans or set them out for the custodians to empty (our signal to the custodian that we are finished with that room for the day). Let teachers know that if the room isn’t satisfactorily cleaned or set up, you will have students at school early the next school day to move or do whatever needs to be done to satisfy the teacher. I think we have needed to do this twice in 16 years, but it helps build a cooperative relationship with faculty.

Our ACT team parents and younger players generally man the concession stand. I also recruit non-ACT students who need to get in mandatory community service hours to help (they can work as timers and scorers, as well). Some years I have parents who will take over and do the buying, serving and cleanup on their own; other years, I or one of the SHS coaches may have to do the buying and the parents will then help. We are 7-8 miles from fast food restaurants and we don’t have a large time break between prelims and finals, so we try to provide enough food and variety at a reasonable price so that most people can get something they like and can eat. We also provide juice and bagels/donuts/cookies, etc. for pre-tournament hospitality. As far as numbers are concerned, I normally figure 6 people per registered team, 2-3 staff (reader, timer/scorer) per room plus a few extras. I make lunch tickets and give to each staff member, and they can get up to $3 worth of food as “payâ€

[ether a go-go]

1) The first job is reserving the date, which I do in April and May. Between building conflicts and other tournaments, that is sometimes a pain. The next job is writing the questions, which I do over the summer. My tournament is in mid-November, so I send out invitations and order trophies in September. My Solo Tournament typically gets about 100 students. Half of them are playing at any given time, so I need 25+ rooms and moderators.

2) I spend over 100 hours each year writing questions--a few hours a day for several weeks. I write 400 Tossups.

3) When the tournament was getting started, I snail mailed about 150 teams each year. Now that it is more established, I can get enough interest through email. It also is listed in the IHSSBCA Calendar. Having it in the Calendar is useful, but there are very few coaches around here who sign up for something without being contacted directly by the tournament. I would love to get more students from outside Illinois--unfortunately, I average only one student per year.

4) I don't train anybody. My moderators are coaches and former players, so the vast majority know what they are doing, and it is all tossups, so the rules are pretty simple. I sometimes have parents or other teachers help out at headquarters, but training people for that is pretty simple, especially because I am in the room with them and can answer questions and correct mistakes quickly.

5) No. It is revenue neutral. In order to keep things running, we feed everybody in the cafeteria. Between that, the trophies, and paying some of my moderators, I spend all the entry fees. I will raise the entry fees in the next year or two, but that will go toward paying my moderators more money rather than anything else. My team gets enough money from the school.

[Matthew D]

1) Describe the timeline to organize your tournament. How many teams, how much food, how many rooms...

My time is usually, I reserve the dates first. Finding a good date for my first HS tournament was a bit of a bear this time. Being a new tournament, I have not had to limit the number of teams. I would like the tournament to grow to about 25-30 teams then I might think about limiting it. Rooms are not usually a problem since I use our HS and we don't have anything going on most Saturdays but for my JH tournament, I have had some problems with the lunchroom for my late in the year tournament.

2) How much time do you need to write "enough" questions? How much do you spend on questions?

N/A for the most part since I used NAQT question for my HS tournament and my late JH tournament but I will be able to tell you more about how long after Jan, when my other junior high tournament is being held and we write our questions for that.

3) How do you outreach to teams to participate in your event?

Mainly through word of mouth and emails. I did do a mass mailing last year before my team became active in junior high but it didn't seem as effective as emailing or calling.

4) How do you train your officials and moderating staff?

I am lucky enough to get a lot of good help from former players that I know though different means. So I don't have to do much training but I do train the staff on how to keep score and particulars if they have not do this sort of thing before.

5) Do you actually make money off your event?
Yes we do make a little bit of money off the event, which becomes our operating budget to go to other tournaments through out the year.

6) For those who are doing so, please comment about the challenges and advantages of collaborating/co-hosting a tournament with another group.
N/A because I have never tried it.

[cvdwightw]

I am speaking from experience as director and co-director of a large number of tournaments at UCLA. I would prefer not to speak from my experiences in high school, as for as good of a tournament as it was there were some major problems (e.g. using Excel for individual stats, moderators getting through 12 questions in a room half the questions were powered).

1) Describe the timeline to organize your tournament. How many teams, how much food, how many rooms...

The size of our club has prohibited us from running a tournament with over 24 teams. I know that sounds small to a lot of people, but most high school tournaments here get 12-24 teams and college ones get <10. For the past few high school tournaments I have picked a weekend or group of weekends and let the coaches decide which ones would be best for their teams. Because of this and a couple of other issues, we inevitably do 90% of the logistics the week before the tournament.

We reserve 1 room for every 2 teams plus a lecture hall to double as a stats room, then sometimes an additional room in case something happens like we're locked out of a room. We prefer small seminar-style rooms with long tables instead of those with individual chair-and-table sets (especially those bolted to the ground).

We typically give an hour to an hour and a half for lunch. The student union is about a 10 minute walk from the tournament site, and some teams choose to drive to local restaurants. For last June's mirror, someone ordered pizza between the academic and trash mirrors. I don't know how that went.

2) How much time do you need to write "enough" questions? How much do you spend on questions?

The vast majority of our high school tournaments have been from NAQT. At the college level, we try to mirror/packet swap/co-edit. As far as I know we have never run an entirely house-written tournament, although that may be something I'd like to try for high schools this year.

3) How do you outreach to teams to participate in your event?

Stanford set up a (e-mail) mailing list for west coast college teams a couple of years ago, and we followed suit with one for area high school teams. UCI has also set up a similar one for information about their tournaments.

4) How do you train your officials and moderating staff?

Most of our moderators are current or former club members. Almost all members gain experience moderating at club practices. If we feel one of the moderators might be lacking experience, we will sometimes make him/her read multiple packets at practice the week before the tournament.

We do not train our statspeople. Pretty much whoever gets stuck with the job has to learn SQBS on the fly. For ACF Regionals 2005 some of the players moderated during their bye round (a common practice, especially when it's your packet being read) so that I could input all the stats.

5) Do you actually make money off your event?

We have lost money on several events in the past, but for the most part we make money off the events. Our main source of non-CBI funding is the high school tournament(s) we run.

I would like to add two more questions, which I think are relevant to the "troubleshooting" aspect of tournament direction. In the past few years we have had several different problems with checks made out to entities that are not us, and therefore, that we cannot actually get any money from. We have also had complaints from coaches, players, or staff about conduct of players/coaches during games.

7) What is your policy on payment, and how do/would you deal with teams that think they have paid but have given you no way of actually getting the money?

8) Under what circumstances, other than moderator error or equipment malfunction, would you find it advisable or necessary to (a) replay an portion of a match, or the entire match, and (b) suspend a player or coach for a game or the rest of the tournament?

[First Chairman]

Oh please don't hesitate to talk about mistakes. It's just as useful to tell people NOT to do things.

7) Usually I have set up my payment schedule with a discount if the money is processed and sent to me a month before my event. I also prefer that they bring a check with them on the day of the tournament (though without that discount).

Make sure you do have receipts.

One thing I have not ever done but have no scruples to do... actually have the courage to bar a team from playing. If you don't have their money, technically they shouldn't compete. Their players or coach can pony up a check or cash and get reimbursed. But don't hesitate to say, "No pay, no play."

8) Usually to replay an entire match would require discovery of a complete malfunction of a buzzer system or deliberate contempt of the rules against the players (but that is much less likely). You should stipulate the conditions in the tournament rules or make it clear that replaying a game would require extraordinary circumstances like that.

As for conduct ejections, the rules should make it clear that any attempt to disrupt the game or injure others would be grounds for ejection from the tournament without appeal. Just follow the rules and create reasonable ones.

[jbarnes112358]

1) Describe the timeline to organize your tournament. How many teams, how much food, how many rooms...

We start at least 6 month ahead of time for the GSAC tournament at Maggie Walker in Richmond, VA (Dec. 9 is the next one.) We start by appointing the Tornament Director, Question Editors and other roles. Our tournament is almost entirely student run with student-written questions. Each generation of students trains the next on question-writing and tournament logistics. Divide the number of teams by two to see how many rooms you need. (duh.) Have a tournament central. Walkie-Talkies are useful for more spread out venues.

2) How much time do you need to write "enough" questions? How much do you spend on questions?

Question-writing is a labor intensive task if done well. A good question might take a hour to research and write. Some students can and do crank out questions at a faster and more prolific rate. Getting some students to write their quota is like pulling teeth. Others seem to enjoy, and see the benefit in, the question-writing process. I have strongly encouraged them to write as many question as possible during summer break.

3) How do you outreach to teams to participate in your event?

This website has become the most important tool for publicizing our event. Additionally, we send out e-mail to a list we have compiled over time.

4) How do you train your officials and moderating staff?

See 2) above. Also, we recruit alums, teachers and parents along with our own team members and other students. Most of the staff knows the drill. But, we have a last minute review session the morning of the event.

5) Do you actually make money off your event?

We usually make in the range of $800 to $1800. We are required to hire a security guard, which cost a couple of hundred. Trophies or plaques might be around $100. We might sell snacks and provide a complimentary breakfast. But, we have found that selling food is more trouble than it is worth, especially with the many nearby eating establishments that are popping up.

6) For those who are doing so, please comment about the challenges and advantages of collaborating/co-hosting a tournament with another group.

We have never done that.

7) Mistakes? Yes we make mistakes but try to learn from them. The following suggestions come from mistakes we have made in the past:

Don't make questions too difficult for the participants. We often draw national caliber teams along with less developed local teams. The challenge is how to satisfy both levels. We have learned to partially solve this problem with pyramidality. A two- tiered playoff system similar to PACE's consolation playoffs helps as well.

Selling lunch was a big headache and with little profit. Unless your site has no eateries nearby, I would avoid the trouble. It certainly cuts down on mess. We are our own janitors.

Not returning rooms to how they were found causes friction from some teachers. Ditto everything Ms. Suter said on this point.

Waiting too long to finish writing, editing and testing the questions really diminishes the quality of a tournament. so, don't procrastinate question-writing. Give the questions a trial run with your team.

Not having enough help can lead to major problems. Some volunteers will not show. You need back-ups.

You need some extra buzzers. There will be problems with some of them. Offer a financial incentive for buzzers. Usually a $10 discount will do it.

Communicate with your attending teams early and often. Keep them apprised of weather in the colder months.

Allow adeqaute time for the rounds. Don't be too optimistic with your schedule. The tournament can only proceed at the pace of the slowest moderator. Allow adequate transition time. Give at least an hour for lunch, maybe a little longer.

Keep track of buzzers. Let teams know where their buzzers will be. Ask someone from the providing team to help set up his own buzzers. Have enough volunteers on hand for setting up the rooms. If teams are likely to go late into playoffs schedule later games in rooms using their buzzers.

I am sure there are others things I am forgetting.

[David Riley]

1) I begin to organize my tournament by setting the date in May for the following year. I send out invites to about 100 teams, over the years I've had as many as 60 and as few as 32. Recently, I've capped my tournament at 40 teams in order to keep it in one section of the building.

Breakfast for the coaches comes from a local Dunkin Donuts; lunch (advancing teams only) comes from a local pizza concern who gives us a super deal--buffet style for roughly $3 per person.


2) This really varies. Usually I've written my own questions or aske someone else to do so because I don't like the questions that are available commericaly. NAQT is a notable exception, but (except for my NAQT state qualifier) I would have a very small field of teams if I used them for a regular tournament.

3) For the last several years I've used email. The tournaments are published in the Illinois Coaches' Association newsletter and web site, and I make announcements at the coaches' meetings at local tournaments.

4) I let coaches moderate in the morning rounds and hire moderators for the afternoon playoffs. I have no specific training plan at the moment at the moment. The IHSSBCA has recently started a program of moderator certification, which should provide even more qualified moderators.

5) Not a lot. Most of the tournament fees go toward the cost of food, moderators, questions (when needed), materials, etc.

6) n/a

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[jrbarry]

Wow. Moderators get paid in some places??? Please do not let that fact filter down to Georgia! :-)

I have run two tournaments per year since our first one in December of 1988. Tournament #35 is coming up on November 18. We have about 120-140 teams at our varsity and about 65-85 in our JV. It takes about 300 volunteers to run our larger tournament. I spend alot of time recruiting readers and other volunteers although I do have a bank of about 95 experienced readers.

I plan our tournaments along with the members of our varsity team and my two assistant coaches. We get quite a bit of help from alums in college and from much further back than that. (We have alums who come from LA and Chicago to read every year.)

We do not reinvent the wheel every year. We use the same basic plan in tournament prep that we've used since the early 1990s. We send out snail mail invites ot the schools who attended last year's tournaments and also send out about 3500 invites via email.

We buy questions from alums and others we know will do a good job. I want nothing to do with writing questions anymore although we did that for about 12 years, that is we wrote our own questions for that many tournaments. Writing/editing questions takes more time than any other single thing in hosting tournaments.

We sell food all day during our tournaments. Parents do that. We get local businesses to donate food for us to sell. We make a great deal of money off our tournaments. That revenue funds our academic team program.

One key to running a huge tournament is to put in print just about every procedural question and answer anyone would reasonably have. And never keep individual stats...it takes too much time.

I have spoken to many tournament directors/planners over the years and would be happy to communicate on the subject of tournament facilitation with anyone now. I have also done workshops on giving tournaments at coaches meetings/conventions. I don't know everything, I just THINK I do! :-)