Central Carolina Community College

[kozmeral]

I would like to start a team in the fall semester here at CCCC. Do schools announce this early about tournaments that take place next school year, and are there usually any tournaments for a community college to compete in around or in North Carolina?

Thank you!

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[Important Bird Area]

Welcome to the quizbowl community!

Next year's tournaments haven't announced specific dates yet, but watch this forum for announcements starting in August. Here are some suggestions for tournaments a new CC team should consider attending (some of these are CC-specific, others include four-year institutions, but all are good experiences for new programs).

-Early Autumn Collegiate Novice (September or October). The 2011-12 site nearest to you was at Duke; announcement here

-ACF Fall (late October or early November). The 2011-12 site nearest to you was the University of Virginia; announcement here

-Delta Burke (mid-November). This tournament, at Valencia in Orlando, Florida, usually attracts the strongest CC field of the fall. Last year's announcement is here, and I'm sure Chris Borglum from Valencia will show up soon to promote his event.

-NAQT Community College Sectional Championships. Late January at a variety of sites nationwide; the best 24 teams qualify for the Community College Championship Tournament in late February. Much more information here.

-Minnesota Undergraduate Tournament (March or April). The 2011-12 site nearest you was at the University of South Carolina; announcement here.

[ValenciaQBowl]

Hi, Kaan--

I think it's great that you want to get a program going at your CC! I teach at Valencia College (a CC, despite the name--pfeh!) in Orlando, as Jeff noted, and I'd be very happy to help you in any way I can. There's no specific CC circuit in NC (or at least not that I've heard of), but Jeff has pointed you toward some appropriate-level tournaments for CC players in the Southeast that you can look for when announcements for the 12-13 season start getting posted (keep an eye on the "Collegiate Announcements" section above).

One thing to know is that most CCs are going to insist on having a faculty sponsor for any student activity. If you don't have one lined up, a good place to start is your Student Development (aka Student Activities or Student Life) office; look for the coordinator of that area, and find out what paperwork you'll have to grind through to become official and get a budget, and that person should also be able to recommend some instructors to approach. Unfortunately, you'll probably want to sell it to any potential instructor as an easy gig, with the promise that you'll do all the work you can (finding tournaments, arranging registration, etc.), though most CCs will still require that faculty sponsor to do a lot of the tournament budget request.

You and your team would be welcome in Orlando for our Delta Burke tournament, which Jeff correctly noted boasts the best field outside of the CC nationals each year. And the tournament questions are geared toward new players, so even if you end up with teammates who've never picked up a buzzer, everybody can answer some of the questions there. It will end up being the second or third weekend in November, and I'd be so happy to have you come that you don't have to worry about a registration fee; we might even be able to find you and your team a place to crash--you'd just have to get down here (looks like just under a ten-hour drive to Orlando from Jacksonville, NC--time to read lots of practice packets).

Anyway, I'm happy to offer much more advice regarding selecting a faculty sponsor, selling the game to student activities, recruiting new players, practicing, etc, so if that's of interest, feel free to e-mail me at cborglum at valenciacollege dot edu . Meantime, do look through the many other threads in this section that address those topics. Good luck!

[tiwonge]

My intuition (and a google search verifies this) is that Kaan *is* a faculty member or a member of the administration. It sounds like he's got a built-in sponsor (himself). I don't know how he stands for students/players.

[ValenciaQBowl]

Oops! Sorry, Kaan (and thanks, Colin). But that makes things so much easier! Again, feel free to get in touch if you're interested, and I'll do my best to fill you in on strategies for budget requests, getting your dean or chair to consider release time or overload pay for running the club, recruiting, getting players interested in learning, etc.

And the offer for free registration for Delta Burke stands; whether you'd want the kind of free accommodations (couch, garage-sale bean bag chair) I could arrange is definitely open to question, though. Cheers!