CMST II: Searching For Writers

[cvdwightw]

There has been interest from hosts in a second Collaborative Middle School Tournament, in order to add another pyramidal middle school tournament to NAQT's new middle school program. We would like to respond to this demand with a second set along the lines of the first. Unless I'm terribly wrong about things, Andy Watkins will once again be overseeing the set, and I will once again be in charge of marketing the set to interested parties.

However, one major problem is that Donald Taylor and I collectively wrote about 30% of last year's set, and neither of us will have anywhere near the time we spent on the first one. Therefore we will need, at minimum, 10-11 writers of around 10/10 each, and at least one or two people willing to step up as editors.

Our current time frame is to have the set completed by February 1. In order to do that, we would need all questions written by about January 15, to allow two weeks for editing, proofreading, and placing pronunciation guides. Hosts would be able to run the tournament on any weekend between February 5 and April 30, and we would make the set publicly available no later than May 2, in order to allow students to use the set as practice for NAQT's MSNCT the following weekend.

Length and Distribution
All tossups should have a maximum length of 425 characters (IS-length) before the addition of pronunciation guides. All bonuses should have a maximum length of two lines in size 10 Times New Roman, after the addition of pronunciation guides.

We will use a very similar distribution to last year's tournament. We are considering increasing the math distribution at the expense of physical science/earth science (which was difficult for us to write last year), and revising the literature distribution to include language arts (e.g. grammar, literary terms, basic foreign language); however, neither of these changes is currently set in stone.

Please sign up in this thread if you want to write for the tournament. Also please sign up if you want to take over any editing roles. The success of this kind of tournament depends, as always, on people who are willing to volunteer a little bit of time to help a great many other people.

[Eccles cake]

I'll edit math and write for math, biology, fine arts, and kiddie lit (I can do others if need be).

[bt_green_warbler]

Signing up for 10/10, preferably geography.

[maged]

I'll write history questions and fine arts if needed

[cvdwightw]

Unless we want to turn this into "Pyramidal Geography Bee," I'm going to need some more writers to volunteer. Hopefully a few more people will step up in the next couple of weeks and we can start writing things.

[... and the chaos of Mexican modernity]

I'll sign up for 10/10. Preferably history

[in on these shenanigans]

I can help. I'll write music, social science, and/or non-children's lit, and I'm interested in editing the same.

[Papa's in the House]

I'll sign up to write the ~20/20 I wrote last year. I can write questions in most non-science areas, though I'd prefer to write history, social science, government, and myth. I am also interested in editing the history, government, and myth categories.

[the return of AHAN]

I'll be happy to provide proofreading services as I did last year. Does it look like this is going to happen? Or do we need to recruit more writers?

[Mechanical Beasts]

I don't see the number of writers who were interested last year. I'm inclined to nix the project if we pass Christmas or so without enough writers to cover.

[cvdwightw]

1. As it stands, counting the maximum amount I think I'd be able and willing to write, we have around 100/100 worth of writers. We need another 110/110 or so worth of writers (about 10-11 people at 10/10 each).

2. I am having problems figuring out how to add new members to the group that is allowed to view the hidden forum. Also, if you have access to the hidden forum already and haven't already signed up as wanting to write questions, PLEASE post now confirming you still want access (either because you want to write again or want to do something else on the project).

[bmcke]

I'd do 15/15 of anything but science.

[Papa's in the House]

We need to recruit more writers

Fixed

1. As it stands, counting the maximum amount I think I'd be able and willing to write, we have around 100/100 worth of writers. We need another 110/110 or so worth of writers (about 10-11 people at 10/10 each).

I will write more than 20/20, but I start running out of ideas of difficulty appropriate topics after writing the initial 20/20, so I'd need someone to provide me answer lines for additional questions.

[Huang]

I can help write again.

[the return of AHAN]

Is it too great of a conflict of interest for me to offer to write 10/10 and be the coach of a team playing on this set? If not, I can write 10/10 of whatever is needed the most. If you are increasing the comp. math, is it necessary to write them in a pyramidal style? It can be written with clues on how to do the problem, but I don't think a TU ending with, "or, what is 3+4?" would be well-received by anyone.

[Stephen Colbert]

I can write 10/10 of whatever is needed most (preferably science, math, fine arts, or literature). I would also be happy to help with proofreading or difficulty control.

[AlphaQuizBowler]

I can write 10/10 for this.

[Seram Friarbird]

Yeah, I suppose I could try to write at least 10/10, preferably non-children's lit, art, math, and rpm, although there probably won't be much philosophy.

[cvdwightw]

I'm trying to convince Andy that we have enough writers for this. We are likely to get started on writing this week, with hopefully an announcement out as soon as writing deadlines are finalized.

[jonah]

I guess I'll take 10/10, preferably science, math, lit, and painting.

[ether a go-go]

I can work on this in whatever capacity is helpful.

[the return of AHAN]

Is it too great of a conflict of interest for me to offer to write 10/10 and be the coach of a team playing on this set? If not, I can write 10/10 of whatever is needed the most.

No reply received to this question yet...

[Mechanical Beasts]

Is it too great of a conflict of interest for me to offer to write 10/10 and be the coach of a team playing on this set? If not, I can write 10/10 of whatever is needed the most.

No reply received to this question yet...

Sorry. I think I emailed or PM'ed Dwight regarding this. I think we agreed that that was fine, though I'll wait for Dwight's confirmation.

[cvdwightw]

Is it too great of a conflict of interest for me to offer to write 10/10 and be the coach of a team playing on this set? If not, I can write 10/10 of whatever is needed the most.

No reply received to this question yet...

Sorry. I think I emailed or PM'ed Dwight regarding this. I think we agreed that that was fine, though I'll wait for Dwight's confirmation.

Yeah, this is fine.

[Grams's Go-Go Boots]

I'd like to contribute some proof reading to this, and maybe a bit of writing.

[the return of AHAN]

SO where is this exclusive forum that writers are allowed access? Before I begin to write, I need to see what's out there.

[Mechanical Beasts]

SO where is this exclusive forum that writers are allowed access? Before I begin to write, I need to see what's out there.

Whoops. I'll add you and Fred right now. (To everyone else: you can request access yourselves, going to the usergroups section of your user control panel.)
EDIT: actually I'm not in charge of that group so I don't have permissions to do that.

[Grams's Go-Go Boots]

I'll take care of it.

Edit: done

[cvdwightw]

Hey, we're still having some problems figuring out how to approve people for the CMST usergroup. In the meantime, you should e-mail Andy at andy.watkins2@gmail to get started on this project if you're still interested in writing.

[cvdwightw]

Hey, we're still having some problems figuring out how to approve people for the CMST usergroup. In the meantime, you should e-mail Andy at andy.watkins2@gmail to get started on this project if you're still interested in writing.

These problems have been fixed. If you want access to the CMST forum, you should add yourself to the CMST usergroup and either Andy or I will approve you.

[cvdwightw]

Hey, we're still having some problems figuring out how to approve people for the CMST usergroup. In the meantime, you should e-mail Andy at andy.watkins2@gmail to get started on this project if you're still interested in writing.

These problems have been fixed. If you want access to the CMST forum, you should add yourself to the CMST usergroup and either Andy or I will approve you.

Everyone who requested access should have access now, I think?

[ether a go-go]

If anybody feels like writing a few middle school questions in the next few days, this project could use your help.

[the return of AHAN]

What Reinstein said.

I know we're dealing with college students in many cases, but this propensity to put things off until the last minute has me too nervous to commit my team to playing on the MS-01 set elsewhere for fear I'll need it for our own tournament...

[jonah]

this propensity to put things off until the last minute has me too nervous to commit my team to playing on the MS-01 set elsewhere for fear I'll need it for our own tournament...

Would it be so bad if your players didn't play your own tournament, and instead helped run it (scorekeeping, etc.)? That's pretty common for tournament hosts to do anyway.

ETA: Not that I don't hope the CMST set gets done on time.

[No Electricity Required]

If anybody feels like writing a few middle school questions in the next few days, this project could use your help.

Depending on the categories needed, I could probably write some for you guys.

EDIT: I'm pretty much okay with writing any social studies, visual arts, myth, biology, and maybe something else I didn't think of.

[Black-throated Antshrike]

I could probably write some if you need some non-bio science or history or maybe some math

EDIT: I can also add some social sciences, non- classical myth, certain literary periods, and other things depending on what you need. Also I'd like to edit the physics and chem if possible.

[ether a go-go]

Just so nobody spends a lot of time worrying that their tournament won't have questions, there has been good progress on this set in the past day or two, and everybody should be confident that it will be finished. Thanks to Tristan and Joe, who have already written questions. If more people want to help, your help is still welcome--we have answers waiting for questions. I'll be out today, so hopefully if somebody new volunteers soon, somebody else who is part of this project will send them an email getting them up to speed.

[List of Fighting Spirit characters]

Depending on the amount of time I have over the coming days, I'll be glad to contribute as much as I can.

EDIT: I can write for pretty much any category except music theory.

[ether a go-go]

I'll edit math and write for math, biology, fine arts, and kiddie lit (I can do others if need be).

I'll write history questions and fine arts if needed

I can help write again.

To the best of my knowledge, these statements are lies.

[ether a go-go]

Everybody who is working on this project should click on User Control Panel above, then Usergroups, then choose CMST. Once you're in, you can find all the links at "Procedures for submitting my questions" and get updates and sign up for more work at "CMST: Finishing Writing". (Most of you already know this, but just in case...)

To update everybody who is not working on this project, 90% of the questions have been written and submitted, and the editing process has begun.

Also, Kay Li has submitted 4 tossups and is working on a 5th.

[Eccles cake]

Fifth is there too.

[cvdwightw]

As of 5:00 PM Pacific Time on February 11, this set has been fully edited and packetized, and will be proofread over the weekend. We will therefore have a finished set ready to send to our first set of hosts no later than February 15, our stated deadline.

I want to thank all of my co-writers and editors for getting this product done well and on time. It may not be a perfect set, but it looks at least comparable to the original CMST and was completed with about half the stress. Special thanks go to Andy Watkins for pressing the panic button at the right time and to David Reinstein, whose constant bonus writing kept the initial question shortage from being worse.

[ether a go-go]

A lot of people contributed. Primary credit for writing questions nobody else wanted to write and turning this from a bunch of question drafts into a tournament set goes to Dwight.