Effective Immediately - All IAC Events Cancelled Through July 2020

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Great Bustard
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Effective Immediately - All IAC Events Cancelled Through July 2020

Post by Great Bustard »

Greetings Everyone,

IAC regrets to announce that effective immediately, all of its upcoming events through July 2020 are cancelled. This includes all regional tournaments at the high school, middle school, and elementary school levels, both the high school and middle school / elementary school National Championships and the International History Olympiad and International Geography Bee World Championships. This was not a decision we made lightly, but given the current state of the outbreak, its continuing spread, and the very small chance that it will be effectively contained within the next month or two, we feel that making this decision now is in the best interest of public health and gives everyone the maximum amount of time needed to make alternate plans.

IAC will provide refunds in full for any event registration fees that have been paid for future events, though please note it may take up to a month or longer to process these especially if a wire transfer is needed. 

We are of course keenly disappointed in this but realize that the health and safety of our community must be the utmost priorities. We will evaluate the situation again this summer to see if rescheduling the National Championships for the fall or winter of the following academic year makes sense. If the outbreak is successfully contained by then, we will do everything in our power to make this happen, but that remains a big if for now. Do note that in the event we were to reschedule these, students who would be in 9th grade in the 2020-21 academic year would still compete in the Middle School National Championships, and current high school seniors would still be eligible to compete in the Varsity National Championships. 

Finally, we will continue to spend the coming months actively working to develop our programs. We will be looking to upgrade our technical capabilities, expand our question writer program, write questions and exams for coming years, continue and perhaps expand our online quiz offerings among other initiatives. Expect more information on these initiatives to become public in the coming weeks and months through our websites, email lists, and social media channels. IAC thanks the entire academic competition community for its continued support at this difficult time and urges you all to be proactive in protecting yourselves, your students, and your children.

We look forward to seeing you in the 2020-2021 academic year, and wish you all the best for the coming months ahead.

Thanks,
David and Nolwenn Madden
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
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