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QB Jobs Available with the National History Bee and Bowl

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 6:45 pm
by Great Bustard
Hi all,
This is David Madden, the founder and director of the National History Bee and Bowl (http://www.historybowl.com, http://www.historybee.com), which are two new nationwide high school qb competitions debuting this year (the Bee is nothing like the spelling bee, it's basically a singles tournament with all history questions). Anyway, we now have the somewhat insane figure of 32 tournaments scheduled between Jan 8 and Mar 26 (at each tournament there's a Bee and a Bowl), leading up to our National Finals next Apr 16 and 17 (which I know is ACF Nationals weekend). In order to make this work as well I hope, I'm looking for people involved in the collegiate game to help out in two specific ways, namely as recruiters and assistant tournament directors. Here's how both of these would work:
Recruiting
So far I've tried a number of ways to spread the word about the tournaments we have lined up, but it's becoming increasingly clear that far and away the most successful route is to establish personal connections with coaches and students in a particular area. While I've made a bunch of connections over the past six months and will be on the road basically full time from Dec 26 to Mar 26 promoting the tournaments, I could clearly use some help here. So, what I would be able to offer is that if any of you out there would be willing to either visit schools, or talk this up with coaches whom you already have a good relationship with, I'd be willing to give you 100% of the entry fees at the state tournament for this year for the Bee (which is $10 per student) and 50% of the entry fees for a team in the Bowl after discounts and the host school recruiting have been taken into account. Assuming a team has 4 students and they all do the Bee, this equates to roughly $70 per team. Given that a school could easily bring multiple teams and that with some planning, it's possible to visit up to 5 schools a day (though 3-4 is going to probably be the norm), you can see how this could add up quickly.
While there's no travel allowance here, you'd be welcome to visit any school although you'd need to send me a list of schools you'd like to visit first. Regarding the alternate route of simply talking to coaches, this is really only meant for coaches you know well and could call up on the phone for a half hour phone conversation with- not for just relatively random teams who ten years ago happened to come once to a tournament you directed, if you get my drift. Also, I'd need to talk on the phone with you for an hour or so in advance of your first visits, just so that you make sure you can answer all the likely questions. I'd also send you on your way with brochures, fliers, a National History Bee and Bowl shirt for you, and a gift for each school you visit to help seal the deal so you can collect your commission, and I can get teams to attend. Since there are a ton of regions where we have tournaments planned for (see: http://www.historybowl.com/state-bowl-sites/), there's probably a good chance you're in a region where will be having a tournament this year. Finally, although this is a quiz bowl related job for which some familiarity with qb is a must, I'm also really looking for people who can do a good job convincing a coach or social studies dept. chair why their school should come, so just make sure that you're comfortable with, basically, giving a sales pitch.
Assistant Tournament Directing
Ok, that's job 1. Job 2 is much more straightforward, and that's being an assistant tournament director at our state level tournaments. ATDs earn $100 for their efforts, and can then in the future go on to be TDs for us and earn much more. Of course, ideally someone who has worked as a recruiter can then be an ATD as well for that region, though the one is by no means a prerequisite for being able to do the other. I also will be looking for help at our Nationals too, although there I both have lots of volunteers lined up already and I know its ACF Nationals weekend, so I'm not expecting a huge turnout there.
Finally, one last point about our question formats and game formats, which are a different format than the usual 20/20. While I was very active for about three years in QB from 1997-2000, it's been a while since I was heavily involved in the game. Obviously, a lot has happened regarding question standards since then, and I'm getting caught up to speed. At our Nationals, HSAPQ is going to be handling things, whereas though our question sets at our state tournaments have been written by NHBB staff, I'm going to be spending the next ten days editing the questions for content and style to make sure they are fair, fun, and appropriately challenging for students to play on. At some tournaments, some of our questions in particular are on the shorter side, but in those areas, I expect a bunch of newer and less experienced teams to come who might be looking for quicker gameplay. If there's a clear indication though, that a majority of teams in any region want greater pyramidality, a different format altogether (though that would have to wait for next year), or harder questions, I can certainly adjust accordingly. Basically, for obvious reasons, I want to make sure that the greatest number of teams have as good a time as possible, and I'm willing to adjust accordingly to realize that utilitarian premise.
Thanks for your interest and I hope to hear from you soon.
Cheers,
David Madden (email: director at historybowl dot com)