Join the LIQBA as a Contact Finder!

[a Joe]

Hello, everyone!

The LIQBA is now accepting applications for contact finders as we aim to build a comprehensive database of Quizbowl teams nationwide. If you want to help grow Quizbowl while earning a little extra cash, now is the time. No experience Necessary. You will be an independent contractor; we do not expect anyone to reach the limit where we need to issue a 1099, but we will do so if need be.

Contact Finders
Description: Finds and logs contacts for Quizbowl, Science Bowl, AcaDec, and other academic competition teams nationwide in our database.
Qualifications: None. Have a internet connection and a telephone.
Pay: 50 cents per complete school entry.
As many positions as needed.

To apply, email [email protected] with the subject line "Contact Finder application".

[Ciorwrong]

10 cents per entry is a ripoff and I hope people who do this hope they know they are probably making hourly wages far below minimum wages. If you really need the money, I'm sure surveys and mturk are better options. At 10 cents per entry, a person from California would have to find 130 quizbowl teams per hour to make this worthwhile due to the state's $13/hr minimum wage.

For Joe, I highly recommend asking around for listservs and state-wide email lists instead of paying people to do menial work for basically no money.

[a Joe]

Fair enough; on second thought, yeah, that's pretty low.

Make it a quarter per contact.

[Cody]

This already exists in various places.

[a Joe]

Respectfully, Cody, where? I sure haven't seen it. If I can avoid paying out thousands of dollars to build a contact database, by all means, I'm open to it!

[a Joe]

So after thinking about this overnight, I want to make something more clear: this is not a job, I know this is not a job, and this is not something to make significant cash off of, since it was never intended to be. Normally, people would volunteer for something like this, but I wanted to give people something rather than nothing, even if that something wasn't much.

To be clear, this is an outreach project. Finally, the contacts (with the exception of the ones that I personally did for the NY Tri-state last summer) will be open-source to any bona-fide TD with a forums post for their tournament who wants them.

[cchiego]

I guess the main question here is why is the Long Island QuizBowl Association trying to do a major national outreach effort. I understand that in the current online tournament situation LIQBA's events may be some of the best opportunities out there for teams to play quizbowl for the forseeable future, but if that's the case I think it would be more ideal to have LIQBA work with some other state or national organizations to coordinate events. Otherwise, it's kind of confusing to see events that feature almost no LI teams being run by LIQBA, among other issues. It might be better to instead limit this outreach push to push to your regional area (Northern NJ, SW CT, NY, etc.) and then scale upwards from there too.

It would also help to have a more clear vision for what you're trying to accomplish. As Cody's post mentions there are tons of contact lists out there already available free of charge, but people will want to know why you are trying to access their contact lists. If the answer is just to hold events that raise money for the LIQBA, that's fine but you should be more transparent with what you're trying to accomplish and/or figure out a way to connect this more to national outreach.

Furthermore, the last major thing that I heard about LIQBA was a major scandal over cheating accusations that devolved into a complete mess. It does seem like some lessons were learned from that experience and that more recent events have gone better, but this is perhaps why it helps to have a more established organization involved.

Finally, I'll note that using online events featuring the best teams in the country for "outreach" to newer teams does not seem like the best idea (see, for instance, the current Scottie field featuring an exceedingly rare sighting of a local powerhouse Arkansas team amid a bunch of national pyramidal veterans). That said, the online ButterSCOT seems like a much better model to follow and did indeed seem to attract a number of newer/newish to pyramidal teams (including many from NY, which is great!), so if that's the target of this kind of outreach push it would be helpful to mention that.

[a Joe]

So after being roundly mocked for this little project, I've decided to do what I do best: double down.

Anyone who wants to do this will be duly paid $1 per contact. That's not bad cash. Find 15 schools in an hour and you're making minimum wage.

Payouts will be capped at $2,000 total for all finders.

And to reiterate, any bona fide TD with a forums post can have access to these contacts.

Shoot me an email at [email protected] if interested.

[a Joe]

This is still a thing, and we still need people to find school contacts. The need has only become more urgent.

We've also received a most generous grant in the thousands of dollars to help build the database from an anonymous source. If you're bored this summer, what with the quarantine, this is an excellent opportunity for you.

Shoot me an email if interested.

While I really would prefer to pay you, other people seem to be more interested in volunteering or finding for less than a dollar a contact, in which case, we would also be happy to have you.

Finally, if you have contacts and would like to share, please shoot me an email and we'll discuss.

[Rabbinator]

Listen guys, this still pays more than IAC.

(But also I used to do this for a living for 20 an hour)