Quizbowl for Charity
- Nuclear Densometer Test
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Quizbowl for Charity
Recently I've been thinking about creating some sort of collaborative tournament similar to that of the FNT, except all the proceeds going to a charity.
After talking with Trygve Meade and Andy Watkins, I've concluded that this project seems feasible and could potentially succeed. That is if we have enough people interested in writing for it.
The current plan:
Put together a team of about 20 people (Again, similar to the Fall Novice Tournament) to write a full set over the summer. As of now, I believe that a tournament difficulty of just over IS would be best, or just over Fall if this becomes a college endeavor.
From there, we could mirror it across the nation with all the registration/mirror fees going directly to a charitable organization.
Given conflicts with writing for the 2nd iteration of Fall Novice, I'm looking to the spring for the bulk of the mirrors.
Post here if you're interested or email me at amitDOTbilgiATyahooDOTcom
EDIT: I was just now informed of Matt's Buzzers being an alternative charity for this project. I for one think it is a sound idea.
Interest Check (for writing):
Me
Douglas Graebner
Kay Li
Zach Foster
Ben Cole
Alex Gross
Phong Nguyen
Dallin Kelson
Sandy Huang
Connie Prater
Trey Taraila
Nick Clusserath
Akshay Chandrasekhar
After talking with Trygve Meade and Andy Watkins, I've concluded that this project seems feasible and could potentially succeed. That is if we have enough people interested in writing for it.
The current plan:
Put together a team of about 20 people (Again, similar to the Fall Novice Tournament) to write a full set over the summer. As of now, I believe that a tournament difficulty of just over IS would be best, or just over Fall if this becomes a college endeavor.
From there, we could mirror it across the nation with all the registration/mirror fees going directly to a charitable organization.
Given conflicts with writing for the 2nd iteration of Fall Novice, I'm looking to the spring for the bulk of the mirrors.
Post here if you're interested or email me at amitDOTbilgiATyahooDOTcom
EDIT: I was just now informed of Matt's Buzzers being an alternative charity for this project. I for one think it is a sound idea.
Interest Check (for writing):
Me
Douglas Graebner
Kay Li
Zach Foster
Ben Cole
Alex Gross
Phong Nguyen
Dallin Kelson
Sandy Huang
Connie Prater
Trey Taraila
Nick Clusserath
Akshay Chandrasekhar
Last edited by Nuclear Densometer Test on Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:55 pm, edited 6 times in total.
Amit Bilgi
Southside '11
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
This sounds like a fine cause, and one I am happy to support with my question-writing time.
Douglas Graebner, Walt Whitman HS 10, Uchicago 14
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"... imagination acts upon man as really as does gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid."-Sir James Frazer,The Golden Bough
http://avorticistking.wordpress.com/
Re: Quizbowl for Charity
Last spring, I ran a singles tournament, and donated the proceeds to Matt's Buzzers.
Through low mirror fees, and donating the proceeds to a charity designed to benefit programs who need a hand up, I think this tournament has the potential to do a lot of good, if executed successfully.
Through low mirror fees, and donating the proceeds to a charity designed to benefit programs who need a hand up, I think this tournament has the potential to do a lot of good, if executed successfully.
Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I'll sign up for writing. I need more experience on question writing.
Kay, Chicago.
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
If this ends up being a high school tournament, then I would very much like to contribute.
Zach Foster
North Myrtle Beach High School class of 2009
George Mason University class of 2013
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I would prefer to see this charity be for quizbowl things. A tournament like this could do a whole lot of good to raise money for teams in the current atmosphere of budget cutting and help us to ensure that active teams aren't forced into dormancy by their administration.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
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- Nuclear Densometer Test
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
Agreed. I'm sure budget cuts are affecting teams nationwide, so as of now this tournament's proceeds will definitely go towards Matt's Buzzers or another (if any) quizbowl charity.Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It wrote:I would prefer to see this charity be for quizbowl things. A tournament like this could do a whole lot of good to raise money for teams in the current atmosphere of budget cutting and help us to ensure that active teams aren't forced into dormancy by their administration.
Amit Bilgi
Southside '11
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Southside '11
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
Perhaps a scholarship fund for new teams who want to attend HSNCT or NSC but are too out of the way/too poor to go?
Kay, Chicago.
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
This is a good idea.Arsonists Get All the Girls wrote:Perhaps a scholarship fund for new teams who want to attend HSNCT or NSC but are too out of the way/too poor to go?
Only problem is how to go about setting up an "official" scholarship fund.
Amit Bilgi
Southside '11
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I'd be interested in writing a few questions.
Alex Gross
Delaware '14
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I talked to her again, and Connie officially expresses her interest in the project.Nuclear Densometer Test wrote: Interest Check (for writing):
...
Ben Cole
...
Connie Prater (possibly)
Ben Cole, Southside '10, George Mason '14
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I can write and/or edit this. Should we set up a Google Doc or something to start writing?
Dallin Kelson
Chipola '11, UF '13
Chipola '11, UF '13
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I have a Google Doc prepared. I'm just waiting for a few more people to commit.Kwang the Ninja wrote:I can write and/or edit this. Should we set up a Google Doc or something to start writing?
Amit Bilgi
Southside '11
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I could definitely see myself writing for this.
Trey Taraila
Caesar Rodney 2010
University of Delaware 2014
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
Here's the link to the Google Doc for anyone else who's interested.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... td1E&hl=en
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... td1E&hl=en
Amit Bilgi
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- AlphaQuizBowler
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I'm a little confused on how this tournament is going to work. Will schools that mirror it be required to give all the registration fees to charity?
William
Alpharetta High School '11
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I would imagine the mirror fees would go to charity, but it'd be nice, I guess, if the hosts would give money too!AlphaQuizBowler wrote:I'm a little confused on how this tournament is going to work. Will schools that mirror it be required to give all the registration fees to charity?
Andrew Watkins
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
Andy is correct.
We will also make the mirror fees $10 per team like most other tournaments.
We will also make the mirror fees $10 per team like most other tournaments.
Amit Bilgi
Southside '11
Fun fact: The "l" comes before the "g" in my last name.
Southside '11
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
Just out of curiosity, why do you want a high school tournament over IS set difficulty? I think it was Charlie Dees who mentioned that there's a scarcity of novice level mACF high school sets, and I think the community would certainly be greatly benefited if such a set were available, especially in the Spring (since I heard that the Fall Novice Set will appear again next semester).Nuclear Densometer Test wrote:As of now, I believe that a tournament difficulty of just over IS would be best, or just over Fall if this becomes a college endeavor.
Charles Hang
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- Nuclear Densometer Test
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
For a more accurate measure of difficulty, I'm shooting for HSAPQ 4Q/ACF. I recently moderated/played a few tournaments with those sets and many local teams. They seem to do fairly well with them. But of course, we're emphasizing easy answer lines with more difficult clues so hopefully most tossups should be converted.Charbroil wrote:Just out of curiosity, why do you want a high school tournament over IS set difficulty? I think it was Charlie Dees who mentioned that there's a scarcity of novice level mACF high school sets, and I think the community would certainly be greatly benefited if such a set were available, especially in the Spring (since I heard that the Fall Novice Set will appear again next semester).Nuclear Densometer Test wrote:As of now, I believe that a tournament difficulty of just over IS would be best, or just over Fall if this becomes a college endeavor.
Amit Bilgi
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I'll suggest that shooting for in-between levels of difficulty--even when executed by somewhat more experienced writers than those working on this project--almost never work, usually erring on the side of difficult (even if that's not the editors' intention) and usually producing some bad ideas. It's tremendously safer to write a regular difficulty or novice set.
Andrew Watkins
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
Awesome.NoWayItsTanay wrote:I can write for this.
We still have room if anyone else is interested.
Amit Bilgi
Southside '11
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Southside '11
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
if there is any supervisory role for this project that still needs to be filled, I'd like to volunteer
Auroni Gupta (she/her)
Re: Quizbowl for Charity
So, is this still happening now?
Alex Gross
Delaware '14
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
The Google Doc was updated 13 hours ago, which was before the news broke. However, just because Amit is banned from PACE events/has lost the trust of the community is no reason he shouldn't continue to head up this noble (and well-organized) effort; this is just the sort of thing that can help him to eventually get back in everyone's good graces.
Dallin Kelson
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
Given that neither this nor the Fall Novice tournament has enough writers at the moment (and won't anytime soon, and we've really got to get rolling) I'd be happy to adopt this project into FNT--which will probably get us our third editor, allowing us to issue an open call for writers, draw up a writing schedule, and get to work. (FNT would even consider having the same $10/team charitable contribution that Amit initially had established.)
I talked to Amit last night on this subject and he agreed that it's just going to be harder for a project headed up by him to attract all that many teams. I think the Fall Novice label is a safer one for advertising.
I talked to Amit last night on this subject and he agreed that it's just going to be harder for a project headed up by him to attract all that many teams. I think the Fall Novice label is a safer one for advertising.
Andrew Watkins
Re: Quizbowl for Charity
On that note, I'm interested in writing for this/Fall Novice if there is a need for more writers.
Nikhil Desai
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
Is there actually going to be FNT 2? There hasn't been any posting to that effect, and that absence was one of the motivations behind writing the SCOP Novice set, which does have enough writers and will be finished (well, 100% written/packetized and ready for playtesting) by the end of July.Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:Given that neither this nor the Fall Novice tournament has enough writers at the moment (and won't anytime soon, and we've really got to get rolling) I'd be happy to adopt this project into FNT--which will probably get us our third editor, allowing us to issue an open call for writers, draw up a writing schedule, and get to work. (FNT would even consider having the same $10/team charitable contribution that Amit initially had established.)
I talked to Amit last night on this subject and he agreed that it's just going to be harder for a project headed up by him to attract all that many teams. I think the Fall Novice label is a safer one for advertising.
Brad Fischer
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
I will also write for FNT, but I'm not sure how well (other than personnel) the Charity set will roll into the FNT; some (actually, a lot) of the answer selection on the Google Doc for the Charity set is way harder than I remember FNT being last year.
Dallin Kelson
Chipola '11, UF '13
Chipola '11, UF '13
Re: Quizbowl for Charity
At least some of the questions that have already been written are salvageable; I for one know that my tossups tended to be a little on the easier side, and I'm sure there are others in that same grouping.Kwang the Ninja wrote:I will also write for FNT, but I'm not sure how well (other than personnel) the Charity set will roll into the FNT; some (actually, a lot) of the answer selection on the Google Doc for the Charity set is way harder than I remember FNT being last year.
Alex Gross
Delaware '14
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
That has been the plan; we'd had difficulty finding a third editor, and we were unable to issue any public calls for writers until we did.styxman wrote:Is there actually going to be FNT 2? There hasn't been any posting to that effect, and that absence was one of the motivations behind writing the SCOP Novice set, which does have enough writers and will be finished (well, 100% written/packetized and ready for playtesting) by the end of July.Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:Given that neither this nor the Fall Novice tournament has enough writers at the moment (and won't anytime soon, and we've really got to get rolling) I'd be happy to adopt this project into FNT--which will probably get us our third editor, allowing us to issue an open call for writers, draw up a writing schedule, and get to work. (FNT would even consider having the same $10/team charitable contribution that Amit initially had established.)
I talked to Amit last night on this subject and he agreed that it's just going to be harder for a project headed up by him to attract all that many teams. I think the Fall Novice label is a safer one for advertising.
Andrew Watkins
Re: Quizbowl for Charity
This sounds awesome. Manual might mirror this. What's the primary charity at the moment?
Nick "Nick" Neuteufel
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
About how much of the answer space is salvagable? Can some of the harder questions be used for final(s) packets?
Douglas Graebner, Walt Whitman HS 10, Uchicago 14
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Re: Quizbowl for Charity
Charlie Dees and I have just talked about the process of taking on this charity project. Here's the situation. We've decided that the best combination of the Fall Novice mission and the mission of this project is to ensure that entry fees for novice quizbowl tournaments are low. (Last year, the Fall Novice project had $0 mirror fees so that hosts could charge as little as possible--and we encouraged them to charge as little as they could while still making money.) The best quizbowl charity is to make sure that teams can play tournaments--and then they can spend the money they save however they wish. We couldn't figure out a way both to have $0 mirror fees and collect money for charity without that money coming from hosts or from the teams that play the tournament.
So if you had been writing for this project, please email me to let me know that you'd like to write for Fall Novice. I'll add you to the forum straightaway.
As you can see, this vision is compatible with the initial vision for the project.Nuclear Densometer Test wrote:Agreed. I'm sure budget cuts are affecting teams nationwide, so as of now this tournament's proceeds will definitely go towards Matt's Buzzers or another (if any) quizbowl charity.Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It wrote:I would prefer to see this charity be for quizbowl things. A tournament like this could do a whole lot of good to raise money for teams in the current atmosphere of budget cutting and help us to ensure that active teams aren't forced into dormancy by their administration.
So if you had been writing for this project, please email me to let me know that you'd like to write for Fall Novice. I'll add you to the forum straightaway.
Andrew Watkins