Kenyon College -- New to Compete

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stephosity
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Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by stephosity »

Greetings from Kenyon!

First, if you aren't sure where Kenyon is, we are located slightly northeast of Columbus, OH in a little village called Gambier.

I started our Quiz Bowl "team" last year, but we operated more like a club, and although we were very interested in competing, we just didn't have the organizational power, the numbers, or the funds to do it.

However, this year I am determined to make things work! We have a ton of interest from our first years, and a stable group of upperclassman who have carried over from last year.

Also, I am confident that funding will no longer be an issue, now that we are well established on campus.

The only problem is I am completely unaware of who I should contact about upcoming events.

For instance, I'm really interested in registering (most likely) two teams for the ACF Fall tournament at Northern Illinois, however I am completely at a loss about who to contact...also it seems ACF's website has yet to be updated so I'm struggling to find information.

We are interested in any and all tournaments in our general vicinity, but are almost completely out of the loop (thanks to those of you who have already contacted me this year!) as to what events are taking place. I've tried to glean as much information as I possibly could from the internet, but it proves to be an unreliable source for information.

Overall, I am looking for some contacts so that I can make my group competitive and active in the quiz bowl community.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Stephanie Goldkopf
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by Masked Canadian History Bandit »

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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by Important Bird Area »

Welcome!

The thread for ACF Fall is here; registration information is at the bottom of the announcement:
Brad Fischer wrote:To register, please email me, Brad Fischer, at [email protected] with the number of teams, buzzers, laptops, and staffers you plan on bringing.
Much closer to your campus, Ohio State is hosting a tournament on October 22nd: details
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by mhayes »

It might be short notice, but maybe you guys could consider the Novice Collegiate mirror at Michigan State this weekend?

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11917
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by Unicolored Jay »

Hey! It's good to see another college from Ohio with a quizbowl team. We would definitely like to see you at our tournament on October 22nd.

I would definitely recommend the ACf Fall tournament at NIU. There is also, alongside the Michigan State Collegiate Novice tournament, a tournament being held at the University of Michigan on October 8th.

If you need help, I'd be happy to lend a hand.
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by Red-necked Phalarope »

Welcome to the boards! Seconding everything that Jasper said.

You'll generally find HSQB to be the most updated source of information for new tournaments, but most collegiate circuit tournaments in the area tend to be hosted by us, Michigan, and Michigan State. Further out, you'll also see the occasional tournament at Centre College (in KY), CMU, Pitt, and various places in Indiana. Chicago/UIUC also host events pretty frequently, if you're willing to go that far.
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by Broad-tailed Grassbird »

mhayes wrote:It might be short notice, but maybe you guys could consider the Novice Collegiate mirror at Michigan State this weekend?

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11917
We'd love to have you if you can make it on such short notice. If funding is an issue, I'm sure we can work something out. Just email us at [email protected]
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

Looking forward to seeing you at ACF Fall!
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by stephosity »

Thanks to everyone for your very helpful responses!

Unfortunately, funding is as such that Kenyon cannot compete immediately, however we expect to be able to compete at OSU on 10/22.

Just a side question, what do you most of you do for funding/transportation to events? Our school has a budget for student activities and I plan on utilizing that resource, but I would also like ideas for fund raising. As for transportation, our school provides vehicles for certified students to use, but I feel uncomfortable having to be the driver over long distances with large groups of people. Do some teams use charter buses or public transit, or is it most common for members to drive themselves?
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by Auroni »

Before we kicked up our tournament-hosting fifteen notches last year, UCSD had to pay for most tournaments out of pocket. In the future, if a lack of funding prevents you from competing in a tournament you can get to quite easily, I would encourage you to split the entry fees/gas equally among your team members, then reimburse those personal costs by hosting a tournament later on.

EDIT: We usually just rely on whoever has a car to get to where we want, unless those people can't come. You can always make people chip in for gas. We were able to fly to ACF Regionals at Stanford last year because there was a cheap ticket sale, although that was a bit perilously planned and had us arriving 30 minutes before the tournament and leaving an hour afterward.
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

Hosting a high school tournament can often yield a good amount of fundraising; Ohio's got an active message board, though I don't remember the link, so if you ask there you might get some advice on when hosting a HS tourney at Kenyon would work well in the HS schedule.
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by mhayes »

Bone seeker wrote: Ohio's got an active message board, though I don't remember the link
http://www.createphpbb.com/oac
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by BobGHHS »

Further out, you'll also see the occasional tournament at Centre College (in KY)
Everything Brice said was accurate and spot on except this. Joe is no longer at Centre (he's at OSU now) so I don't think they have a team anymore.
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by swwFCqb »

BobGHHS wrote:
Further out, you'll also see the occasional tournament at Centre College (in KY)
Everything Brice said was accurate and spot on except this. Joe is no longer at Centre (he's at OSU now) so I don't think they have a team anymore.
They actually still have a team Bob (at least, it appears that way). They are, in fact, hosting one of the collegiate novice tournaments next weekend.
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by Susan »

stephosity wrote: Just a side question, what do you most of you do for funding/transportation to events? Our school has a budget for student activities and I plan on utilizing that resource, but I would also like ideas for fund raising. As for transportation, our school provides vehicles for certified students to use, but I feel uncomfortable having to be the driver over long distances with large groups of people. Do some teams use charter buses or public transit, or is it most common for members to drive themselves?
When I was at Chicago, we drove everywhere we reasonably could using people's own cars or cars we rented through the university (for most of the time I was there, we were formally or practically not allowed to use anything bigger than a standard minivan, so sometimes it was quite a few cars). We also flew to tournaments that were beyond practical driving distance and did some amount of Greyhound, Amtrak, and Megabus (cheapest and hence awesomest) travel when we didn't have enough drivers.

As regards funding, here are a few older threads that might have some useful suggestions for you:
Getting funding
Recruiting, fundraising, and practicing
"How do you do it?" (where "it" is basically "pay for going to tournaments")
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by BobGHHS »

They actually still have a team Bob (at least, it appears that way). They are, in fact, hosting one of the collegiate novice tournaments next weekend.
If they do, I stand corrected... I just know Joe was the major backbone for everything and didn't see to have anything that resembled a competent teammate, let alone someone to build a program. If they have people like that now, hats off to them and I hope their mirror is a success.
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Re: Kenyon College -- New to Compete

Post by Sniper, No Sniping! »

Wow, I'm happy to hear Kenyon has a quiz bowl team, especially since that's a place I'm looking at in the long run. I can't really give you any info for collegiate events or any of that, but here's a few thoughts from a high school player, who happens to live in the greater Columbus area, on the high school scope if you're interested in hosting a high school event.

First, the board that Brad mentioned (the link is in the above posts) is a good place to connect with more Ohio people, including more people from Ohio State's quiz bowl team. Also, tons of coaches post there/read the board. I'm sure that if even if you can't host a HS tournament this year, you guys could probably do some outreach in the Gambier area. I know that Mt. Vernon High School has an academic team, but I don't think they do any events aside from the TV show, In The Know, and I believe the same holds true for Mt. Gilead High School. Newark Catholic High School and Granville High School (the latter is where Denison University is located) also has academic teams, and they do In The Know, not to mention they compete in our spring academic league.
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