Inspired by this post and its thread, I thought sharing ideas on useful things to bring to tournaments would be a good idea. Since that thread is originally specific to one idea, a new thread seems appropriate.
That post has Matt Weiner's list. My bag contains many things from Matt's; here are some other ones not covered:
Cloth towels
Paper towels
Kleenex
Band-Aids
Lip balm
Gaffer's tape or duct tape
Scissors
Timers
Extension cords, multi-outlet taps, ungrounded-to-grounded power adapter
Universal laptop charger
Phone charging cord
Laptop lock
Flash drives
USB hubs
Ethernet cord
USB wifi adapter
Gum, mints
Multitool (screwdrivers, pliers, small knife, etc.) (but be careful about bringing this to schools)
Socket wrench set for trophy assembly
Trash bags
Copies of my business card to hand out (and identify the owner of the bag)
What else should we be thinking about?
I'll compile ideas here, and maybe it can become an authoritative list of ideas. (I don't love the taxonomy and am open to suggestions, but I wouldn't want that to be the focus of discussion.)
Jonah Greenthal
National Academic Quiz Tournaments
Well I'm silly, I forgot I could just paste it over here myself.
Matt Weiner sent me an email and asked that I share the contents of his tournament preparedness box. He thinks (and I agree) that normalizing keeping a box like this could lead to better tournament efficiency. He also notes that you'd only need 1 person per tournament to have such supplies, so even without wide-spread adoption, there could still be a positive impact. He notes that printers have become more expensive lately, I would personally suggest trying to get one like this when they go on sale, I've had one for years.
Three-pronged extension cords for help configuring buzzers and computers in rooms with awkward layouts.
Paper/plastic plates, napkins, cups, and forks if needed for staff lunch etc.
Pens for scorekeepers etc.
Blank paper, Sharpies, and tape for posting signs etc. Enough blank paper for emergency printing use.
Toner for Brother laser printers that take model 630/660 toner. VCU's printer is in my car and ready to go (with power/usb cords) and uses this kind of toner.
Approximately 50 NAQT scoresheets, enough to start the tournament while the remaining scoresheets are printed if you need paper scoresheets and forgot them.
Paper clips, post-it notes, and rubber bands for sorting paper packet sets etc.
Three Anderson buzzer system power supplies so that systems with broken/missing power packets are usable.
A spare Anderson buzzer system control unit.
Advil and cough drops for moderators with sore throats to use if desired.
Five 10" Android tablets with keyboard/touchpad attachment that can be used to read games for people who didn't bring their laptops, or provide second screens in single-staffed rooms to make digital scorekeeping go more quickly.
Five wired USB mice, also to help single-staffed rooms navigate their screens more efficiently.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that MW said in light of my post, that he was intending on including more "sanitary/medical" items in his box going forward.
Em Gunter
Club President, University of Virginia
Tournament Director, 2023 Chicago Open
Assistant Tournament Director, 2022 and 2023 ACF Nationals
imo, it would be wise to prioritize such a list. important information risks getting lost in the deluge.
what are the absolute essentials to start the tournament? writing utensils, spare paper scoresheets, flash drive* for (or with) electronic packets (internet is never guaranteed and outages happen), scotch or masking tape for door signs telling teams where to go (very important) – signs can be made from nearly anything if you forgot to print them, including spare scoresheets, but tape is hard to replace. having staff with spare computer(s) is good, but you can get a tournament ably started with paper scoresheets and two phones per room w/o computer as long as there’s cell signal somewhere.
* keep in mind you’ll want this to be FAT32 and not NTFS for compatibility with non-Windows operating systems. having an executable for a portable PDF reader never hurts, though I don’t recall if I ever had to use it – perhaps once.
what are the essentials that can be hard to recover without? writing utensils, lunch accoutrements (plates, cups, and cutlery – napkins are good but can be replaced by paper towels in a pinch).
medical & hygiene supplies are a good supplement that imo come ahead of other items on the list. specifically – painkillers, cough drops, band-aids, and menstruation products are important items that can be hard to source on short notice. (whereas things like gum or tissues are nice to have but can be replaced by other items or are not essential.)
extension cords can range from “nice to have” to “essential” depending on the room. likewise, ungrounded-to-grounded power adapters can avert an emergency in bad buildings.
Last edited by Cody on Tue Feb 15, 2022 3:50 pm, edited 3 times in total.
I'm on board for some sort of prioritization, but it's heavily situation-dependent (as you acknowledge in a few ways—it can vary with room setup, mode of question distribution, etc.). Maybe I'll just add a column for "higher priority?" based on how universally useful things are, how affordable they are (e.g., a printer is great but it's also out-of-reach for many people), etc.
Jonah Greenthal
National Academic Quiz Tournaments