After reviewing the offerings for classrooms for use as game rooms, tournament HQ and so on for Week 2 of spring term, she accesses the room rental system, believing it is necessary to secure these five rooms for a successful bid. But before she makes her request for an entire day's rental of these five rooms, tentatively held at Boggs, she consults the faculty liaison, the only time where the faculty liaison could be of any use to her. She then reviews the terms and conditions for renting out these five classrooms she believes are required to host ACF Regionals. Ouch. I hope this is not going to hurt our bid, whose greatest strength is the strength of the team. But we cannot have any assurance that we can obtain the five rooms we want until a week before the tournament since the rental request pertains to another term. And, because of this, the plan is simply tentative; I must also bill the other entrants, and the field will be very limited this year, because I expect some teams to drop out by Regionals, especially some of the weaker teams, Imélie ponders the implications of the terms and conditions as they pertain to ACF Regionals bidding.
This far in advance, she hoped that, since quiz bowl is a university-sanctioned club, she can get an early bird discount, or even rent these five rooms for free as an institutional contribution to Green Wave quiz bowl. She knows the South-Central collegiate quiz bowl circuit is a little insular, so she knows exactly who to contact, and also that she has leverage to ask Texas to field only one team should Tulane win the ACF South-Central Regionals hosting.
But, according to the hosting guidelines, winning the ACF Regionals hosting also means having to keep a reserve of books and of buying a stash of trophies even though she feels medals are more appropriate especially for top individual scorers. Here's my chance for the people I previously sent emails in April that feel would be better served doing intramural quiz bowl to get involved with Green Wave quiz bowl, provided they are still attending this place! But as moderators or scorekeepers for the ACF Regionals, Imélie has a flash about those players she previously not considered for play. I can also charge room rent, if applicable, and book prizes, to my employer as a contribution to inner-city education, knowing I cannot do the same with the cost of trophies. The book prizes should reflect the core distribution, which unfortunately the hosts of ACF Fall and Winter failed to consider. And now that she's reasonably confident in Tulane's bid for the South-Central ACF Regionals, she then proceeds to submit it, knowing that the host sites will be decided in early December. And yet she feels like whether Tulane can host the event will depend on whether someone else is willing to host; however she knows that, if Tulane hosts the tournament, she will need to train the moderators and scorekeepers, unless the other 5 teams can muster up 3 mods, in which case she only needs to care about scorekeepers. She feels like she can be, as TD, able to enter stats since using only 3 game rooms would mean there won't be a whole lot of disputes while the tournament is underway.
At work, however, Juan tells her some news that do not relate to quiz bowl, but about something else altogether.
"Imélie, shortly after the therapy began, I had my wife referred to a psychiatrist, she was put on meds and she got better so I'm willing to give my marriage another chance but only if she keeps taking them, or the psychiatrist tells otherwise"
"At the same time, it seems that, for your marriage to be saved, meds usage must be strictly monitored. But at least I'm happy that your marriage is saved; however, because of how I study and work, my own marriage is in dire straits. We hardly have any time together anymore. He may be happy for my own academic and professional successes but no more than that" Imélie then tells her boss.
"I guess you kept quiet about your marital status because you feel like it has no bearing on what goes on at work. You have a much better grasp of project management than I originally believed" Juan comments on her professional evolution.
"Thank you"
"So I don't need to consider using Section three fifty-one, at least for now"
Now that she realizes that her schedule is so busy these days, she hopes that she can save their marriage that doesn't seem to go well. Yet the comments about project management make her think of all these charges she insists must be billed because of the last request for extras. I might have ruffled some clients' feathers by emphasizing that any extra features or capacity would be charged extra accordingly, and then send a detailed schedule of extra time and costs to the client that it must then pay upfront for, if the client accepts. And that it must be communicated clearly in writing to the accounting department as well as the client. But I try to ensure that the extra costs being charged aren't predatory, and that no work on any extra features can be started until payment is received, Imélie thinks about how she managed to eliminate featuritis, as she drafts a detailed estimate of the price to charge for that additional feature. The client then knows that extra features aren't free, and often clients balk at the extra costs. Only once has a client actually accepted to pay for the extras requested and it was because of a change in legal requirements on the client.
Did I let my devotion to Green Wave quiz bowl poison my private life? Tulane winning in quiz bowl the way it happens now is a vast improvement over my undergraduate playing days, and we had one of the top four scorers at Winter, Alyssa in second; I didn't hear enough TUs to make it in. But, as I told Juan at work, I hardly spend any time for Sun, she thinks while wondering what she could do with him, realizing that he has an idea for a change.
"We didn't eat out since the out-of-town trip to the LQBA quiz bowl state championship in March. What about some poutine?" Sun suggests her a dish. "Might be a little greasy but it's what makes me want to eat it"
"Poutine? Isn't that some Russian meal or something? If so, I'll pass" Imélie asks her husband.
"Where did the idea that poutine was a Russian dish come from?"
"Putin. Even though he may not have actually eaten poutine, it just sounds like it was named after him"
"That's completely unlike you! You never balked on a dish because of the recipe's country of origin!"
"Let's say that, prior to ACF Winter, I had an argument over Russian quiz bowl, and it soured me on Russian history. Russian fine arts, however, I have no issues over"
"What do you mean, an argument over Russian quiz bowl soured you on Russian history as a topic?"
"Long story short, a player claimed we were ready to play against the Red Army quiz bowl team while I asserted that we weren't, because either they would have searched for players Russia-wide to narrow it down to one national team, or there wasn't even a Red Army quiz bowl team for us to play against"
"On top of that, poutine is NOT a Russian dish. There might be Russian gravy recipes, however"
"As a recipe, where does poutine come from anyway?"
"Quebec"
"All right, I will eat a poutine with you tonight"
Florence would then have eaten some during her time at Laval... she was a decent quiz bowler; she might have been able to captain the Rouge et Or at the time if they did quiz bowl at the time. Might not be as good as Alyssa or Bethany, but some teams might have taken a chance on her, Imélie reminisces about a player she played with that went to college in Quebec, outside of her interrupt eliminating the Venomous Agendas at their first HSNCT.
At Baylor, however, the atmosphere is not so good, especially after being in the same situation as Tulane was last year. Some players get discouraged and voice their discontent and the decision to write off the rest of the season is already made; they come together in a dorm room.
"Now that we forfeited the rest of the season, I will not play next year until some changes are made! Either we replace... the player talks about a dairy queenie that managed to score a total of 3 tossups all season, while not eating an interrupt" a Baylor player sighs.
"Suppose that this player is cut. How are we to get a replacement player for next year? Baylor is a brand-new program that lacks the visibility of even Tulane, let alone Chicago or Harvard" Baylor's coach then asks his player.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
"Maybe we're just not meant to do quiz bowl... just focus on your studies for now, and we can think of replacing that guy later"
Upon return from the meal with Sun, she receives an email from Alyssa's parents regarding their daughter; they feel a little concerned about the conditions under which she travels to tournaments. "I will not allow my daughter to take part in any further tournaments if she continues to sleep in your car at tournaments!" To which she responds: "I apologize for making the team sleep in the car, for the SCT and, if applicable, the ICT or ACF Regionals or Nationals, the team will not be made to sleep in the car, and we will pick hotel rooms accordingly" Nevertheless, Alyssa's parents aren't bitter about their daughter's experience of playing quiz bowl for Tulane otherwise.
Who else could host ACF Regionals? Texas A&M hosted them last year, not sure UT Austin would want to host Regionals when they already hosted Winter, no more than Rice would want to because they hosted Fall. It's understood between schools, at least here in the South, that no school should host more than one ACF tournament per season, nor should the same school host the same ACF tournament two years in a row. Which leaves Baylor, Oklahoma, Ole Miss and us. Baylor is in a terrible position; hosting a harder tournament than those they already did poorly in is essentially a no-go, which leaves us with Oklahoma or Ole Miss. Out of the two I'd say Oklahoma has a better shot of stealing Tulane's thunder of hosting, Imélie seems lost in thought as it relates to who could possibly host the ACF Regionals over the Green Wave, knowing that it would change the travel dynamic. Oh I can feel like the waiting period until the first week of December will be nerve-wracking as far as quiz bowl is concerned! I think there is good reason to believe there will be 2 out of the 5 remaining teams that will bring a buzzer, 2 that will also bring in a moderator, but not necessarily the same teams as the ones who bring in buzzers.
That being said, for the SCT, held the following week, she begins by booking a hotel room at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis for a single night that can comfortably house 5 people, despite Georgia State, the hosts, not being in the same ACF region. Which, to her, is the big unknown even though she does not expect Georgia State to be as good as they are.
At the first practice after the date ACF Regionals hosts are announced, the team, as well as any people remaining that didn't make the cut back in April that are still willing to help the team practice for the ACF Regionals, but getting scorekeeping practice instead, of which there are two, are eagerly awaiting the announcement as it relates to Tulane's hosting status:
"Tulane is now confirmed to host the ACF Regionals on January the twenty-seventh!" Imélie then jumps for joy; she then proceeds to shout Helluva Hullabaloo! "What this means is that you should come to practice and also, if you feel up to it, be part of the practice team for the period leading up to it while you don't keep scores in drills. If you perform well enough at practices, then for next year maybe you can play on one of the two official Green Wave teams, depending on team needs of course"
She then proceeds to write the ACF Regionals announcement on Quizbowl Resource Center as well as to the teams directly, encouraging them to bring a buzzer and/or a staffer, but to bring in only one team because the field is restricted to 6 teams. She also keeps track of their billing information, such as packet submission deadlines, discounts for new to quiz bowl (which, this year, only Baylor used for Fall and Winter), on an Excel spreadsheet, and what could be their share of the money vs the ACF's. She must also ensure that there is enough money to cover the cost of trophies, while rental and books are instead borne out of the amounts she intends to charge her employer as a so-called contribution to inner-city education. Therefore, she must keep receipts for trophies, such as plaques for the overall, undergraduate and Division II champions.
"For today, the drill involves having one of the prospective staffers mod a packet with twenty toss-up and bonus cycles, with a sixty-second break at the end of the tenth cycle, and the other prospective staffer keeps score, and, for the next packet, the roles are reversed. We are going to play this drill using the last publicly available ACF Regionals set. I trust you understand the difference between ACF and NAQT rules as applied to scorekeeping?" Imélie asks the would-be staffers.
"Yes, coach" both prospective staffers answer before a coin toss is made to determine who will mod first and who will mod second, and Alyssa prepares the buzzer system.
"If, at the end of the drill, you realize you prefer to moderate games rather than keeping score, please let me know and you shall be given a link to undertake ACF's moderator certification, and also provide your names and contact information so that we can notify ACF of your intent of staffing the ACF Regionals"
This drill feels far too much like the one drill we undertook before the LQBA Fall Invitational South, where we played what amounts to four practice games in a row in a 2-vs-2 format, but with us taking turns moderating, Nolan thinks while the drill begins, and the two would-be staffers get some practice at performing both staff positions.
Imélie then rushes out of the room used at Boggs for quiz bowl practices so that she can then go to the nearest off-campus bookstore (since the campus library at LBC is closed given that the practice takes place after its business hours end) to look for a total of 16 books, knowing that a set of 4 books to be given to a top team will include one fine arts, one literature, one M&S and finally one history book, with overlap allowed between the primary categories and the secondary ones.
It turns out that literature books are the least expensive and can therefore be bought without complication. However, she has to be really cautious about M&S books, which she knew based on her experience of quiz bowl that M&S is the poor child of book prizes to the eyes of tournament organizers. Especially since they don't want books to be too technical, but at the same time, to be of use to a quiz bowler. Which, at the collegiate level, tends towards the more technical. Oh my God, these 16 books are going to be more expensive than the profits from this tournament! Thank God I can charge this to my employer as a contribution to inner-city education and still cover my fees as a charitable contribution, she realizes as she goes to the cashier, while making sure that there are no duplicates in the basket, and that there is appropriate coverage of the distribution in it.
I hope that I will not need to be modding a game room while also being a TD; it generally results in poor gameplay experience in the room a TD-mod refs a game in. Entering game stats into SQBS I can do as a TD, though, Imélie reflects as the responses from all six teams she knows will be most likely to want to attend, while asking for their prospective rosters and the players' educational status as graduate, undergraduate and D2, their willingness to bring a staffer and to bring a buzzer. Upon returning to the room at Boggs, she asks the varsity players about how they feel with these two people as tournament staffers.
"How do you feel with these two people as staffers?"
"One of them is clearly better suited as a scorekeeper, the other one would be able to mod a college game just fine" Xavier comments, while realizing that the person that seems a better fit as a referee, well, reffed games at the LQBA Fall Invitational South, having met the ref at that tournament earlier this season.
"Yes, one of them didn't seem to be comfortable reading questions. But he was able to keep score just fine" Derek comments as well.
After reviewing the rosters, which look identical to the rosters of ACF Winter for the five schools so concerned, and Tulane being the only one that differs, in that Imélie will not be playing, it turns out that there are only 3 undergraduate teams, albeit all of them are eligible for Division 2 play, so she promptly informs ACF that the South-Central site can forgo awarding undergraduate and Division 2 trophies, while still awarding book prizes and a title on top of that.
Scheduling of game rooms, on the other hand, is straightforward, and it follows that she plans on simply giving teams numbers (the chronological order in which they entered the tournament) for scheduling preliminary round games, after which the standings are used for re-seeding teams for the second round-robin. After all, she knows that 10 games are required under ACF regulations for Regionals, even with the diminutive field. It's not like North, Northeast or any of the two Mid-Atlantic sites, which have much bigger fields. The tournament format is also part of what she sends to the site coordinator. In the end, the bulk of what she feels must be done as a tournament director is not about the tournament proper, but what happens before and after.
"Prioritize your own finals, please, but once holidays start, start studying in what you feel are your areas of weakness going into the Regionals and the SCT. In addition please study from Regionals on up, since I feel we can qualify for the Nationals, which would be a first for us in many years" the instructions are given.
Tulane never qualified for the ACF Nationals, and, in the bid, Imélie specified Alyssa, Derek, Nolan and Xavier as their roster going into the Nationals, in which case D2 would be what Tulane's berth at the National be, provided Tulane makes it past the committee phase. So any uncertainty related to whether they would qualify would then depend on how things happen at the committee phase.
"That said, approach the Regionals as you would the SCT, that is, if we weren't hosting, in which case we need to win the tournament or at least the undergraduate title. Just being at the Nationals, or the ICT Division II, is already a great victory for Green Wave quiz bowl" Imélie then continues to warn her players.
And exactly one ICT participation, 2009. Truly the season of miracles for Tulane if they did go to both, irrespective of what the Green Wave achieves while there. Here's our chance to end a 26-year-old drought on the quiz bowl national stage, but certain conditions must be met. Plus I need to make sure they pay fast, Imélie thinks while she sends out the logistics email to the other 5 teams.
As an attachment, they also receive banking information to effect wire transfers and then pay Tulane. But this is the long wait to her, since she knows that teams are not as eager to pay a tournament host as they are to enter a tournament. They weren't necessarily ready to submit half-packets either, and the final bill will be sent upon confirmation of the contestants' half-packets.
So all that she has left to do at this point is to buy two different plaques for the first and second place, as well as four medals (one gold, one silver and two bronze) for the individual scorers, and then keep on practicing with the players, both the varsity and the would-be staffers who are promptly registered with ACF as well.