PNW Quizzing General Assembly Meeting Minutes
- Date: Wednesday, August 25, 2021
- Time: 6:00 PM to 7:10 PM
- Location: Zoom
This meeting of the General Assembly was held over Zoom.
Organizational Represention
The following organizatons were represented at the meeting:
- Attested to be active this coming season:
- ABC
- Madras
- Trinitas
- EBC
- Attested to be potentially active this coming season:
- NSA
The following organizatons were not represented:
- Lighthouse (Attested to be active this coming season)
- Gig Harbor (Unknown status)
Summary of Discussions
Gryphon opened the meeting by annoucing the sad news that Sarah has had to resign from the Board and will be taking a much deserved and well-earned sabatical from Quizzing for at least this current season. With Sarah's departure and the small size of our district at the moment, Gryphon felt it would be better to ask the General Assembly to discuss upcoming season plans instead of the remainder of the Board. The Board agreed, and thus we scheduled this meeting.
Gryphon set the discussion stage by talking through the current state of PNW Quizzing. We have 5 organizatons who have attested to be active this coming season: ABC, Madras, Trinitas, EBC, and Lighthouse. We also may have NSA return as an active organizaton. There's a wide range of strongly-held beliefs about WA/OR anti-virus policies, which at the moment require 100% masking indoors in WA and OR. Perhaps as much as 40% of this coming season's quizzers won't participate if masks are required, and it's Gryphon's contention that another season or even partial season of virtual quizzing will result in PNW Quizzing's collapse. Therefore, finding compromise acceptable to all organizations was required.
Several ideas were floated, but the idea that seemed to gain broad support was The Ultrameet™ Proposal.
The Ultrameet™ Proposal
Our season is typically the Scramble meet, then 5 regular district meets, then the Great West Invitational, and finally District Championships followed by Internationals.
The Ultrameet™ Proposal is as follows:
- Keep the Scramble at ABC on Sat Sep 25
- Pray for good weather
- The event will be held entirely outdoors
- Masking will be optional outdoors
- The building's facilities will be open for individual use, but all entering the building will be asked to mask while inside
- Replace the second and final district meets (meets 2 and 5) with Ultrameets™
- Ultrameets™ will be held somewhere in Idaho, likely northern Idaho like Coeur d'Alene or Sandpoint
- Masking will be optional
- Ultrameets™ will be longer, more engaging events, likely running Friday through Sunday, with Sunday morning church service in the area being an integral part of the meet
- The remaining 3 regular district calendar spots will be held in reserve for "pivot" meet opportunity
- If and when either WA or OR rescinds mask mandates, the next upcoming "pivot" meet calendar spot will be activated
- PNW Quizzing hosts will not be expected to provide food or overnight housing
- District Championships will be April 22-24 at Double K, giving us the option to operate outdoors if necessary
The Great West Invitational may or may not happen, but some discussion was had about PNW Quizzing hosting the event at Hungry Horse, Montana.
Logistics and Other Details
To make the Ultrameet™ proposal successful, we're going to need to work out many logistical and other details. These include but are not limited to:
- Host location: Need to find and reserve a large, multi-room venue; ideally a large church
- Housing: Need to get hotels to compete on a group price so we can keep team costs down
- Quizzer fees: Normally these are $20 per quizzer per meet, but under the Ultrameet™ proposal, we'll have to change that to be able to cover all district costs for the season
- Officials: It will be more difficult to fill all our officials' roles at Ultrameets™, especially quizmasters
- Prelims and brackets planning: Need to reconsider to some degree how we setup prelims and brackets to maximize engagement throughout the Ultrameets™