2015 International History Olympiad Preliminary Announcement

[Great Bustard]

Greetings, all. As many of you know, NHBB is now in its third year of running international tournaments under the name of IHBB (i.e. International History Bee and Bowl). My wife, Nolwenn, who is French, and I, serve as co-Executive Directors of IHBB, and have just set out on a three week (for me) and two month long trip (for her) trip. After running tournaments in Colorado and Western Kansas this weekend, we'll be running events in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai the following weekend; Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan the next, and Thailand and Korea after that. Then, Nolwenn will continue on to recruit in Sweden before running Italy on 3/15. Britain and France will run on 3/22, followed by Germany, Spain, and Switzerland, and possibly additional events in Northern France and Southern Spain pending interest. This coming summer, we are currently planning on sending NHBB/IHBB staff to start things in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Brazil. Canada is also likely to debut next year too. Ultimately, we want to spread IHBB, as well as all-subject pyramidal quizbowl as far as we can, and we are prepared to continue putting in an ever-increasing amount of time, money, energy, and the like to making that happen.

One reason we want to build this up as quickly as possible is for an event we are already planning for, which is the debut of the International History Olympiad in the summer of 2015. This will be a week-long event which will feature dozens of history themed competitions. I am making this initial post on the Olympiad for a few reasons. First, students and teams are looking to determine whether they will be going to NHBB Nationals in 2014, and this may factor into that decision for some.
Secondly, before we get too much farther along with the planning, I'd like to get feedback from the community regarding suggestions of all sorts, but especially on the sort of events you'd like to see be a part of this.
Thirdly, if people are interested in collaborating on this, please let me know. That could be for anything from question writing to staffing to handling logistics/stats/social media/etc. Suffice to say that if this comes to fruition as I expect, it will be a major undertaking.

Quizbowl competitions will be a major part of this, of course, but here are some of the other things we've been thinking of:

-a 500 question multiple choice exam, with prizes awarded for different subject areas
-historical simulations (think the Congress of Vienna, planning the D-Day invasion, etc.)
-a Civilization tournament (i.e. the computer game)
-various physical competitions that combine historical knowledge or are historically themed
-various board games (risk, diplomacy, etc.)
-historical crossword puzzles
-historical linguistics problem solving
-research competitions (we have some ideas for this)
-seminars with famous historians
-field trips
-the chance to meet students interested in history from around the world

As for the quizbowl portion, some ideas we have include competitions on ancient history, military history, visual art history (with visual questions), music history (with audio questions), an event where the topic is only announced the first night on an obscure topic that people would have a few days to study, an overall Bee, and an overall Bowl. Unlike some other Olympiads, there would be 1 Gold, 1 Silver, and 1 Bronze medal awarded in each event. We would also have a medals table (run the way they do overseas, where 1 gold outweighs 100 silvers) with awards for the top states/countries. Students would be allowed to enter each event (nothing would run concurrently, at least, that's the current thinking), but would not be expected to. The plethora of events would also allow for different students to plan their Olympiad strategically. If you're not an elite player, but want to devote yourself to one particular Bee, perhaps you could medal in that. Otherwise, even if the quizbowl portions are not one's primary interest, there would be enough else out there (and in particular, less experienced quizbowlers could still medal in those).

Right now, we are currently in talks with HSAPQ in terms of how the quizbowl portion will get structured, but they would be the writers for all the quizbowl questions the Olympiad would use. In order to make this financially viable, it's likely that US students will (at least initially) outnumber the rest of the world combined, so I'm thinking that the Bowl (and other team) components, might work like NASAT, with US students playing by state. The multiple choice exam (given at the start of the competition) could also then be used as a way to determine team composition (so, say, the top 1-4 finishers from California would then be California A, the top 1-4 finishers from Sri Lanka would be Sri Lanka A, etc.). Also, note that students who attend US schools but have foreign passports could play for either their state or their country of citizenship. The same would be true for international school students. You would need to declare eligibility at the start and then could not switch. Qualifying for all students attending US schools, however, will work the same way regardless of citizenship. Finally, US college students (see below) who are eligible would still need to play for their state of current residence, not where they are attending university, unless it's the same of course.

As far as a date and venue, we're thinking of a US East Coast University for 2015, possibly Hawaii for 2016, Asia in 2017, and Europe in 2018. It would likely run in July for a full week. The costs would likely be in the $800-$1100 range, which isn't cheap, but is in line with many summer sports camps. We would of course, need to cover lots of organizational costs including a ton of quizbowl questions.

Regarding qualification, US students could only qualify for the Olympiad by finishing in the top half of the draw at NHBB Nationals, either in the Bee, or on a team in the Bowl. The qualification would be valid for two years - thus, already in 2014, you could qualify for 2015 (so you'd have a year to study, fundraise, and otherwise get ready). On the other hand, if you qualified in 2015, you could go for either (or both) 2015 and 2016. Also of note: right now, we're likely to have two divisions at the Olympiad; a JV for students up through those going into 9th-11 grade, and one for students going into 12th grade, first year of college, and second year of college. This means that if you qualify at NHBB Nationals for the Olympiad, and it's valid for 2 years, you can in fact come back and compete even after 1 year of college under your belt. There will, however, be some sort of field cap, to be determined once we realize what our logistical constraints are.

Eventually, we would like to open this up to an open division as well (which might be held only once every 4 years, though) but that would likely not happen until 2017 at the earliest. Also, for 2014 (and the foreseeable future), the Olympiad would be entirely in English. IHBB is likely to debut foreign language tournaments at some point (about on our 3-5 year time horizon), but the Olympiad will be in English for the time being. We would, however, look to make questions and other aspects of the competition be user friendly for non-native speakers (i.e. don't count on seeing the word "polity" in the questions).

Okay, think that's all for now. Between now and the start of June, my personal top priority is ensuring the success of our remaining regional and state tournaments, and especially our Nationals at the end of April. However, planning for the Olympiad will be foremost on my mind in the summer - we may even have an extended planning retreat in June or July of 2014. Anyway, I want this to be a well-planned, amazing week of competition, unlike anything quizbowl (or any other other Olympiad) has seen before. Nolwenn and I are therefore eager to work with anyone in the community to ensure the success of it from the first version of the Olympiad onwards, and are eager for advice, collaboration, and suggestion of all sorts. Thanks, and good luck qualifying at this year's NHBB Nationals!

[Mark Wolfsberg]

No Specific Ideas from me , but, It all sounds wonderful: when you know dates, let us know so we can keep our calendars clear.

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