Call for Writers for CMST4
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 1:08 pm
Dear quizbowl community,
In the interest of continuing to grow the market for middle school quizbowl, I am seeking help in the production of the 4th iteration of the Collaborative Middle School Tournament. While NAQT has expanded their offerings to include 3 MS sets, I feel that there is room for another! It seemed like the writers for last year's edition had difficulty finding the time to write in the months of December and January, so I'm hoping to get this thing launched sooner in hopes that more people are able to participate. I'm in search of at least 20 writers for the categories described below (copied and edited Dwight Wynne's leadership template. It'd be nice to have a few diehards willing to go above and beyond the usual commitment of 10/10 to fill-in wherever questions are needed. I also definitely need someone to serve as chief editor. Please respond in this thread if you are willing to serve in some capacity.
In the interest of continuing to grow the market for middle school quizbowl, I am seeking help in the production of the 4th iteration of the Collaborative Middle School Tournament. While NAQT has expanded their offerings to include 3 MS sets, I feel that there is room for another! It seemed like the writers for last year's edition had difficulty finding the time to write in the months of December and January, so I'm hoping to get this thing launched sooner in hopes that more people are able to participate. I'm in search of at least 20 writers for the categories described below (copied and edited Dwight Wynne's leadership template. It'd be nice to have a few diehards willing to go above and beyond the usual commitment of 10/10 to fill-in wherever questions are needed. I also definitely need someone to serve as chief editor. Please respond in this thread if you are willing to serve in some capacity.
Dwight wrote:Facilitator = Jeff Price
1. PM everyone who signs up to write to get their e-mail address and the categories they want to write in. Also ask them if they are interested in any sort of subject editing or proofreading.
2. Set up a Google Spreadsheet for answer selection and individual documents for each category (English Language Literature, Juvenile Literature, Other Literature and Language Arts, American History, European History, World/Ancient History, Geography, Life Science, Physical Science, Astronomy, Mathematics, Visual Arts, Auditory Arts, Religion, Mythology, Current Events, Popular Culture).
3. Combine this all into a single folder. Label it "CMST 2013."
4. Share the folder with everyone whose e-mail addresses you have collected.
5. Follows up with each individual writer to secure their writing commitment ("I will have X/X done in these categories by this date").
5. Periodically bumps this thread in case potential new writers are looking at the thread or we need to call for new writers.
A. This job is pretty much over in December except for following up with writers.
Chief Editor = ???
1. Coordinates subject editing schedule.
2. Oversees subject editing and makes final edits for difficulty and repeat replacement.
3. Combines packets and sends them to proofreaders for final cosmetic edits.
4. Presses the panic button at appropriate times when people inevitably start slipping on their assignments.
Bid Coordinator = ???
1. Makes official announcement regarding CMST 4 date availability and hosting guidelines.
2. Answers questions from potential hosts (or posts them in the private forum for the group to answer, then sends back the group's response).
3. Starts and runs the "Bids 2013" thread in the private forum that basically makes sure that all of our potential hosts are doing non-crazy things and that no site is going to significantly take away from a second site's field. Once we make sure of that, notify the host that they have been accepted as a host site.
4. Maintains a spreadsheet of host site, host contact, and tournament date (either online or on their own computer).
5. Sends hosts a copy of the set no later than the Tuesday before the tournament; earlier if requested by the host.
6. Follows up with hosts for statistics and set feedback.
7. Optionally, identifies and contacts hosts in potential new areas inquiring into use of our set.
A. This job is pretty easy if you have halfway decent communication skills. It takes about 30 minutes a week on the busy weeks.
Subject editors and writers should be pretty self-explanatory.
Die-hard writers (we need at least 3) are pretty simple: you sign up to write a minimum of 20/20 in "whatever needs to be done." This means you are assigned whatever categories no one signs up to write in. If everyone does their commitment in a timely manner, you're done. If not, you pick up the slack for whatever categories aren't getting written.