MLK 2006 Announcement

[your mom]

Dear Folks:

As many of you may by now have come to expect, Michigan Academic Competitions is
pleased to announce our annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Tournament, taking
place on Saturday 14 January 2005, the Saturday immediately before Martin Luther King
Day.

This is an academic tournament with timed rounds. Difficulty will be comparable to previous years, somewhere around the level of ACF Regionals. The MLK will be followed on Sunday by the annual Ann B. Davis Trash Tournament, to be announced separately.

CONTACTS

Questions about logistics, registration and all things not packet-related should
be addressed to Tournament Director David Rappaport ([email protected]). Questions
about packets, distributions, and the like should be addressed to the chief
editor, Ryan Westbrook ([email protected]).


This year, MLK will be an open tournament for anyone who wishes to form a team, aimed at preparation for upcoming regional and national tournaments.


FEE STRUCTURE

Base fee for first team from a given school: $90
Base fee for additional teams from same school: $85
Buzzer systems: -$5/system (max of 2)
You've never been to the MLK before: -$10/team
You're coming from more than 500 miles away: -$20/team

You can send Ryan a packet by (all these dates are Sundays):

27 November: -$30
11 December: -$15
25 December: -$5
1 January: No penalty
8 January: +$20
After that: +$40 and perhaps disqualification from playing

Minimum fee per team: $50

A copy of the questions will be e-mailed to every player after the tournament free of charge.

TO REGISTER: Send David an e-mail ([email protected]) with all pertinent
information (number of teams, members of teams, buzzers, other applicable discounts, anything else I should know), and I will send a confirmation e-mail back to insure that
the registration info is correct.

Regarding payment: We want your money before you play. Checks should be made out to Michigan Academic Competitions and they can either be mailed to me (e-mail me for address info) before the tournament, or you can pay the morning of the tournament. I will make sure you know how much you owe when you e-mail me to register.


QUESTION SUBMISSION

Distribution

Literature: 5/5 (vary by region, including at least 1/1 American, 1/1 European, 1/1 World Lit)
History: 5/5 (at least 1/1 American, 2/2 European, 1/1 World and 1/1 pre-1000 A.D. history)
Science: 5/5 (1/1 chemistry, 1/1 physics, 1/1 biology, 1/1 math, 1/1 astronomy or computer science or earth science or other)
Fine Arts: 3/3 (at least 1/1 art and 1/1 classical music)
Social Science: 2/2 (no more than 1/1 of any discipline)
Myth, Religion, Philosophy: 3/3 (1/1 of each of these things)
Geography: 1/1 (not on same landform)
Pop Culture/Trash: 1/1


Teams that have less experience writing questions may want to consult the
Michigan Memorandum on question writing, available on the web at:

http://www.umich.edu/~uac/mac/rules/memorandum2002.html

Along with its appendix:

http://www.umich.edu/~uac/mac/rules/appendix2002.html

If you feel that your team absolutely can’t complete the writing requirements above, e-mail Ryan at [email protected] and we’ll try to work something out.

Packets should be submitted, if at all possible as Word documents.

FORMATTING

-- Remember that this is a timed tournament. Tossups should not be more than six lines of 10 point Times New Roman type, but no less than four lines. Bonus parts should not be more than two lines, or have more than four prompts.

-- I’m not picky about formatting. But - put the question and answer on separate lines with the answer clearly marked by ANSWER: and underline or bold-face the necessary part of the answer as well as any alternative answers.


BASIC LOGISTICS:

If you're wondering how to get to Ann Arbor and where to stay once you get
there, some general suggestions can be found at:

http://www.umich.edu/~uac/mac/faq/part2.html

If you have more specific questions, or are just feeling chatty, send David an e-mail.

We look forward to a big crowd and a fine show come January.

Cheers,
Rappaport