- On ACF Regionals 2018, where one of the editors had not completed their work by the Friday before the tournament
- On SGI, where I ended up writing 300 questions in part because people didn't define responsibilities well, and others didn't step up to the plate to write their stuff in a reasonable time frame
- On PACE NSC, where the original philosophy editor completely blew the project off and contributed exactly one question to the set
- On this year's EFT, where I originally intended to write maybe 50 questions and explicitly indicated so at the project's beginning, but ended up writing close to 200 - partly because some people (wisely) stepped out early when they felt burned out, partly because others simply didn't live to writing commitments they had agreed to in January and/or blew off the clear timelines I had set (though admittedly I chose not to enforce them).
In many ways, this sort of social loafing is understandable. I get that quizbowl tournaments are something like a "group project that doesn't count for grades" in many ways. Outside of NAQT, there are no promotion evaluations, no grades, etc. People who repeatedly screw up suffer very few consequences, if at all. The pay is at best decent for some of these events (EFT) and at worst mediocre (PACE) but it's not really enough to motivate people, particularly when commitments are in the far distance. That being said, dropping the ball has real consequences for real people around you, including on their mental and physical health when they have to put in 20+ hours per week, in addition to full time jobs/student lives, in order to pick up the slack.
If you legitimately thought you could do the work but end up having issues, reach out. If you're not committed enough to follow through, save others the last minute scramble and don't commit in the first place. But if you commit anyways and just don't care enough to follow through, then you really ought to think more carefully about the burden you are imposing on other people in this community. It's incredibly disrespectful, and I'm quitting editing because I refuse to deal with it anymore.
(Belated addendum: To be clear, I will still take on NAQT work and side events, because those are fun and don't require much dependence on others obligations)