ACN The Academic Competition Newsletter Volume IX Issue 1 Sept. 2002 Editors: Gaius Stern, Jay Anderson Greetings to all, The ACN is a non-partisan e-mail publication for quizbowl teams. The purpose of the ACN is to spread useful info to the quizbowl community in the West, Southwest, and Midwest regarding tournaments, buzzer systems, new qb technology, etc. Subscription is free and via e-mail. Merely write to Gaius@socrates.berkeley.edu to be added or removed from the subscriber list. When the ACN started out 9 years ago it was a publication for the West Coast teams. It has grown over time to include information for teams in other regions. The goal remains the same, however inconsistent the reporting. One wishes to maximize turnout and increase participation. Contributions and notices for upcoming tournaments are always welcome. This issue contains: * This year's Fall calendar (tentative) * Buzzer repairs * useful websites * HS quizbowl writing consortium * invitation from UC Berkeley WIT 9 * editorial comment on U-MD GCH ------------------------------ Calendar for Fall 2003 This calendar is not complete, so please feel free to contact us in Sept with additional events and contact info where necessary. October 4 TWAIN (UCLA) 11 Ghetto Warz (USC) Route 66 2003 at Univ. of OKlahoma 18 UC Berkeley WIT XI JsRCM prICK Mirror at Northwestern FOGHAT 2003: In the Mood For Something Rude, Missouri-Rolla November 1 ACF West, Stanford ACF Midwest, Iowa State ACF SW, Arkansas DePauw Undergrad NAQT Competition Event (DUNCE) 7 Caltech Technophobia & TRASH Regional 8 KILT Bowl I Monmouth College, IL Iowa State Fall Tournament II: Play Through Pain Wash St Louis Gateway Invitational 9 TRASH Regional, Iowa State TRASH Regional, Wash St. Louis WANT TO REPAIR YOUR OLD QUIZ-A-MATIC? Quiz-A-Matic repairs performed by past owners of University Research Co., manufacturer of the Quiz-A-Matic. Please call Arlo at (435) 463-1521 or e-mail to relic@infowest.com. USEFUL WEB SITES If you are starting up a new club, you may find the following website of much value. In particular the question archive at Stanford is extremely valuable as your school need not purchase very expensive packets when 100+ past tournaments are available for free. MAIZE PAGE http://www.umich.edu/~uac/mac/maize/tournaments.html Stanford Packet Archive http://quizbowl.stanford.edu/archive/. WEB RING http://f.webring.com/hub?ring=quizbowl Tournament list: http://www.e-falk.com/qb/ Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quizbowl/ HS QUESTION WRITING CONSORTIUM On Oct. 11, 2003, UTC will host its 6th annual Trevor's Trivia: Bob Selcer Memorial High School Quizbowl Tournament. They would like to find partners in distant parts of the country, including * Mirror sites or question sharing arrangements with concurrent tournaments elsewhere * Freelancers willing to write original questions in exchange for either practice questions (HS, college, or trash) or discounts off future UTC collegiate tournaments Interested? E-mail for more details. UC BERKELEY WIT 9 invitation Berkeley Quiz Bowl is pleased to announce the eleventh annual Western Invitational Tournament. WIT XI: Jingoistic Self-regarding Conquer Monkeys will be an ACF-style packet-submission tournament held at the University of California-Berkeley on Saturday, October 18, 2003. Jeff Hoppes Rules: ACF rules ( http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~paik/acf/rules.html ) will be in effect with the following exceptions: 1. Non-verbal conferring will be allowed. 2. Bonus answers will be read after each part. For more details, contact Jeff. The WIT is the second oldest continuously run tournament west of the Rockies (Stanford CC is oldest) and typically had a field of 14 teams in early years. One year 18 teams played. Recently turnout has been lower, so Berkeley is eager to attract a large field once again. Afterthought on U-MD Summer event The editor of the ACN is pleased to see a tournament was partly named after him at his alma mater, U-MD , namely "Gaius Cornelius Hobnobus Memorial Singles Tournament" although the Memorial part puzzles him. Usually that suggests the subject is no longer among the living. Any reports that the ACN or the ACN editor-in-chief are dead in error. ----------------------------------------