Beta Club Quizbowl
The Beta Club is an honor/service organization for American primary and secondary school students, which is primarily active in the greater Southeast, though its 18 state chapters range as far north as Illinois and as far west as Texas. It is roughly analogous to the more universal National Honor Society.
Since at least 1985, the Beta Club has sponsored a high school quizbowl championship at its annual national conventions, and in 1999 middle school and elementary school divisions were added. Prior to the rise of "good quizbowl", some prominent teams such as Dorman often made sure that all of their players were Beta Club members and made a concerted effort to win this tournament, especially if they had become disenchanted with the NAC and wanted a less ethically fraught opportunity to compete. Ever since the availability of superior alternatives, this has become less common, though nationally prominent quizbowl team Dunbar still participates.
Structure & Format
Individual states have the option to obtain questions for their state conventions from wherever they choose. Each year, a set for state conventions in each of the Beta age divisions (in those states that choose to use it), as well as a set for the national convention in each age division, is written by SAGES. Previously, the questions were produced by Bryce Avery. SAGES provides written tests of 50 multiple-choice questions for each division. The top teams then advance to a 4-round quizbowl tournament, where each round has 20 tossups and 20 2-part bonuses, per Beta's request.
The four current divisions of Beta Club are as follows. In quizbowl competition, all high school students in Senior Beta compete together.
- Elementary: 4th and 5th grades
- Middle School (Junior Beta): 6th, 7th, and 8th grades
- Senior Beta, Division 1: 9th and 10th grades
- Senior Beta, Division 2: 11th and 12th grades
Results
There is no apparent central repository of information on who won the tournament prior to 2009, who the previous question supplier was, or even exactly when the event started. Results from 2009 on (in the form of a list of the top 4-5 teams only) are maintained at the Beta website. Prior results can be found elsewhere for most years.
High School
Middle School
Elementary
To be added