Arkansas Governor's Quiz Bowl Association
The Arkansas Governor's Quiz Bowl Association is an organization under the Arkansas Activities Association that promotes its form of quizbowl within the state of Arkansas. Matches are in the Four-quarter format and finals are broadcast on the Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN).
History
The program began in 1984-1985, according to its official website, allegedly due to the support of then-governor Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton.
Historically the questions used have come from bad quizbowl question sources such as Academic Hallmarks, Patrick's Press, Questions Galore, and especially Chip Beall, among others.
Essentially, the activity is governed like a high school sport, as it falls under the jurisdiction of Arkansas' statewide sporting body. The group sponsors a Fall Camp for both Senior High and Jr. High school students and helps coordinate tournaments in the state throughout the year.
The Quiz Bowl Alliance of Arkansas was a short-lived representative of "good quizbowl" within the state from 2007 to 2011, centered mostly around Harding University.
State-Specific Features
Use of In-Print Reference Material for Appeals
Arkansas Governor's Quiz Bowl is particularly unique among quiz bowl formats in how it chooses to structure question challenges (protests) during matches. According to the official rules:
"Any reference material must be in the room in the possession of the team issuing the challenge. Only recognized, up-to-date reference materials such as almanacs, encyclopedias, fact finders, textbooks, dictionaries, or anthologies may be used for proving challenge."
This rule thus results in teams lugging around large quantities of reference materials since internet sources or any non-reference materials like old questions are prohibited. Challenges are also only allowed to take place immediately after toss-up questions are read and coaches have five minutes from lodging the challenge to use the reference sources to come up with a rationale for the challenge. Additionally, judges are not required to actually be convinced by this evidence and are explicitly allowed to rule however they feel without actually researching the issue.
Official Violation Forms
All tournaments are given forms for explaining ejections of coaches and for reporting violations of any procedures during the tournament, including being late to the tournament, to the state agency.