How To Run Your Team's Logistics

There's lots of guides out there for Quiz Bowl-specific tasks such as writing questions, improving as a Team, etc. There is also a growing body of writing on "starting a team" generally and "running a Tournament." There seems to be far fewer information helping people who may be just a few months out of high school deal with general real-world tasks as they impact Quizbowl, so this page will serve as a repository for such information.

Reserving rooms for practices & tournaments

Figure out first of all where you can host on campus or if your campus will let you host at all (some have very strict policies about inviting high schoolers or middle schoolers to campus for instance). Recognize that there may be many different entities on campus who control different rooms and buildings. Your goal is to find the place that allows you to reserve enough rooms for the lowest possible price (ideally, free!). These reservations may be made online, but it is often helpful to go in person as well and strike up a friendly relationship with the people in charge. You want to make sure that your rooms are not double-booked or changed at the last minute.

The same principle applies for booking rooms for team practices. In both of these cases, you should make sure to figure out when the room reservations for the next semester open and try to get on that as quickly as possible. Prime campus space is often booked very early by competing activities like debate, so make sure that you figure out your school's processes for doing this quickly.

Managing your team's money

Ideally one person will be a treasurer and be officially in charge of finances, but it is important to keep track of expenses and revenues in a way so that other team members can check and double-check. Most teams either use a school-provided (sometimes required) account or get a cheap account at a local bank. Ideally, you want to have access to your money as easily as possible and keep expenses like banking fees as low as possible.