This is the first moment I have had in days to adequately respond to this so I hope I'm not opening old wounds here. > Your message goes on to generally criticize NAQT's carelessness, > however, and that I can speak to authoritatively. You've made valid > complaints about NAQT in the past which, I would have thought, had > been brought to satisfactory resolution. Among other things, we > haven't shipped an incorrect set since your complaint of a year ago, > and we took the time to arrange the 2003 ICT questions so that if > questions were used in both Division I and Division II they were used > in the same packet. Both changes, while clearly the right thing to do, took effort that was performed without raising prices in > compensation. Perhaps you have other issues which we have not yet > addressed, but I feel that it is not, in fact, true that "nothing > ever gets fixed." While it is true R. that an incident such as what happened at last year's GIT has not yet taken place, I have not yet seen anything that would prevent such an incident unless it is done so behind the scenes at NAQT that precludes that. If it is because of increased diligence on your part, then I thank you. The D1 and D2 at ICT situations I also thank you for bc two incidents of that were more than enough. However, last year when I emailed you about the incident at GIT and referenced the incident that occurred at Pitt you replied that NAQT makes "a substantial effort to remind every host that it needs to announce the set that is being used to all teams coming to the tournament while reminding them to make sure that they haven't played the set before. So far, that same situation hasn't arisen (crosses fingers)." In twice helping run GIT while we always were frank about what set was used, we were never told by NAQT to announce who else was using the set. Since no one (not Rolla, or Oklahoma, nor Depauw) said anything similar, I can only assume that NAQT did not make said substantial effort to remind the four of us. Since it resulted in problems for one of those teams, that is why I felt insulted and made this post bc I believed NAQT said one thing and did another. I kept that email from last fall bc I felt these issues might present themselves again, and I am sad that they did. > At the very least, I feel that NAQT has been prompt to admit mistakes > that it has made and has tried to correct them, either retroactively, > or at the earliest opportunity. I'm sorry that our responses have > seemed condescending to you--that's the diametric opposite of our > intention and I hope that you will accept my apology. I also hope > that others who have provided us with valuable feedback haven't gone > away with that impression. It only seems condescending when someone says the policy is one thing yet the policy in action is another (see my earlier response). > Your final charge, that of teams hearing questions from sets that > were used within the geographic region, is one that NAQT simply > rejects in the case of DUNCE. The tournaments in question are 727 > miles apart according to MapQuest, over five and one-half hours' > drive in either direction for a team in the center. I can't change > your opinion that that constitutes the same "geographic region," but > in our opinion, and I hope in the opinion of the majority of teams > who would like to have nearby juniorbirds to attend, it does not. > > NAQT makes it clear on its schedule page, list of past tournaments, > tournament hosting page, and host instructions which sets are being > used and that it is the responsibility of teams to ensure that they > only attend one tournament using a given set. For us, the > alternatives to this policy are significantly higher question fees > and/or a draconian registration policy that includes clearing every > player's name with NAQT in advance. Neither is preferable, in my > opinion, to treating players like adults and trusting them with the > responsibility of tracking the sets used at the three or four NAQT > tournaments they might attend. Yes Dwpauw and Route 66 are far away. Yes, 5 1/2 hours from the center is considerable distance. But you must understand this: for those of us in the midwest who are trying to incorporate new players into our teams each week, that distance is negligible if it means increasing membership roles. Therefore, we gladly go to Route 66 though it is far away in October because it works for some freshmen (and the OU people have been cool with us for so long). We were also gladly planning on going to DUNCE (again, the Depauw people have been cool with us for so long and it worked well with other freshmen). Unfortunately, had our only driver for the DUNCE trip not backed out with a family issue, we would've gone to both as Rolla did. Since NAQT as I said earlier, clearly wasn't as diligent in making its host schools post about when and where such sets were used before, it led to very innocent assumptions on our part and I assume on Rolla's. Your scheduling page initially lists current tournaments, then after you click around a bit you find where each IS was going. For those of us who are either new to your site or are not willing to hunt down every shred of a paper trail for each IS, I do not feel this is our responsibility to cut through that clutter. I would advise you to make a separate page from the "schedule" section that is easily accessible that says where each IS is at all times AND THEN to make sure that is echoed in the posts by each TD of an IS, and if they neglect to do it then someone from NAQT should either admonish them of that fact and if that still fails, do it on behalf of NAQT two days before the tournament. That wouldn't lead to higher prices, it would just be NAQT preserving it's own image and explicitly recusing itself of any blame in post form. > NAQT believes that DePauw handled the situation professionally and > would be pleased to have its club host events in the future. >From what I understand, yes DePauw did handle themselves professionally and probably ran one of their best tournaments ever thanks in no small part to Amanda Hartman (who was always very prompt and efficient in her communications with me when we were planning on going). We at WUAT will also plan on attending their events in the future including and especially NAQT SCT and DUCK Bowl whenever it is this year. Sean Phillips (Speaking on behalf of himself now and in the earlier post on this subject although the bit about attending SCT and DUCK Bowl at Depauw is also shared by WUAT members)
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