For whatever this may be worth, here are my thoughts: * Contacting the school's administration will probably not be worth the effort; they probably won't make the team cough up the money nor take it out of the whatever funds it provides to the team next season, but they _can_ decide to cancel any such funding in the future, which might spell the destruction of the team or at the very least make it very difficult for future members there who may succeed the deadbeats. While generosity towards the schools' programs and the future good of the game might understandably not be at the forefront of your thoughts right now, this route will unlikely lead to a happy conclusion. * Legal action should probably also be avoided. Any lawsuit would probably go to small claims court, where the cost of lawyer's fees would likely exceed what you hope to collect from the programs; plus, it might take an enormously long time to see adjudication. * This leaves only the option of calling them out publicly. This is doubtless extremely distasteful to you, but it can have three potentially beneficial effects: 1) if for some reason your e-mails haven't been getting through, this could get the message to the team involved and perhaps the issue can be settled, after which apologies can be made and all is well; 2) public shaming might lead the insolvent to pay what they owe to restore their good name; 3) if they persist in non-payment, it could make other teams in the community aware that the programs with which you have been dealing have failed to pay their debts, and thus lead them to boycott the programs or at least deal with them cautiously. I hope your unfortunate circumstance resolves amicably. Money matters can be pretty sordid, but as a member of a team which pays for its tournaments entirely out of pocket (yep, we get _no_ support from our school)and nevertheless maintains solvency, I see no reason why quizbowl debts should not be paid.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:48 AM EST EST