Tournament Scheduling Redux: SNEWT

bhg144 · Sat, 16 Sep 2000 13:29:23 -0700

Hey all,

 With all the current buzz on the
board about tournament scheduling, I was surprised that
no one has pointed out what I consider to be an
obvious example of poor planning.

 For several
years now Yale has sent teams to compete at SNEWT,
Swarthmore's annual tournament for sophomores and freshmen. I
was on one of those teams last year and had a lot of
fun! Swarthmore tournaments have more than earned a
reputation for good organization, tough competition, and
high quality pizza for lunch. :)

Unfortunately, my previously high opinion of Swarthmore's
college bowl organization has been lowered due to the
scheduling of this year's SNEWT on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish
New Year.

 Now, I'm not sure about the exact
numbers, but I know that there are a relatively large
percentage of Jewish people on the quiz bowl circuit. If
they're anything like me and some of my teammates, they
probably feel really torn about whether or not to attend
SNEWT. If it were one of the more minor holidays, like
Purim or even Passover (ok, maybe not the first
night...), this wouldn't be such a major deal. But this is
one of the two High Holidays of Jewish tradition, the
most important days in our religous calendar. The
least religously minded Jews have been known to go to
synagogue on these holidays, even if they remain
non-practitioners for the rest of the year. The schedulers at
Swarthmore have forced Jews to choose between their beliefs
and their buzzer systems...and the choice is not an
easy one for a Jewish quiz bowl player to
make.

 Personally, I have not decided whether or not I
am going to attend SNEWT this year. I had a lot of
fun last time and would love to return.
Unfortunately, because of poor planning on the part of the
Swarthmore tournament directors, it may not be possible for
me to travel to Philadelphia at the end of the
month. Instead, I may head home for the holiday, and
even though I'll get a delicious home-cooked meal and
a weekend to myself, my otherwise sweet New Year
will still be slightly tinged with disappointment.
We'll just have to see how things plays out.

I'm not suggesting that Swarthmore change the date of
their tournament now...it's clearly too late for that.
In the future, however, people who are responsible
for scheduling tournaments should be a little more
aware of conflicts with events which occur in the vast
and wondrous world which exists outside the quiz bowl
circuit. 

Ben Gross
Treasurer, Yale Student
Academic Competitions

"I know Weinstein's parents
were upset, uh, superintendent, but, but - but I was
_sure_ it was a phony excuse. I mean, it sounds so made
up: "yom kip pur." -Seymour Skinner