National Academic Quiz Tournaments is proud to provide space for an initial planning meeting for a new not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting quiz bowl. The meeting will take place after the preliminary rounds of the 2006 High School National Championship Tournament on Saturday, June 3, 2006, from 7:00 to 8:30 in the O'Hare 1 ballroom. It is open to everybody interested in high school quiz bowl, but is primarily oriented toward high school coaches.

Some talking points for the meeting have been posted on the IHSSBCA's website by David Reinstein.

The meeting will be run by David Reinstein, Chair of the Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association, who had the following to say about the organization's goals and ideals:

Like many things, Quiz Bowl can be both extremely rewarding and extremely frustrating. Several coaches would like to hold an open meeting during the opening of the NAQT HSNCT to talk about how we can make our activity more rewarding and less frustrating. Though NAQT will not lead the meeting, it has generously offered to give us space and help us publicize ourselves.

Most Quiz Bowl currently is very regional in nature. Many teams play long seasons without ever straying more than an hour from home, and traditions that are common in one state may not exist in the state next door. Each state seems to have its own set of strengths and weaknesses, and lessons learned the hard way in one region are later learned the hard way or not learned at all in another region.

Several of us coaches believe that we can do a better job of helping each other. We want to share the needs unique to our states with coaches from other parts of the country in an effort to solve problems. We want to find out if there are projects we can work on together that would be mutually beneficial. Some of the questions we want to answer are:

• How should we educate coaches to help them locate the best tournaments and products?
• How can we get more teams at good tournaments?
• How can we improve question quality nationwide?
• How should we recognize excellence and/or publicize our activity?
• Should there be more standardization of quiz bowl?
• How can states continue to communicate with each other?

Of course, we cannot accomplish too much in one meeting, but we hope to get the ball rolling in the right direction. As an Illinois coach, I sometimes pridefully look down at what takes place in other states and sometimes jealously look up at what takes in other states. I hope that in the future we will see each other as being in the same boat, helping one another to make our activity better and better.

I hope you'll join us in Chicago.

David Reinstein, Chair
Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association

NAQT joins Mr. Reinstein in hoping that there will be widespread participation in this event!