Host Responsibilities
Requirements
NAQT requires all hosts of events that use NAQT questions to do the following:
- Give NAQT accurate information about the intended audience of the event, the date(s), and any other information necessary to ensure that suitable questions can be assigned and delivered to the event. This includes prompt notification of any changes. Due to internal question-production deadlines and other factors, NAQT cannot always accommodate date changes.
- Uphold NAQT’s policy on question security. Most notably, this entails telling attendees and prospective attendees what question set(s) will be used.
- Remind attendees not to share question content on the Internet in any form, no matter how private they think the communication may be. This includes the fact that matches may not be recorded or streamed.
- Follow NAQT’s licensing policy. Most notably, this means that hosts may keep a printed copy of the question set, and may give a printed copy of the question set(s) to each school in attendance, but may not distribute the set in any other form, nor to anyone else at any time. Staff may not retain copies of the question set(s) after the end of the event (unless they are also affiliated with the host or an attendee, in which case they may only retain a printed copy).
- Within two weeks of the end of the event, tell NAQT what schools attended. If any pseudonyms were used, identification of the actual schools is still required. NAQT strongly prefers to get more complete results and offers a discount for providing that information, but identifying the schools in attendance is an absolute requirement. Events in championship series organized by statewide athletic or activities associations are exempt from this rule because NAQT will work with the associations to obtain the necessary information; events that are not for schools (such as summer opens) are exempt from this rule because it would not make sense for such events.
Except as otherwise noted, these requirements apply to all events involving teams from more than one school. If the event is sponsored by another organization (e.g., a state quiz bowl association), the responsibility is shared by the host and sponsor. Collegiate Sectional Championship Tournaments (including Community College Sectional Championship Tournaments) have additional host requirements.
The preceding list is not intended to include tasks like “find teams and staff” without which a tournament simply could not occur. Rather, it primarily covers aspects of a host’s relationship with NAQT.
NAQT may waive or modify these requirements at its discretion.
Recommendations
NAQT strongly encourages, but does not require, hosts to do the following:
- Inform prospective teams what other nearby events (if any) will use the same or overlapping question sets, to help them maintain question security.
- Use NAQT’s registration system. This provides a number of tools to make hosts’ lives easier and also helps us maintain question security.
- Tell teams about the national championship(s) for which the tournament is a qualifier.
- Inform NAQT of any players who competed in their event but who are ineligible, or whose eligibility status is in doubt, under the relevant set of NAQT eligibility rules: This recommendation applies to tournaments that do not use NAQT eligibility rules; the purpose is to prevent NAQT from inviting ineligible teams to national championships, rather than having to revoke invitations after the fact due to ineligibility.
- Give a printed copy of the question set(s) to each school in attendance.
- Report results to NAQT promptly after the event. This enables NAQT to invite top teams to its national championships, and we offer a discount for providing this information.
- Provide NAQT with contact information for each school in attendance (if we don’t already have it). This is also part of the results-reporting discount.
- Report any errata in the questions to NAQT.
- Inform NAQT of any cases of cheating or other gross ethical violations, or well-founded suspicions thereof.
- Inform NAQT of any other unusual situations.
- Tell NAQT about any high-quality staff who might be interested in working at NAQT’s national championships.