Covid-19 and Nats/States

[windu34]

or other options like postponing Nats to June

Reposting again for visibility:
While I completely agree that we need to keep health and safety over anything. We need to look at all the hard work and time students, coaches, mentors and volunteers has spent this year.

Think about 11'th graders who have been working hard all these years and has solely focussed on Scioly, they are at a HUGE disadvantage when it comes to their college application in fall this year.
Also, we need to consider about the students who are competing for the last time this year, their chance of winning a national medal has been taken away from them, FOR EVER.

All I am proposing is to think positive and be open to other options - for ex: wait until early April to make the decision of cancelling OR postponing regional, state tournaments to later April OR even postpone Nats to June, which gives time. Hopefully, with all the preventive actions everyone is taking, COVID-19 would not be a concern in May. If it continues to be, then we go to the final step of cancelling the tournament

While I completely agree that it is a shame students wont be able to compete, it really isnt feasible to "postpone" a tournament. Rooms, auditoriums, and awards venues require reservation months or even a year in advance. Volunteers and Supervisors need to know dates months in advance to ensure they are available. Hosting a tournament on a university campus requires a lot of foresight and having an "unknown" date simply isnt feasible.

Imo, there really isnt an alternative to canceling the tournament.

[mooonstone]

Hey guys,

I really will need as much help as I can -- today it was announced that all remaining North Carolina tournaments are cancelled, including regionals. Me and some of my teammates have proposed a petition to have my regional science olympiad competition postponed to a later date (once conditions improve) instead of permanently cancelled. Many, if not all of the teams in this tournament have yet to compete in any competition to put their knowledge and hard work to use.

While I know some people may think that it is not possible to postpone tournaments due to the large amount of planning required, this is a much smaller regional tournament - in fact, this tournament was actually postponed previously due to snow (it was moved from February 22 to April 4, but is now cancelled), so it is possible at the regional level.

If you guys could take the time to check it out, sign it, and maybe even share it, that would mean so much. I know how amazing the Science Olympiad community is and I know you guys can help me out with this! I can't thank you all enough!

Here's the petition:
http://change.org/ScienceOlympiad

[IHateClouds]

Hey guys,

I really will need as much help as I can -- today it was announced that all remaining North Carolina tournaments are cancelled, including regionals. Me and some of my teammates have proposed a petition to have my regional science olympiad competition postponed to a later date (once conditions improve) instead of permanently cancelled. Many, if not all of the teams in this tournament have yet to compete in any competition to put their knowledge and hard work to use.

While I know some people may think that it is not possible to postpone tournaments due to the large amount of planning required, this is a much smaller regional tournament - in fact, this tournament was actually postponed previously due to snow (it was moved from February 22 to April 4, but is now cancelled), so it is possible at the regional level.

If you guys could take the time to check it out, sign it, and maybe even share it, that would mean so much. I know how amazing the Science Olympiad community is and I know you guys can help me out with this! I can't thank you all enough!

Here's the petition:
http://change.org/ScienceOlympiad

While we all understand your pain, me personally missing my second state tournament and probably nationals, I don't think this is something you should pursue. All these hosts have good reasons for canceling, mainly:
1) We don't know how bad the virus will be later in the year, but chances are that based on the way it's being handled, it will persist for a while.
2) These tournaments are difficult to arrange with hosts. I know this from experience as part of a tournament board of directors. Rescheduling for a later date causes more headaches to the directors, and it's not even confirmed that the situation will be better by then.
3) We all have to do our part to prevent the spread of this virus, and an abundance of precautions is necessary to make sure that the situation doesn't worsen as it is declining. As I have already said to many people, even though we are extremely likely to survive the virus, would you want to take any responsibility in passing it to your parents or coaches?
I am disappointed that I won't be able to compete for another 9 months, but I'd prefer to take all these measures to make sure that it will all be okay in 9 months. We all have to make sacrifices in order to stop this threat, and I think everyone's time will be better used preparing for next year rather than dwelling on regionals that won't have any further effect on anything else.

[120241939151225]

Hey guys,

I really will need as much help as I can -- today it was announced that all remaining North Carolina tournaments are cancelled, including regionals. Me and some of my teammates have proposed a petition to have my regional science olympiad competition postponed to a later date (once conditions improve) instead of permanently cancelled. Many, if not all of the teams in this tournament have yet to compete in any competition to put their knowledge and hard work to use.

While I know some people may think that it is not possible to postpone tournaments due to the large amount of planning required, this is a much smaller regional tournament - in fact, this tournament was actually postponed previously due to snow (it was moved from February 22 to April 4, but is now cancelled), so it is possible at the regional level.

If you guys could take the time to check it out, sign it, and maybe even share it, that would mean so much. I know how amazing the Science Olympiad community is and I know you guys can help me out with this! I can't thank you all enough!

Here's the petition:
http://change.org/ScienceOlympiad

I support you and signed the petition

[120241939151225]

or other options like postponing Nats to June

Reposting again for visibility:
While I completely agree that we need to keep health and safety over anything. We need to look at all the hard work and time students, coaches, mentors and volunteers has spent this year.

Think about 11'th graders who have been working hard all these years and has solely focussed on Scioly, they are at a HUGE disadvantage when it comes to their college application in fall this year.
Also, we need to consider about the students who are competing for the last time this year, their chance of winning a national medal has been taken away from them, FOR EVER.

All I am proposing is to think positive and be open to other options - for ex: wait until early April to make the decision of cancelling OR postponing regional, state tournaments to later April OR even postpone Nats to June, which gives time. Hopefully, with all the preventive actions everyone is taking, COVID-19 would not be a concern in May. If it continues to be, then we go to the final step of cancelling the tournament

While I completely agree that it is a shame students wont be able to compete, it really isnt feasible to "postpone" a tournament. Rooms, auditoriums, and awards venues require reservation months or even a year in advance. Volunteers and Supervisors need to know dates months in advance to ensure they are available. Hosting a tournament on a university campus requires a lot of foresight and having an "unknown" date simply isnt feasible.

Imo, there really isnt an alternative to canceling the tournament.

I completely agree with you on having a unknown date being a logistics nightmare. But, collectively we can find a solution. Scioly has tons of volunteers and supporters who are smart, passionate and care immensely for students who are interested in science. We can wait until early April to make the final call or be on safe side and move the competition to August, which is 5 months away. This gives us a lot of time to plan for the logistics. Olympics are in June and in Japan, they haven't cancelled yet. What I am trying to get at is "Together we can work together and make it happen", we owe that to the students who have worked so hard all this year !

[IdahoSciGuy]

Late at night here out west, but an update from our friends in Nevada: State has been cancelled. Source:https://www.nvscioly.com/

[Galahad]

Very very sad week... WA just cancelled theirs late into the night.

[EastStroudsburg13]

The thing with regionals tournaments is that if a high school is willing to host it, you can run that tournament in a fairly straightforward manner. I would not expect such a tournament to be scheduled now, but say around the end of April we are seeing a clear decline in the effects of the pandemic, it may be worthwhile to try to schedule a regional tournament at a high school in June sometime. Something to keep in mind as this whole thing develops.

[snowyowl]

The thing with regionals tournaments is that if a high school is willing to host it, you can run that tournament in a fairly straightforward manner. I would not expect such a tournament to be scheduled now, but say around the end of April we are seeing a clear decline in the effects of the pandemic, it may be worthwhile to try to schedule a regional tournament at a high school in June sometime. Something to keep in mind as this whole thing develops.

I do think June is a difficult month because of state examinations as well as other standardized testing. It would be extremely difficult to schedule, and I feel that one of the only options is to hope that COVID-19 dies down quickly and to aim for sometime in May.

[MoMoney$$$;)0)]

The thing with regionals tournaments is that if a high school is willing to host it, you can run that tournament in a fairly straightforward manner. I would not expect such a tournament to be scheduled now, but say around the end of April we are seeing a clear decline in the effects of the pandemic, it may be worthwhile to try to schedule a regional tournament at a high school in June sometime. Something to keep in mind as this whole thing develops.

I do think June is a difficult month because of state examinations as well as other standardized testing. It would be extremely difficult to schedule, and I feel that one of the only options is to hope that COVID-19 dies down quickly and to aim for sometime in May.

State exams are in June these days? You learn something every day I guess.