New York 2013

[YUSO]

Who cares about the distance (and this is coming from a Rochester resident)....I'm just crying about it not being at West Point . All my favorite scioly memories come from being there as a freshman, and I had been really hoping to go back there as a senior...oh well.

On a side note, @ Shad, I noticed that you wrote something about being in Rochester to go to B Div states...are you going to school around here?

Shad160's sidebar tells us he is attending U of R, c/o 2017. (Enjoy the underground tunnels! )

[YUSO]

Interesting discussion.

Let's see what this provokes....

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=20 ... 7,9.876709
(Probably a better way to embed that, but I couldn't find it.)

51 Div. C schools at 2013 NYS SO States, 28 within 130 mi radius of Kellenberg.

And yes, West Point and Monroe-Woodbury HS would be better centralized given this distribution of schools. But West Point is not ready, and.......

Listen to YUSO, he is closer to the truth then you guys know.

Great link. And thanks for the vote of confirmation.

[Shad160]

On a side note, @ Shad, I noticed that you wrote something about being in Rochester to go to B Div states...are you going to school around here?

Shad160's sidebar tells us he is attending U of R, c/o 2017. (Enjoy the underground tunnels! )

Yep yep I'll be at the U of R for (at least) the next four years. Those tunnels will indeed become my friend

[twototwenty]

Cool...it's a great school; I love its campus and its programs...I'd probably be applying there, if it weren't for the fact that I need to get out of Rochester .

[mathemaniac]

Hey everyone! I'm an incoming freshman at Columbia University. I did Science Olympiad for a couple of years in Illinois, and I'm pigeon-bent on staying involved with my favorite activity, so I'll be volunteering around at Regionals/hopefully States next year!

I noticed there was a lot of interest for "giving back" to Science Olympiad within the Class of 2017 at Columbia (which contains quite a few SciOly veterans), so we got together as a group, and currently, we're toying with the idea of potentially holding an invitational at Columbia University. This would be beneficial to a lot of New York teams because the drive to Morningside Heights isn't too far. In addition, our location is feasible for teams in New Jersey, Connecticut, and eastern Pennsylvania looking for a big invitational to take part in.

To make it more appealing to coaches, we're looking to make this a "no strings attached" deal. To elaborate - most invitational tournaments require coaches to serve as Event Supervisors, and some even require them to write tests. We realize that coaches may be more willing to go to a tournament if it is less stressful for them (and handling a team is enough stress). Our goal is to eliminate coach involvement with events completely. Tests will be written by Columbia students, events will be supervised by Columbia students, etc. At the end of the day, we want coaches to be able to coach their own team, not supervise everyone else's.

However, we came up with a little roadblock when planning a date. The way I see it, we have three options:

A. Early-mid December (this is normal in many states, but apparently not in New York, which may take it off the table)
B. January 25th (we don't want to conflict with invitationals that have already been established, but this date is very close to Regionals)
C. Late February/Early March (this may alienate teams who aren't going to state and subsequently close up their team for the year)

Which of these options would people prefer? If anyone has any comments/advice/suggestions/literally anything pertaining to Columbia's involvement in Science Olympiad, your opinion would be greatly valued. Thanks!

[Jdogg]

Hey everyone! I'm an incoming freshman at Columbia University. I did Science Olympiad for a couple of years in Illinois, and I'm pigeon-bent on staying involved with my favorite activity, so I'll be volunteering around at Regionals/hopefully States next year!

I noticed there was a lot of interest for "giving back" to Science Olympiad within the Class of 2017 at Columbia (which contains quite a few SciOly veterans), so we got together as a group, and currently, we're toying with the idea of potentially holding an invitational at Columbia University. This would be beneficial to a lot of New York teams because the drive to Morningside Heights isn't too far. In addition, our location is feasible for teams in New Jersey, Connecticut, and eastern Pennsylvania looking for a big invitational to take part in.

To make it more appealing to coaches, we're looking to make this a "no strings attached" deal. To elaborate - most invitational tournaments require coaches to serve as Event Supervisors, and some even require them to write tests. We realize that coaches may be more willing to go to a tournament if it is less stressful for them (and handling a team is enough stress). Our goal is to eliminate coach involvement with events completely. Tests will be written by Columbia students, events will be supervised by Columbia students, etc. At the end of the day, we want coaches to be able to coach their own team, not supervise everyone else's.

However, we came up with a little roadblock when planning a date. The way I see it, we have three options:

A. Early-mid December (this is normal in many states, but apparently not in New York, which may take it off the table)
B. January 25th (we don't want to conflict with invitationals that have already been established, but this date is very close to Regionals)
C. Late February/Early March (this may alienate teams who aren't going to state and subsequently close up their team for the year)

Which of these options would people prefer? If anyone has any comments/advice/suggestions/literally anything pertaining to Columbia's involvement in Science Olympiad, your opinion would be greatly valued. Thanks!

Hey, I just have an opinion (since I'm also a alumni now, but since I was on a Eastern PA team my incite might help). I know that around January your going to lose most if not all of SE PA and some of NJ due to all the competitions that are already established and have had several years to progress. This includes Athens invite which is most likely going to be the 25th (going off of past years), which draws a large number of schools because of the amazing coordination of the event by the athens coaches and team. You also have stoga which is early January, tiger which is early February, and Harriton's festivus which is probably going to be some time February. Then you have regionals in new york, early Feburary and regionals in PA March. Which makes A seem like a logical choice. I know NE hasn't had a competition that earlier, but other states do it so why not! I know most teams may still be putting their team together and building the tech events, plus you'll have to make sure that it doesn't conflict with Christmas vacation plans for teachers and students. I think this would be a great idea, I know Yale is also going to be hosting a invitational as well so good luck!

[mathemaniac]

You make some pretty good points, thanks for your help! However, I do have a question about Athens: I thought it was held on the 19th (3rd saturday of the month) last year, so why do you think it will move to the 25th this year? I feel like the 18th would make more sense...and if that's the case, we get all of that wonderful Eastern PA and NJ competition back (or at least some of it!) My main concerns for the early December date are that A. Many schools in New York aren't really used to such a thing, B. Many schools in New York have finals around that time, and C. Columbia has finals around that time, which could hurt our volunteer base.


Edit: To be clear, we're definitely leaning towards the January 25th date.

[silverheart7]

Will this be Division B or C? Bayard Rustin (B) was on the 25-26th last year.

[mathemaniac]

For now, we're going to keep it Division C - hopefully in the future, we have the resources to accommodate for both divisions!

[Jdogg]

You make some pretty good points, thanks for your help! However, I do have a question about Athens: I thought it was held on the 19th (3rd saturday of the month) last year, so why do you think it will move to the 25th this year? I feel like the 18th would make more sense...and if that's the case, we get all of that wonderful Eastern PA and NJ competition back (or at least some of it!) My main concerns for the early December date are that A. Many schools in New York aren't really used to such a thing, B. Many schools in New York have finals around that time, and C. Columbia has finals around that time, which could hurt our volunteer base.


Edit: To be clear, we're definitely leaning towards the January 25th date.

yeah your right, I must be getting my dates confused XD. Sounds good to me.