Science Olympiad at MIT Invitational 2019

[EastStroudsburg13]

In that case I definitely recommend delegation. In general it is a good idea to not leave a responsibility like creating an entirely new site (not just updating an old site) to one single person, especially if that person is busy.

Delegation necessitates others willing to do the job. Hopefully MIT has some, but as large as they are, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

Eh... if there aren't people to delegate to, I wouldn't recommend undertaking a large project like making a new site. In high school you can conceivably do major things like this yourself; the independence you have in college puts a damper on that.

[bearasauras]

In that case I definitely recommend delegation. In general it is a good idea to not leave a responsibility like creating an entirely new site (not just updating an old site) to one single person, especially if that person is busy.

Delegation necessitates others willing to do the job. Hopefully MIT has some, but as large as they are, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

Caltech's a much smaller place but there's no shortage of people willing to support every aspect of Science Olympiad. But that's probably just another reason why Caltech >> MIT.

[pikachu4919]

In that case I definitely recommend delegation. In general it is a good idea to not leave a responsibility like creating an entirely new site (not just updating an old site) to one single person, especially if that person is busy.

Delegation necessitates others willing to do the job. Hopefully MIT has some, but as large as they are, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

Caltech's a much smaller place but there's no shortage of people willing to support every aspect of Science Olympiad. But that's probably just another reason why Caltech >> MIT.

Chill...they're allowed to run their organization however they want. Y'all can talk about all the issues ya want, but they can choose to do what they want to do about it, not us.

[EastStroudsburg13]

Delegation necessitates others willing to do the job. Hopefully MIT has some, but as large as they are, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

Caltech's a much smaller place but there's no shortage of people willing to support every aspect of Science Olympiad. But that's probably just another reason why Caltech >> MIT.

Chill...they're allowed to run their organization however they want. Y'all can talk about all the issues ya want, but they can choose to do what they want to do about it, not us.

Pika... of course they are allowed to run their organization how they want. But establishing yourself as maybe the nation's top tournament outside of nationals invites this sort of scrutiny. You cannot fault the tournament organizers for taking time to update their website, but you also cannot fault prospective teams and participants from wanting to have up-to-date information available.

[Unome]

Caltech's a much smaller place but there's no shortage of people willing to support every aspect of Science Olympiad. But that's probably just another reason why Caltech >> MIT.

I'm going to go deep into the realm of speculation and assert that the reason Caltech has lots of people relative to their school size is because they've been around longer.

The fact that we are talking about such relatively minor issues is indicative of how good the tournament as a whole is.

[knottingpurple]

Caltech's a much smaller place but there's no shortage of people willing to support every aspect of Science Olympiad. But that's probably just another reason why Caltech >> MIT.

Chill...they're allowed to run their organization however they want. Y'all can talk about all the issues ya want, but they can choose to do what they want to do about it, not us.

Pika... of course they are allowed to run their organization how they want. But establishing yourself as maybe the nation's top tournament outside of nationals invites this sort of scrutiny. You cannot fault the tournament organizers for taking time to update their website, but you also cannot fault prospective teams and participants from wanting to have up-to-date information available.

I think the thing is that posting a list of team names on the old website, and creating a new website, are not mutually exclusive activities - it's more helpful to competitors in the moment to have a little bit of information now, even if the entire website isn't revamped, than it is to know there will be a whole new website coming in a month or whenever. I can see why a lot of the base of the site hasn't been updated, that's reasonable, but a team list could feasibly be added to the front announcement page while we're waiting for the fully updated website.

But I have absolutely nothing to do with this tournament so I'm not particularly bothered either way.

[nicholasmaurer]

The fact that we are talking about such relatively minor issues is indicative of how good the tournament as a whole is.

This is true. The logistics involved in hosting a tournament of this size are extensive, particularly when you have to negotiate with a university for space. Despite this challenge, MIT has consistently done a superb job.

I do think that posting a list of participating teams (even if tentative) is very beneficial. It helps participants make informed choices, and in my experience often incentivizes registered teams to stay registered, as they can see the tangible competition they will face. But Pika is also right - this is their tournament, they can do as they see fit. I doubt their priority is satisfying our curiosity.

[syo_astro]

Caltech's a much smaller place but there's no shortage of people willing to support every aspect of Science Olympiad. But that's probably just another reason why Caltech >> MIT.

Chill...they're allowed to run their organization however they want. Y'all can talk about all the issues ya want, but they can choose to do what they want to do about it, not us.

Pretty sure it was a joke...and if it was more about everyone else (east, Unome, etc) they are pointing out constructive criticism. They aren't saying "MIT is the worst", they are saying "MIT isn't perfect, this is one way to improve". I agree there might bigger issues (with any tournament, including MIT), but I don't see this as purely complaining to complain...Sorry I'm also butting in, I don't mean to blow this out of proportion, in fact I'm trying to state the opposite / agree with you pika that this should be chill...but saying the issues are valid.

[Boss]

Delegation necessitates others willing to do the job. Hopefully MIT has some, but as large as they are, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

Caltech's a much smaller place but there's no shortage of people willing to support every aspect of Science Olympiad. But that's probably just another reason why Caltech >> MIT.

Chill...they're allowed to run their organization however they want. Y'all can talk about all the issues ya want, but they can choose to do what they want to do about it, not us.

This is a bit of an overreaction... As others have stated, constructive criticism should be welcomed. While I do not know the specifics as to how large the organizing team at MIT scioly is, it seems like they could really use more hands to help - and understandably so, they have one of the largest and most complex tournaments in the nation. If other organizations like Princeton and Harvard have organizing teams between 15-20, I would think a tournament like MIT should have numbers like that as a minimum, and perhaps aim to be in a range between 20-30. Sure it gets hard to communicate effectively and hold meetings, but if you can find a way to effectively delegate and structure it like a large company would, it should be achievable.
University organizing teams are all composed of busy college students, and time is not readily available to most. Expanding the organizing team is a necessity to maintain sanity (and GPAs) of the organizers.

[nicholasmaurer]

I think this conversation has become largely speculative. None of us are in a position to know how large their organizing team is nor what other tasks might be taking precedence over their website. They've run a successful tournament in the past, and therefore generally deserve the benefit of the doubt.

It would be nice if they could upload a team list publicly - on their website, on Scioly, or another place of their choosing. Not doing so, while inconvenient to attending teams and outside observers, is hardly a major flaw. I think we've probably covered the known facts thoroughly at this point....