You are absolutely right. We actually had quite a few terrible tests. We replaced some and improved others. Some though, I did not see until the morning of the competition. When you host early invitationals to help your competitors, who may or may not have serious adult help, that happens. We ask people to prepare tests so 1- we have lesser load so we can host multiple invitationals, 2- the coaches can learn what the event should look like. Some like Galaxy Middle people or your head coach, take that seriously, others that should not be named don't. Not everyone is as lucky as your team to have a such a dedicated coach. They let everyone down in the events they are trusted to prepare. However, I'd like to think both middle school invitationals worked their purpose despite those horrible tests. And if your team gets in top two at state this year, it will be partly thanks to those invitationals.Killboe wrote: You should also do a test review process for your own invitational because some tests were really bad, such as solar.
As for next year, we WILL have a review process. Now that most people see how valuable these invitationals are, I won't need to bend over backwards to bring people in. Anyone is welcome as long as they carry their weight. Each TEAM will be required to supervise an event, and they won't be able to compete if they don't. All written tests will be due two weeks prior so we have enough time to fix them if they lack acceptable quality. And as last resort, we will have a backup test for each event prepared by one of our people and the team that failed to prepare an acceptable test after volunteering will either pay a somewhat hefty fine or won't be able to compete. I would rather have a well-supervised invitational with 10 teams than a shaky one with 25.
