Hello, fellow Scioly coaches and mentors:
It is exciting to kick off a new season for the Science Olympiad in Washington State. We have some big and small changes that we would like to update you with. You will hear more from me early September, but we want to keep you informed as you may already have started preparing for the new semester.
First, you may have noticed some differences in the email format. I took over as (interim) State Director when Sue Murphy retired this year. The board is working hard on both strategic plans and logistics, including migration of our state website, email system etc. If you have any questions or suggestions for WSO, please feel free to reply to me (my personal email is above). We will try our best to serve this community.
A few of you have asked about WA unified schedule and events. While we typically release it around early October, it should mimic national events. We will get it out sooner this year, hopefully by mid September, shortly after national event rule publication (Sept 3rd at soinc.org). The board is still working on a few details about WA unique events, which are described briefly in the registration information sheet. The most recent update on tournament schedule and locations are published now on https://scilympiad.com/wa. We will update both the state web site and Scilympiad as we have more information.
We will open the registration on Scilympiad between 09/03/2024 and 1/1/2025, with 01/15/2025 as final deadline for registration (full payment). Team coaches (and coaches only) can register themselves now but you can only add new teams on Sept 3rd. More details about registration are in the information sheet. A few changes around registration this year:
First, we increased the team fee by $25 and limited the new school discount to one team per school only. The latter has been the policy in previous years but I understand it was applied more generously to incentivize more participation. We are exploring other ways to recruit newer, especially smaller teams (see the information sheet). But the registration fee increase is necessary to cover the increasing cost of tournament hosting.
Secondly, we would need more volunteers from schools to help with regional tournaments. We have had wonderful regional hosts last year, but we are lacking in new volunteers. I actually got a lot of feedback at the State tournament about schools willing to volunteer, so we will organize it better this year so each school would be responsible for some event duties at regionals. Basically, volunteering is a prerequisite for team registration (see the information sheet). Expect more information in my Sept update.
Similarly, I would expect and encourage more invitational in WA state, especially at Div-B level. For example, it would be wonderful if our returning champions or recent champions can help the community grow by hosting Invitationals at their schools. If any schools are interested, please let me know and we can work together with the WSO board to make it happen. Note that all Science Olympiad competitions are covered by National level insurances if the tournaments are approved by state and National office. Currently we have two Invitationals for Div C confirmed by Camas HS (Dec’24) and RAHS (Jan’25), and one Div-B invitational by Camas HS (Dec’24). Link to registration information sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MMr6fetGWe41UZdkMgFcFb6yDkaj10CE1JPo-f-O5zE