Here is the JACC State Convention on-the-spot event schedule, instructions and Google Forms for submissions, as of this moment. This information is also embedded under the directions below.

This year's competitions will be a bit different from other years, so please read this email for some important details!

Right now, we have 14 on-the-spot events and one bring-in event tentatively scheduled for San Francisco and our 2023 state convention. You'll note on the schedule that four events -- critical review, sports photo, news story and sports writing -- do not yet have instructions. We are working hard behind the scenes to finalize those four events as soon as possible, and we will have those fact sheets and schedules to you as soon as we can.

Remember that the design/layout competition is a bring-in event. Students can work on this throughout the week, as details and resources have already been shared and are still available on the instructions for that contest; the submission deadline for that contest is 6 p.m. Thursday.

Several on-the-spot events are what we've been offhandedly referring to as "walking distance" events. These events are not tied to any specific piece of the convention, and they don't have to be completed at the convention space itself. These include video, audio and team feature. Similarly, creative portrait and news photo also won't be tied to any specific event. Further details are available on each contest's Google Doc instructions, available in the link above.

Except for copy editing, all events will have their submissions done by Google Doc (for writing contests) or Google Drive (for other contests), and all contest entries will be submitted on a Google Form.

On the form for all contests, we ask for a five-digit, self-created alphanumeric code. This is the code students should use at the top of their Doc (writing contests), in photo metadata (photo contests) or as the name of their file (other contests) as the way to identify the student and anonymize them for the judges.

Also, in a slight change from previous contests, there will be no official contest lab rooms or spaces. Students may write/edit/compose wherever they choose and submit remotely. Contest coordinator Patrick Schmiedt will be spending most of his time in Pacific B, so if students have any trouble submitting, or if they just want a specific space to come work, they are welcome there. We set up the contests for remote submission as well as remote judging if necessary; however, all students who compete must be registered for the conference. We ask you to ask your students to respect the spirit of competition in which these events were developed and to make sure the work they submit is their own -- without help from each other or from you as their adviser. (This plan, by the way, is contingent on working wi-fi. We have backup plans in place in case the wi-fi goes awry.)

That said... video story, audio story and social media are team events, where up to 10 students per school can work together to submit one project. Team feature is a two-person event, while all other events are set up to be one-entry-per-competitor events. Remember, no more than two students from one school can compete in any individual event (except for team events), and no more than one entry per student can be submitted for any event. If more than two entries come from a single school, all entries from that school will be thrown out for that event, so be sure to coordinate with your students to make sure you don't exceed the number of entries. Since we won't have the usual on-the-spot sign-up binders, policing this rule will be the responsibility of you and your contingent.

All that said... as contest coordinators, we mostly want to give students the chance to compete. We will always work with you and your students if weird stuff happens, if confusion arises or if frustration sets in. We'll always err on the side of giving students opportunities, but we also want competitions to be an accurate measure of students' abilities.

Please feel free to share any or all of this information with your students! Let them prepare as much as they can for the events by knowing as much as they can about what's coming. The instructions for the four events that we're still finalizing will be included soon.