To the Bible Quizzing Family,

We enjoyed another great day of quizzing in February, and we’re now down to one quiz meet left.  I would like to encourage you to finish strong and give this last quiz meet your best shot!  I believe that God honors and rewards the time and effort put into studying His Word to know him better.  It’s one of those things that perhaps you may not fully appreciate until some time in the future as your life unfolds, but it is a very worthwhile investment on your part.

Worship and Devotions:  A special thanks to Abby Leonard for leading us in worship and to Sebastian Groothuis for leading us into the Word and sharing what some of the Scripture we’ve been studying has meant to him.

Chicago Tournament: The tournament is March 26-28 at First Baptist Church in Geneva, Illinois, where it has been held for the last few years.  I know there are some who are interested in going, and we will have to finalize all arrangements the day of our March quiz.  If you are thinking of going, please contact others who might be interested and try to work out as much of this as you can ahead of time.  The registration cost is $80 per team, so please be prepared to pay your share of that at the quiz meet.  Other costs will include transportation, food, and 2 nights in the hotel.  I’ll have hotel information available for you when we meet.

Verse-A-Thon: I’d like to encourage quizzers to participate in this, to help raise funds for the quizzing program, and especially towards your Chicago Tournament expenses.  You can turn in the money you raise at any time, but in order to have it go towards your expenses for the Chicago Tournament, you need to turn it in by the time we leave for the tournament.  We will have sign-up sheets available at the March quiz meet.

Coaches Meeting: I’d like to try to have a Coaches Meeting at some point during our March quiz.  I’d like any comments you may have about how the program as gone this year, as well as any suggestions for things we could or should do to improve the program next year.  Coaches, quizmasters, and scorekeepers, please be thinking about this ahead of time and plan to attend that meeting so we can hear from all of you.

Finances: We haven’t had many donations this year, but we’ve also been doing fairly well because of large donations the previous year, so we’ve been in pretty good shape.  But the end of the year is coming, and we’ll need to purchase trophies and OMC awards,  pay for our insurance, and for advertizing/publicity next year.  If you are willing to help us with a donation at our next quiz, it would be greatly appreciated.  You can send donations to the Youth For Christ office with “Bible Quizzing” designated on the memo line if you’d like a receipt; otherwise you can give them directly to me (checks made out to Youth For Christ Bible Quizzing).  Thank you very much for however you are able to help out.

JumpStart: Stan Carlson announced our JumpStart event, designed to introduce new quizzers and families to quizzing.  This will be occurring during our March quiz.  Please use this opportunity to invite potential quizzers and families to see what quizzing is like.  This event requires no preparation on their part, and will help them in getting a feel for the seats and understanding how to be prepared to answer questions.  JumpStart will start at 2:00pm, but visitors are welcome either to come early to be part of our opening and watch the first round of quizzing, or to drop in later at some point during JumpStart.  All are welcome to stick around for our end of the day activities, including the Pizza Party.  Promotional materials for JumpStart are available on our website at rochesterbiblequizzing.org/Promotion.

Novice League: We mentioned that we are intending to start a Novice League next year to help ease new quizzers into the program.  We haven’t worked out all of the details yet, but some of the League’s characteristics would include the following: Open to all ages, not a lot of material, no cumulative material, and each month is a stand-alone event.  Please use this opportunity to include new quizzers into the program.

March Quiz:  Our last quiz meet of the season is coming up on March 13, at Emmanuel Baptist Church at 1:00 pm.  Points earned that day will be multiplied by 200% when accumulated toward the yearly total.  The A/B League will quiz over II Corinthians 8:16 - 13:14, and the Little League over II Corinthians 5:1 - 7:1.

We will close out the year with a Pizza Party at the church, for all who would like to attend.  Besides the pizza, it'll be a fun way to celebrate the completion of the quizzing year together.  The cost will be $5 per person.  When we start the day, we'll need a count of everyone planning to stay, so please make sure that everyone you represent is accounted for.  There will be a sign-up sheet on the information table.

Even if you can’t get people to participate in JumpStart, I’d like to think of the March quiz as a kind of “open house” to encourage potential new quizzers and families to see what quizzing is like.  Please encourage people you know to feel free to drop in throughout the afternoon, and perhaps especially for the closing quiz and for pizza.  And if you know of visitors who would be staying for pizza, please include them in your count and let them know that pizza is on us that evening.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns, suggestions, etc, about the quizzing program.  Thanks very much for your support!

Karl Kirkman
Bible Quizzing Director