How to be the treasurer for a table quiz

What does a treasurer do?

If you are the treasurer for an organisation that is running a table quiz - or have been asked to organise the finances for a one-off quiz - then your role is to look after the money-management issues, including:

• Budgeting
• Controlling and paying bills / expenses
• Controlling things that might go wrong and lead to unexpected expenses
• Managing the cash / income
• Keeping financial records

Skills

Knowledge, skills and attributes needed to be a good treasurer include:

• Numeracy
• Knowledge about managing finances - budgeting, managing cash, producing reports
• Knowledge of the risks of running quizzes, and the types of insurance available
• Knowledge of any laws that apply to running table-quizzes and other fundraising events in your country (eg limits on one-off raffles, prize amounts, sales tax)
• Well-organized
• Attention to detail

Duties

The specific duties of the treasurer need to be agreed with the other quiz-organizers.   But they may include:

Helping to define the financial goals or objectives of the table quiz, ie is it about

• Raising money (for your own organisation or for someone else), or
• Break-even (ie the costs = the spending), or
• Holding a successful event within a certain budget.

Preparing a budget - and keep it updated as the plans for the event change.

Thinking about the risks that you will have, get quotes and buy any insurance that the organisation needs to run the event. For example, in some countries, it is essential to have public liability insurance for any event you hold - and even if this is in place for your regular operations, you may need to extend it to cover one-off events like a quiz-night.

Getting sponsorship, or supporting other people who may be doing this.

Organising how the cash from the quiz (ticket sales, sponsorship, etc) will be managed.

Organizing a "float" of cash that is used to give people change if there are ticket sales at the door.

Receiving any bills associated with the event (eg for room / venue hire, publicity, photocopying answer sheets) - and paying them as authorized.

Organizing cash-flow, ie a way of paying any bills which need to be settled before there is any income from the quiz.

Keeping records of all money that comes in or is spent.

Preparing a report showing where the money came from, and what it was spent on, and present it to the organizer etc as required.

Submitting the quiz accounts to the auditors (if your quiz is being audited), and do what they say if changes are recommended for future quizzes.

Filing any insurance claims if there is a problem at the event.

Hints and tips for being the treasuer

For a very large event, you may need a line of credit from a bank or similar: this will generally require you to do a business plan and cashflow projection.

Looking after the income and bills will be a lot easier if there is an existing bank account that can be used. But unless someone is running the quiz as their own private initiative, this should not be an individual person's account. If necessary, partner with a club, non-profit organisation - or even a business - that can provide administrative and "back office" support for the quiz. Or if the quiz is going to be a regular event, set up an organisation that looks after the management and open a bank account in the name of this organisation. (Usually the bank will want to know the names of the chairman, secretary and treasurer, as well of details of the legal status, eg constitution or incorporation statement.)

If the quiz is simply one event that your existing club runs, then it may be as simple as deciding whether you want to set up a new account code just for the table-quiz, or if it is just going to be managed as part of your on-going activities. Remember that if you don't have a specific account-code, then it may be harder to track exactly how well the quiz is doing.

Think about security on the night: if most of your ticket sales are at the door, then you may have a very large amount of cash that needs to be looked after until it can be banked.

If there are advance ticket sales, make sure you have a way of tracking who is selling the tickets, and checking that the cash they hand over matches the number of tickets sold.

Make sure that you are involved in discussions about prizes: if the quiz-aim is to break even, then it is tempting to hand over the takings minus expenses in prize money. But if you do this, then you need to make sure that there are no unexpected expenses, especially ones that you don't know about until later.

How to be the marking co-ordinator at a table quiz

If a table quiz has more than about 10 teams taking part, then to avoid delays you probably need more than one person marking the answer sheets.

And if there are two or more markers, then it is very helpful to have a person who is supporting the markers and co-ordinating the marking process. The main things this person is responsible for are:

• Making the process run smoothly
• Ensuring consistency between the markers, ie that all teams are treated fairly.

Skills

Attributes and skills of a good marking co-ordinator:

• Well-organized and methodical
• Teamwork - able to work co-operatively with a team of people
• Excellent attention to detail
• Able to cope with pressure
• Good general knowledge
• Good judgement about whether to challenge an official answer if "everyone" is getting something wrong.

Duties

The exact details will depend on how your quiz is organized, but probably the marking co-ordinator needs to:

• Make sure that the markers get the the master-answer-sheet for each round
• Receive completed answer sheets, and assign them to the markers
• Advise markers what to do if they aren't sure whether an sheet matches the official answer. This includes taking common questions to the quiz-master for clarification.
• Spot-check the marking of each round
• Check that the correct score is put onto each answer sheet
• Write the scores onto the scoreboard
• Store the marked answer sheets in an organised way, so they can be found if a team raises questions about their score
• Provide interim results to the quiz-master (after every few rounds).

Hints and tips for organizing the markers at a table-quiz

Arrive early, and meet the team - both the oganizers and the people who have agreed to be markers.

Understand exactly what the quiz-master and quiz-organisers want you to do.

Talk to the markers about how they would like to work - remember that your job is to make their job easier.

Try to organise the space where the markers are working so that they have some privacy. Ideally you want to protect them from interruptions and from teams who want to argue about how questions are being marked.

Make sure you understand the scoreboard that will be used:

• If it's a whiteboard, do you have pens and an eraser.
• If it's a computer and data projector, then make sure there is a file set up to record the scores and that you know how to use it and how to get progress reports.

Work out how you are going to file the marked question papers - either by round, or by team, and within that how you are going to sort them (by team number, team name) - keeping them in order makes it easier to find a paper later on if there is a dispute.

If you can, do a trial-run of practise questions, to see how the process will work.

How to be a runner at a table quiz

If you are the runner at a table quiz, then your main job is to collect up the answer sheets at the end of every round of questions, and deliver them to the markers or marking co-ordinator.

Depending on how your quiz is organized, you may also be asked to enforce the quiz rules (eg look for smartphones being used), help with registrations, help with setting up or clearing away the room, marking question-papers etc, or to take on other roles eg first-aid, fire warden etc.

Skills

Knowledge and skills needed to be a good runner include:

• Mobility - able to move around a crowded room or up and down stairs etc quickly.
• Taking instructions and carrying them out.
• Confidence and assertiveness: Being firm-but-polite with people who are breaking the rules.
• Attention to detail.
• Crowd-management.
• First aid.

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Duties

Before each round of questions, distribute the answer sheets for that round.

After each round of questions, collect up the completed answer sheets and deliver them to the marker(s). If a team wants extra time, clear this with the quiz-host or quiz-master - and when they call "time" insist on taking the answer sheet away.

During each round of questions, circulate through the room looking for people who are breaking the quiz rules. Report any issues you see to the quiz-master or host, or take any actions that they have asked you to take.

If people ask you for help, respond according to the policies and rules for your quiz and the venue. This may include asking the quiz-master to repeat a question, turning up the sound system, providing extra seating or refreshments, directions to the bathroom, etc.

Other duties as required: because the runner is mainly busy at the end of each round, you may be asked to do last-minute jobs which crop up (eg go and buy milk, find out where to turn on the heating, etc).

Hints and tips for table quiz "runners"

Arrive early, and get to know the venue: find out where the toilets, lighting, heating and emergency exits are. Understand the table layout, and where the markers are going to be working.

Talk to the other runner(s), markers and marking co-ordinator, and the quiz-master or host / co-ordinator: make sure you know who is doing what, and what you are expected to do if you see someone cheating or there is an emergency (eg a participant becomes ill or the fire-alarm goes off)

Check that participants can see the scoreboard (and other screens if a projector is going to be used), and hear the sound system.

Once the quiz starts, keep looking around so you see anyone who may be looking for assistance.

Check that each answer sheet has the team name written on it when you collect it.

How to be a marker at a table quiz

The marker at a table quiz is responsible for grading the question-sheets and assigning the scores.

If you are a marker, then your role is to check the answers which quiz participants submit against the official answers, and decide if the answer provided is correct.

Depending on how your quiz is organized, you may also need to add up the score, enter this information into a score-board or tally sheet, and possibly keep track and give reports about the overall scores and current ranking of the teams.

Skills and attitudes

Knowledge and skills needed to be a good quiz-question-marker include:

• Concentration:   able to work quickly on the task at hand, even if the room is noisy and distracted
• Trustworthy: able to keep the answers secure until after each round of questions is over.
• Consistency and attention to detail
• Deciphering:  Able to interpret "difficult" writing
• Fairness:  treats everyone consistently.
• General knowledge - ability to decide if a particular answer is close enough to the right one

Duties of a table-quiz marker:

At the beginning of the quiz, get the official set of answers from the quiz-host or the person who prepared the questions.

After each round in the quiz:

Receive the answer sheets (you may need to collect them yourself if there are no separate runners or marking co-ordinator)

Work through each answer-sheet.

• For each question, decide if the answer given is close-enough to the answer in the official answers. If it is, tick it. If not, then mark it with a cross.
• After you have checked all the questions, add up the number that are correct. Write it at the top of the form, and either pass it to the marking co-ordinator or enter it onto the scoreboard.
• If necessary, update the overall total score for each team.
• If you notice that one particular "incorrect" answer is being used often, or if there is an answer you are not sure about, then check it with the quiz-master or with the judge. If they decide that the answer should be allowed, then revise all the answer-forms marked so far and correct the marking.

File the marked answer sheets in a logical way: it's usually a good idea to keep al the sheets for each round together, sorted in order of table-number of team-name.

As needed:

When you are asked by the quiz-master, give an update about the current positioning: which teams are first, second etc. (this is a lot easier to do if you use a spreadsheet-based quiz-tracker with heat-maps turned on).

After the last questions are marked, double-check the scores, and tell the quiz-master which teams were the winners.

When the quiz is over and there is no more chance of disputes, get rid of the answer sheets in an appropriate way.

Hints and tips for table-quiz question markers

Arrive early, and make sure that you have a place to work which is slightly private, and has enough space for piles of answer sheets.

Bring your own coloured pen (eg a red biro) with you: the organizers may or may not remember to bring one for one, and on a messy answer sheet a color is easier to see,

Talk to the other marker(s), marking co-ordinator, runners, and quiz-master or co-ordinator: make sure you know who is doing what, and what to do if you are concerned that an answer may not be correct.

If the quiz-master is willing, perhaps read through the questions and answers beforehand, so you can clarify any issues that are not clear.

Ask the quiz-master what you should do if answers are ambiguous, incomplete or illegible (ie you cannot read them).

Check the scoreboard and tallying system being used; make sure you know how they work, and what you are responsible for doing.

During the first round, you will have nothing to do. Wait patiently - you will most probably be quite busy for the rest of the evening.

You may not get a refreshments break when the quiz participants do, because you will be marking their most-recent set of answers.   So make sure that you get refreshments and toilet breaks during times when you do not have any answer sheets to mark.

How to be the QuizMaster or Host at a table quiz

What is the QuizMaster's job

If you are the Quiz-master, QuizLeader, MC (master-of-ceremonies), host or announcer at a table quiz, then your role is to be the "face" of the quiz: to do all the announcements and ensure continuity on the day/night.

It's an important role:  What you say and do has a major effect on whether people have a good experience, and how successful the quiz is.

It's also demanding: you need to prepare, beforehand, and then you are "on duty" for the entire quiz period. Because of this, some quiz organizers organize their team so that two people to job-share the role - either by managing alternate rounds of questions, or having one person dedicated to asking questions and another doing all other announcements.

Skills

Knowledge and skills needed to be a good quiz-master include:

• Public speaking
• Using a microphone
• Group facilitation / crowd control
• Quick-thinking
• Teamwork / team-leadership
• Event planning and management

A good quiz-master is someone who the quiz-participants will listen to and respect. So there may be additional skills (eg relating to children or teens, ability to pronounce specialist words, existing relationship with the attendees) depending on the theme and participants of the particular quiz.

Duties

Depending on how your event is organized, you may be expected to:

• Talk to the organizers beforehand, to understand exactly how the event is planned, and what constraints there are.

• Welcome everyone, and giving any initial information (eg where to find emergency exiits, toilets etc)

• Make sure that the participants understand how the event is organized.

• Control the "flow" and timing of the quiz: decide when to start each round of questions, and when to call "time" and direct the runners / markers etc to collect up answer sheets.

• Introduce each round of questions, and give the instructions for it.

• If the questions are designed to be read out, then read each one and then allow a pause for teams to answer them. Or if they are projected or given out in some other way, control this.

• Read out the answers to questions in previous rounds

• Every so often, announce updates about the scores and current leaders.

• Decide on what will be accepted if people argue about the answer to a question.

• Introduce any other events that are happening between rounds (eg tea-break, entertainers)

• Announce the winner(s)

• Present prizes

• Thank sponsors, participants, and helpers

• Announce instructions for cleaning up etc

Some quiz-organizers may also want you to write the questions, and to keep the questions and answers secure in the days and weeks before the quiz.

Hints and tips for QuizMasters

If possible, attend any planning meetings that the quiz-organizers run before the quiz: because the you are the "face" of the quiz for so many people, you need to know what is exected to happen when, and who is involved.

If the organizers aren't experienced at running events, you may need to help them to plan how the quiz will work. For example, to allow teams enough time to work together and decide on their answers.

Practice reading the questions, out loud, at least once before the quiz. Make sure you know how to pronounce any difficult words.

Arrive early, and mingle with the participants as they are getting settled in to their tables: watch out for any tables that might be particularly loud or difficult to manage during the quiz, and take your cue for managing the "tone" from this.

Don't tell anyone that you have the questions beforehand: the best way to stop people asking for hints is for them to believe that you don't know what the questions will be.

Know who you can ask for help during the event, if something goes wrong. Keep an eye on the time, and if necessary adjust the number of questions or rounds.

Test all the equipment (eg sound system, projector, music player) before the participants arrive, and again just before you start the quiz.