FAQ

The current form representatives are Matthew Bollinger and Caroline Mao (ACF), Emily Pike and Joel Gluskin (NAQT), Mia McGill and Sadie Britton (PACE), and Kevin Wang (main Quizbowl Discord server).

You should submit a report using the form whenever you have concerns about inappropriate behavior from someone involved in quizbowl and any of the following are true:

• You want the form’s member organizations (ACF, NAQT, PACE, or the main Quizbowl Discord) to be aware of what happened
• You want any or all of the form’s member organizations to begin disciplinary processes
• You want your report to be passed on to another organization (e.g. a state or local quizbowl organization, a school, or some other group) that is not represented on the form
• You aren’t sure what you want to have happen, or you want advice on what to do

You should not use the misconduct form in cases when:

• You need immediate assistance.
  • If this is an emergency, please call 911. If you are in crisis, the Crisis Call Center Hotline is 800-273-8255, and you can use the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741 in the US. The National Sexual Assault Hotline is 800-656-4673 (HOPE), and online chat resources are available at https://hotline.rainn.org/online/.
  • If you are at a tournament and need immediate assistance, please speak to the tournament director, misconduct contact person at the tournament (if there is one), or a trusted staffer. Addressing misconduct at a tournament is the tournament director’s responsibility. Of course, you may also file a misconduct report if you would like quizbowl organizations to be aware of your issue.
• You have game play issues at a tournament, including a protest, problem with a tournament schedule, or suspected cheating. These issues are the responsibility of the tournament director. We do welcome substantiated reports of cheating.

No. The ability to sanction the subjects of misconduct reports lies solely with each member organization. Form representatives are often in leadership positions in their organizations and may, in those capacities, participate in the internal discussions that determine responses to reports. However, the form representatives, as a group, do not decide, issue, or deliberate on punishments that a member organization could issue. The main function of the misconduct form is to determine which organization(s) should know about a report, and to make sure that information gets to the right places.

The form representatives all receive an email as soon as a misconduct report is filed. The representatives discuss the report to plan how to respond to the reporter and decide which organizations should receive the report. Representatives may also follow up with one another about what, if any, consequences their own organizations have chosen to pursue. The misconduct form representatives do not, on their own, choose or enforce punishments for misconduct.

All current and future form representatives will have access to submitted reports. A report may also be shared with people in the member organizations who are responsible for adjudicating misconduct reports. Reporters will be asked for permission before the report is shared with anyone else. If the reporter gives permission, the person or people accused of misconduct will also be notified, although they will not see the content of the report itself.

Please refer to each organization’s misconduct policy, or ask them about it, if you have questions about their internal processes.

We cannot accept anonymous reports. However, we take the anonymity of reporters outside of the form representatives very seriously, and will only reveal the identity of a reporter with their explicit permission.

No. Unless someone is in serious, immediate danger, we will never share information from a report with anyone without your consent. Depending on the behavior you report, we may encourage you to inform specific authorities, but neither form representatives nor the member organizations will not do so without your permission.

The misconduct form is best placed to respond to misconduct within the quizbowl community. If you would like help reaching out to other authorities, please consider contacting the resources linked in “When should I not use the misconduct form?”

The form’s member organizations make decisions for their events only. The member organizations have no official authority over events that are run by other groups. For example, an organization might choose to bar someone from staffing its own national tournaments, but cannot bar that person from staffing local tournaments that it does not organize. The member organizations also do not have control over school clubs, unofficial social gatherings, or online social spaces other than the ones they directly control. Examples of online spaces where member organizations do have jurisdiction include the hsquizbowl.org forums, which PACE governs, and the main quizbowl Discord server, which the Discord representative manages.

Yes. Reporters can ask that information be shared with other organizations, and we have honored those requests in the past. We can also help you reach out to other organizations directly if you prefer.

Yes. Organizations can choose to impose consequences for misconduct regardless of where the misconduct occurs. However, consequences will still be limited to the organization’s own jurisdiction.

To date, the misconduct form representatives have only considered reports filed through the form. You are welcome to reach out to individual representatives if you have questions about how to use the form, or if you would like guidance on whether an incident should be reported. The representatives can be contacted at the email addresses listed on tinyurl.com/qbmisconduct.

In rare circumstances, you may prefer to formally make your report to only a subset of the form’s representatives, without going through the actual form. You may want to take this route if:

• You only want one of the form’s member organizations to respond to your report, or
• You want to make a report about one of the representatives

In these cases, please reach out individually to a form representative for guidance.

The form representatives will never make a report public without the permission of the victims of the misconduct. Occasionally, if the representatives believe that stakeholders outside of the member organizations should be aware of an instance of misconduct, they may reach out to ask for permission to inform the community at large. If the reporter does not want any information to be shared, however, the representatives will take no further action to publicize the report.

Both parties are likely to be contacted as part of the member organizations’ disciplinary processes. When filling out the form, reporters are asked for permission to be contacted by member organizations. If the reporter agrees, they will be consulted if a member organization needs more information about their report.

In general, the member organizations’ disciplinary processes require them to reach out to the accused to obtain their side of the story before sanctions are levied. Reporters may request that the accused not be contacted; however, in that case, disciplinary action generally cannot proceed.

Yes, you can view summary statistics about reports on the Report Summary page. These statistics are updated periodically. The aggregate statistics will never include any personal or identifying information about reports.

The potential outcomes of a misconduct report vary from organization to organization based on their different misconduct processes, and on the seriousness of the conduct being reported.

We welcome questions and feedback! Please email quizbowlmisconduct@gmail.com. All current form representatives have access to this email address.