Tips for Williams Trivia running teams

GENERAL TIPS

Tips for Preparing to Run Trivia

• Have at least a dozen people. If you don't have enough, ask for help on the Trivia list — people will probably step up.
• Goodrich is a good Trivia HQ.
• Get the phone board from whoever has it. As of Spring 2005, that's Paul Stansifer. There are two jacks for it in the floor of the office on the second floor of Goodrich, under the big table near the windows.
• You'll need to supply your own (plug-in, standard) phones for the phone board, so ask your friends if you can borrow theirs overnight. There are jacks for 7 phones on the phone board, and it's recommended you use them all!
• Wireless Internet is available at Goodrich. You need a student or other Williams affiliate to log in for you, but once logged in, you're golden.

Information Helpful to Know During the Event

• You can use AIM to keep in touch with WCFM (AIM ID: requests4wcfm).
• If you use the Trivia Application Software, you will probably want two computers available for input of on-air scores as well as for input of boni answers submitted on paper. Locate these, if possible, near the phones in the 2nd floor.
• Bring extension cords and power strips. Outlets in the office in Goodrich on the second floor are not very convenient or numerous.
• You'll probably want an additional 1 or 2 computers available for scoring electronically submitted boni. Come to Goodrich early to make sure the computers on the first floor are working with your application. You can use some of these for scoring boni.
• Allow yet another computer for coordinating communication with WCFM and with remote team members. Locate this near the phone board also, if possible.
• Bring a radio to tune into the WCFM broadcast from headquarters so you can be sure the DJs are staying on track with the program/so you can be sure your CDs are working out as planned (sometimes tracks get mixed up during preprations, so you'll want to be able to monitor the situation and improvise as quickly as possible in case of trouble).
• Use remote team members for AIM on-air hints and scoring input. Later, they can participate in scoring electronically submitted boni.

Helpful Tools

• Audacity is a free, open source audio editing tool that you can use for things like trimming songs down to a reasonable length (2:00 - 4:30 minutes is usually about right) and to do other sound editing jobs. It's available on many different platforms (OS9/OSX, Windows, Linux/Unix). You may need to locate the LAME encoder DLL if you choose to run it on Windows and want to export your edits to an MP3 file, but that's pretty easily done.
• Trillian Basic is a good Windows client for multiple IM networks, including AIM. It's free too.