League Procedures

FOX VALLEY MATH LEAGUE

Rules and Procedures

SCHOOL MEMBERSHIP:  For a school to be a member of the Fox Valley Math League the following conditions must be met:

• A member school must be a public or private high school within the established league boundaries. Currently the league boundaries are Ripon on the west, Fond du Lac on the south, the lakeshore on the east and Freedom on the north.  

• A school desiring league membership must petition to join the league not later than September 30th, by sending an email to the league president requesting membership.  If the school petitions after September 30th, they may attend meets that school year only as an invited guest.

• The Executive Committee will discuss membership requests and decide to admit a new school based on geographic location, enrollment, and advisor qualifications (see Member School Obligations).

MEMBER SCHOOL OBLIGATIONS: It is the obligation of every FVML member school to follow these guidelines:

• Each school must have a qualified math teacher as the advisor. Any exceptions to this (i.e. having a non-math teacher as the team’s advisor) must be approved by the Executive Committee.

• A school is to provide one adult per every two teams entered to help with the running of the meet. If a school will be bringing less than one adult for every two teams, they must receive permission to do so from the host school.  Any adult assisting with proctoring duties must be a school employee that has passed a background check.

• Each school must pay their league dues no later than the second meet. Since the FVML budget is based on membership dues, all member schools must pay dues every year even if they do not attend any or all of the meets.  Any member school not paying dues will be dropped from membership and must petition for reinstatement.

• Each member school is expected to attend meets regularly.  If a member school does not attend at least three meets in a school year, the issue to remove the school from the league will be voted on at the annual meeting.  The school will be allowed to petition the league to retain their league membership.

• Each school must host a meet every three years or write questions for a meet if their facilities do not allow them to host. It is expected that schools that share duties with another school will do so more often than every three years.

NON-MEMBER SCHOOL POLICY

• Non-member schools are invited at the discretion of the host school.  If a non-member school is considering joining the league, every effort should be made to invite them to the regularly scheduled meets for that year.

• Individuals from non-member schools are eligible for individual meet awards but are not eligible for end-of-year individual awards.  Non-member teams are not eligible for either meet or end-of year team awards (plaques).

• A school desiring league membership must petition to join the league not later than September 15th, by sending an email to the league president requesting membership.  If the school petitions after September 15th, they may attend meets that school year only as an invited guest.

TEAM MEMBERSHIP

• Each school will be allowed to enter one or more teams consisting of eight students per team of any grade level from 9 to 12.

• Students on team #1 must be enrolled at the school and in grades 9-12. Students younger than 9th grade may not compete on a #1 team.

• Team #1 must be designated prior to the beginning of the meet if more than one team is entered from a school. If a school wishes to enter more than two (2) teams at a particular meet, as a matter of courtesy, the advisor should receive permission from the host school.

• Home-schooled students may attend as a guest of one of the schools, however, they may not be on team #1 unless they are enrolled at a course in the school. If home-schooled students wish to be on team one, they should form their own team and petition the league for membership.

FEES: Annual League Membership Dues: $150 payable to “Fox Valley Math League” at the first meet of the year.

• Payment of annual dues allows for one team of 8 students to compete at each regular meet and 2 teams of 5 students at the JV Meet.

• Member schools - extra teams:  $2.00 payable to the host school for a regular meet and $1.00 per extra team for the JV meet.

• As a matter of courtesy to the host school, if you sign up for "x" number of teams before the day of the meet, you should pay for "x" teams, even if you actually bring fewer teams.

• Non-member schools: FREE for the first meet attended, including all extra teams. After that, $25.00 for the first team and $5.00 for each extra team.  If the JV meet is the first meet attended for a non-member school, then it shall be FREE including all extra teams.  If a non-member school has already attended a regular meet for free, then the fee for the JV meet is $20 for the first two teams and $5.00 for each extra team after that. 

MEET FORMAT:  Each written meet consists of four individual events and one team event, with questions from high-school level math including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, number theory, advanced algebra, precalculus, and probability.  The individual events each consist of 4 questions worth 1, 2, 3 and 4 points (total of 10 possible points/event). The team event is six (6) questions each worth ten (10) points (4 questions in the JV meet). Students work individually on the first 4 events and may cooperate on the team event. Any deviation of this format, including a "Math Bowl" format, must be approved by the league at the annual meeting.

CALCULATORS: Round four of each meet and the team event will be calculator events.   Students will not be allowed to share calculators during individual events. When answers are not "exact value" students are to use unrounded irrational values for calculations and round to the requested place after all computations are completed.

No electronic devices of any kind may be used for non-calculator rounds including foreign language translators. Students needing help with translation should bring a paper copy dictionary. Proctors in the room are not allowed to interpret questions for the students. 

HOST SCHOOL EXPECTATIONS:  The host school shall provide copies of the answers (worked out solutions) for the students to review after completion of the events and prior to the awards. Clean copies of the events and answers will be provided to each school participating. One folder per team is advised for the scoring room. Upon completion of the meet, the questions and answers shall be uploaded to the archives section of this website.

LEAGUE POINTS AND AWARDS

For the purpose of the team standings and league competition among member schools, the league is divided into two divisions:

• A Large School division for schools with an enrollment of 1000 or more total students

• A Small School division for schools with an enrollment of less than 1000 total students

Team trophies will be awarded in each division. The designated first teams compete for the first place trophy at each meet and for the end of the year trophies. Each school in the league is awarded “league points” toward the end of the year awards at each meet. The first place school is awarded league points equal to 2 times the number of teams (n) in the division. The second place school gets 2(n - 1) points. The third place school: 2(n - 2) etc. In case of a tie for a position, the league points are averaged among the tying schools. In case of ties at the end of the season, teams will be awarded duplicate trophies. Any teams absent from a competition will be considered to have placed last and awarded the appropriate number of league points.

SCORING Students should be informed/aware that the scoring team will mark a problem wrong, for any of the following conditions including, but not limited to:

• Answers not written on the answer blank.

• Answers that are messy, smudged, unreadable, unclear, or ambiguous. 

• More than one answer to a problem written on the answer blank, even if one is correct. 

• Non-standard form. (For example, the answer 12 cannot be written as XII (roman numerals) , 1100 (binary) , 1.2x10^1 (scientific notation), etc.) 

• Answers that do not adhere to specific instructions given in the event or problem.

If an answer to a problem is in question, the host school advisor and members of the executive team in the scoring room will rule on the validity of any answer.

CORRECTIONS:  Team members are to bring any scoring errors immediately to the attention of their advisor. The advisor will then present the errors to the attention of the scoring team before the awards ceremony begins. No corrections will be made after the awards ceremony has begun.  A “last call for corrections” announcement will be made prior to the deadline.

RESULTS: Meet results, team and individual standings, archived tests, and other important information will be posted on the Fox Valley Math League web site as soon as possible after each meet has concluded.

SCHOOL CLOSINGS: In case of snow or other severe weather or hazardous conditions, an attempt will be made to contact schools about postponing a meet by 2:30 pm, and information will be posted on the website as soon as possible. Make-up events will usually be the following Monday.

AWARDS:

• Each Meet: One plaque for the first place league member ("first") team in each of the two divisions. Medals to the top 5 or 6 place individuals (depending on ties) in each of three (3) divisions: Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores/Freshmen. Ties in the individual categories are awarded duplicate medals. There will be no medals given to students below grade 9.

• Students on any team are eligible for an individual medal in their division, but they must be enrolled at a course in the school.

• Final League Awards: (JV results are not included in league standings). Plaques to the top two (2) league schools in each division (first and second place or co-champions). Individuals have their lowest meet score thrown out. (The thrown out score is considered in case of ties.) The top 8 individuals (from member schools) regardless of grade or school division are designated as the 1st Team All-League and are awarded a plaque. Medals are awarded to the next five students from member schools in each grade level division as 2nd Team All-League.

JV MEET

• The JV meet is for sophomore and younger students. Students from Jr. High or Middle schools in the same district may participate, but are to be counted as one of the teams from the member school that is sponsoring them.

• Because league points are not recorded for this meet, any of the teams from a member school may win the first place trophy, not just team #1.

• Any student eligible for the JV meet who has won a medal in 2 of the first 3 regular meets are ineligible to win individual or team awards in the JV meet. However, these students may attend and form a non-competing team for the experience and fun of it.

• As noted above, teams for this meet consist of 5 students, and the team event only contains 4 questions. A team can be made of any mixture of grade levels. Any 8th grade and younger students can be on any JV team and any JV team can win the meet in their division.

• A plaque will be awarded to the top team in each of the divisions (large school, small school). Medals for places 1-5 awarded to Sophomores, 1-5 to Freshmen, and 1-3 for 8th grade and younger. The number of places that medals are awarded may be adjusted if there are a large number of ties.

EXECUTIVE TEAM:  The Executive Team consists of five executive positions: President ($50 honorarium), Vice-President ($50 honorarium), Treasurer ($50 honorarium), Statistician ($250 honorarium), and Public Relations ($100 honorarium). The Executive Team makes decisions on league issues during the season. If the Executive Team feels that the issue is significant and warrants a full vote, they will bring it before all league members for discussion and vote. 

Executive Team Special Exception:  If two or more of the executive positions are filled by individuals from the same school, only the most senior of them will receive voting privileges.  Additional at-large members shall then be elected in order to keep the number of votes cast by the executive team to five. As much as possible, a balance of large and small schools with voting rights in the executive committee shall be maintained.

Executive Team Roles and Responsibilities

Revised 5/22/2019

Revised 9/28/2022 (Changed league dues from 100 to 110)

Revised 11/21/2022 (Changed wording for JV meet eligibility to "2 of the previous meets that season")

Revised 6/1/2023: fees to $150, added Public Relations position and honorariums