FAQS
Who will be writing the questions?
Most of your questions will be written in-house by our very own landlocked Lexington NOSB Team. Others will be written by equally qualified NOSB professionals, such as other state-and-national champions.
What is the Tournament Format?
Currently, we are planning to have a Swiss-style seeding round on Saturday and a double elimination round on Sunday afternoon. On Sunday morning, there will be a alumni/moderator round (more information found here). Scheduling/format is subject to change.
I can't compete - how else can I help?
We are so glad you asked! The LOBSTr needs volunteers and moderators, as well as toss-up questions and team challenge questions to run smoothly. The volunteer registration form is found here. Please email us at lexlobstr@gmail.com if you have any further questions
What happened to NOSB?
The Consortium of Ocean Leadership is shutting down, thus NOSB will not be running next year (2022-23). However, they plan on returning in the future with a modified format.
The formal notice, from NOSB is below:
I am writing today with some unfortunate news about the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, as well as information on the status of NOSB in light of this evolving situation. As many of your organizations are members of COL, this news may already be traveling through your schools and departments. COL’s Board of Trustees has voted for dissolution of the organization and has now communicated with our broader membership this decision, along with a resolution for dissolution that the voting membership must consider and take a vote on. We anticipate that, when the vote comes, the resolution will pass, and COL will begin the process to close the organization.
What does this mean for NOSB? The good news is that the NOSB team and the grants that support the NOSB can likely transition to another organization. We are in discussions with similar organizations about the transition of COL programs and talking with our funders/sponsors. At this point, based on all of these discussions, we believe that the program can continue and continue to be supported by Melissa and Amanda. We will keep you updated as we learn what organization we will move to and the timeline against which this will all be happening (we expect fall 2022).
Given this transition, and the challenges that NOSB has had itself fundraising for the program over the past several years, we have also made the decision to take the 2022-2023 academic year off from competition. We will take this opportunity to re-imagine the program into something that maintains the still very valid goals of the NOSB, but reaches those goals through a competition that better serves the ocean and STEM literacy needs of today. After 25 years, this is needed. Though we appreciate that our students have passion and excitement for the quiz bowl format, it seems that type of competition is just not that exciting to funders anymore, including many of the federal funders who helped to launch the program so long ago. We will be seeking input from all of you, from coaches, and from past/present students as we restructure the program.