Happy almost-2025! The Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence is currently seeking nominations and applications for our winter 2025 new member class! The deadline to apply or submit a nomination is Friday, January 3rd, 2025 at 11:59 PM Eastern time. Please submit nominations and applications through this form.
PACE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and completely volunteer-run alliance of quizbowl community members dedicated to advocating for and organizing high-quality high school scholastic tournaments. PACE members commit themselves to outreach projects, planning the National Scholastic Championship, or both, as well as attending virtual meetings every month or so. PACE also collaborates with other quizbowl organizations to work on projects for the betterment of the quizbowl community at large.
The ideal PACE member has a dual interest in the growth of high school quizbowl and providing an opportunity for high school quizbowl players to compete on the national stage at NSC. If you fit this description and are willing to commit to the responsibilities of PACE membership, you may fill out the application form here. Please include a short statement of 300 words or less about your prior contributions to quizbowl and interest in becoming a PACE member. Alternatively, if you know someone who is qualified to contribute to these goals, you can nominate another person for PACE membership via the same form.
Please note that current high school students are not eligible to become PACE members.
In application and/or nomination statements, PACE is looking for evidence of:
- Successful outreach efforts
- Leadership roles in local/regional quizbowl organizations
- Experience with tournament direction and/or editing question sets
- Commitment to projects that improve competitions or the quizbowl community in general
- Specialized technical skills (i.e. audio/video editing, experience handling an organization’s finances, web design, etc.)
These are not the only factors PACE members take into account when deciding which new members to invite, but these are the elements that typically form a strong nomination statement.
PACE believes that an array of perspectives significantly strengthens our organization. We welcome a diverse set of voices from all races, ethnicities, sexes, gender identities, sexual orientations, and all other identity groups. Quizbowl community members from marginalized and/or underrepresented backgrounds may feel hesitant about whether they are qualified to apply. If you know someone who would be a great fit but might not apply on their own, we highly encourage you to nominate them yourself!
If you’re interested in learning more about what it’s like to be a PACE member, this 2016 thread on the HSQuizbowl Forums on the topic has a lot of useful information. Feel free also to reach out to any other PACE officer — we would be happy to talk.
Please email communications@pace-nsc.org with any questions. We look forward to reading your nominations and applications!