Hello Everyone,

I want to start off by saying I hope you all are somewhere safe and surrounded by love! The world has seemingly changed overnight, and we are still waiting to see just how different things will be when we return back to "normal." Since many teams face uncertainty with budget cuts and restricted travel in the fall, our community is facing some unprecedented challenges this upcoming. It looks like our "traditional" way of operating in this activity will look a little different, and now is the time for us to anticipate changes and adjust accordingly. In case our community has to go online for competition in the fall, I thought it would be a great idea to get a head start on figuring out the "how" to run an online tournament. That being said, Cornell will be hosting the Big Remote Tournament of Love, an exhibition-style FREE tournament for schools in our district. I hope to accomplish two things with this tournament, give students, specifically seniors, the opportunity to say goodbye to the season. Next, give myself and SNAFU board members an opportunity to figure out the logistics and coordination for running a tournament online. This is a PILOT online tournament if this goes well our regional leaders will be able to help us transition more smoothly in the fall.

What we need from you...your students and TIME! I know this is during Maycation and after finals. But I am hoping this can be a learning opportunity for our district as a whole. If you have any students interested please encourage them to sign up and if you are willing to judge that would be greatly appreciated. Students will only be able to sign up for a maximum of two events, we want to keep the scale of the tournament small, so its easier to manage and learn from. We will be using a software platform called Yaatly, to actually host the tournament. Once people start to register I will send out links for people to start accessing the site. If you have any questions or ideas please let me know!

With Love,

Brandon Joel