Appraisers:

Volunteers who are trained to look for the main parts of the central and instant challenges, and award points (scores) to each team. If you read the back of each challenge, you will see the appraising rubric. Those things are what appraisers are looking for! Appraisers are men, women, former DI'ers or Odyssey of the Minders, etc. Appraisers are trained to assess central and instant challenges (where they look for different things!), and separate appraiser teams watch both types of challenge. There are between three and seven appraisers watching each team's performance, and each appraiser watches for a different aspect of the performance. The same appraisers watch ALL the teams in the same division in the same challenge, and they are the ones who award points to each of those teams. They will also provide the famous "sticky notes," which Team Managers share with their teams once they pick up their scores. Sticky notes praise those things in a team's performance that really impressed each Appraiser.

Central Challenge:

This is the multiple-page challenge you and your team members read and decide to solve (More to the Story, DIzzy Derby, Sudden SerenDIpity, Live! It's RaDIo DI!, IMPROVing Along, and DIsigning Bridges). This is what you're spending most of your time creating, and what you show the Appraisers at the Tournament.

Challenge Masters:

Challenge Masters are the keepers of their challenge. They are the final say on what goes and what doesn't for each challenge. The Challenge Masters administer and arbitrate everything having to do with your chosen challenge. They are the ones you direct your questions to (see page 2 of the Minnesota Program Guidebook for a directory of the MN State Challenge Masters. You can find this at www.mndi.org). You may call or email the State Challenge Master for your challenge at any time. There are State Challenge Masters who are at every tournament, and International Challenge Masters who confer with the SCMs and, together, they issue Clarifications.

Clarification:

The Challenge Writers (those gurus who wrote your chosen challenge) write the challenge, trying to anticipate everything they can in order to make the requirements as clear as possible. However, once teams get their hands on the challenges, their solutions often push the boundaries of what is expected. They submit online clarification requests to the Challenge Masters and ask whether they are allowed to do this or that in their solutions. The Challenge Masters answer via email, and either allow or disallow their request. Voila - you now have a clarification of the rules. Sometimes these clarifications are team specific; they apply only to your team's unique solution. You must keep these email communications and take them with you to the tournament, and include a copy of them with your paperwork. Then there can be no question on the part of the Appraisers as to whether your solution in outside the bounds of the rules. However, sometimes Challenge Masters get so many similar requests that they publish a clarification for everyone to see. A published clarification becomes part of the rules, and every team is responsible for knowing them. So, you must frequently check for clarifications to your challenge. Read posted clarifications at www.destinationimagination.org, Explore the Program, Clarifications. You will need your Passport Number to request a clarification.

Contact/Coordinator:

Phrases used to describe your contact, the coordinator of your local DI program. Much of the language in the official DI publications refer to either a contact or coordinator. This is the person who oversees the whole program for a district or organization, gives out information, registers teams, etc.

This is different from the contact person for each TEAM, who is the liaison between your coordinator and the rest of the team for passing on information, etc.

Creative Problem Solving (CPS):

That amazing process we all use in developing our solutions to these challenges. There is lots of information on this phrase and some CPS exercises in the Team Managers Guide, available online at www.destinationimagination.org.

Instant Challenge (IC):

The OTHER fun challenge you're practicing. At every Tournament, teams demonstrate their awesome Creative Problem Solving (CPS) abilities via their central challenges, AND they get to show off their immediate, instantaneous CPS skills in the Instant Challenge. They spend 5-15 minutes with a different group of Appraisers solving an "instant challenge," one they've never seen before and which requires them to use lightning fast reflexes, thinking, and major teamwork. Instant Challenges (ICs) will be theatrical, structural or a funky combination of both. It's a good idea to practice IC before you get to the Tournament. ICs are very secret and very tricky. You will have absolutely no idea what to expect until you get to the Tournament. However, you will have ample opportunity to practice ICs using any of them published by DI, Inc. from previous year's tournaments, ones you make up yourselves, or other on-line IC sources. ICs are secret because every team at the same level in the same Central Challenge performs the same IC. This way, all teams are "tested" in exactly the same way. Therefore, no one is allowed to discuss what happens in IC until after the DI year is over. Remember, IC is FUN!

Passport/Passport Number:

Each team who performs at a Tournament must be registered with DI, Inc. This is achieved via purchase of a Passport, which gives the team access to DI's copyrighted Challenges and program materials. Typically, the coordinator purchases these on behalf of teams once they are formed each year.

Each team also has its own identifier for Tournaments, the Passport Number. Once your team is formed and member roster is finalized, DI, Inc. assigns an eight-digit number to it. The first five digits are your team's unique number, the final three identify which state you are participating in. This number is used for the entire year at every tournament in which your team participates, and in Team Manager communications with DI, Inc. You will receive your passport number from your coordinator. You will use it to fill out the paperwork you must take with you to tournaments, and to obtain clarifications.

Team Managers (TMs):

The sainted folks who volunteer to shepherd our students on their journey from brainstorming to team development to the 3-dimensional realization of their ideas.

Tournament:

Show time! Each Tournament is a highly exciting, electrifying celebration of all the teams in a region of Minnesota who are ready to show their stuff to family, friends, each other and Appraisers. You will have an opportunity to compete and watch many, many teams as they present their solutions to the challenges. This is a great opportunity to view the enormous creativity of many different people of different ages and their solutions to the same challenges. Your coordinator will tell you in which regional tournament your area will participate.

Volunteer:

For every Tournament, each team is required to provide a volunteer who is willing to work 2-3 hours. Jobs range from selling DI merchandise, staffing the registration desk, running scores from the appraisers to the scoring room, directing teams, guarding presentation room doors so latecomers don't interrupt a presentation in progress, etc. Sadly, if a team does not provide a volunteer, they are assessed a 10 point penalty. Not onerous, and a fun way to be involved. Anyone can be a volunteer - your siblings, your grandparents, your neighbors.