Classics Enthusiasts Needed

Fellow classmate and President of the Wisconsin Senior Classical League (WSCL), Theodore Stavropoulos, is looking for volunteers!

The WSCL is a community of collegiate Classics enthusiasts and closely associated with the Wisconsin Junior Classical League (WJCL), a similar organization for high school students. Every January, the WJCL hosts a convention here in Madison, putting on classically-inspired competitions, tests, games, and more.

This year, the WSCL has been asked to run the most popular of the games, Certamen. Certamen is a game of fast recall of facts about classical civilizations and its peoples, languages, and cultures. The organization is seeking individuals with a passion for the Classics to help out with running this contest this January (Thursday, January 30- Saturday, February 1, 2020) in a few different capacities:

Test Scanners  (sixteen preferred) [Fri, Jan 31 All Day]: this job would entail feeding scantron test papers into a machine to grade the tests of 500 students (12 optional tests per student). This task would take place at the Park Hotel on Capitol Square, and workers would be provided with Starbucks coffee and Insomnia cookies in return for their hard work (approximately one-hour shifts). This is open to any individual and does not require any previous knowledge of classics.

Certamen Helpers (eight minimum needed) [Fri, Jan 31 Afternoon]: this job would entail being present in certamen games, watching the competition, and keeping in contact with the certamen headquarters (i.e. myself and a few others) to help facilitate the efficient running of the contest. This task does not require classical knowledge, however, those with such knowledge certainly may enjoy watching the intensity, speed, and skill of the competition.

Pizza and Cookie Sales Helpers  (four minimum needed per night) [Thurs Jan 30 Evening; Fri, Jan 31 Evening]: this job would entail helping Kristin Leong, our WSCL treasurer, and the rest of the WSCL board to sell Ian’s Pizza (Thurs) and Insomnia cookies (Fri) to the convention attendees, making trips to retrieve the food from the establishments, and distributing the products to the buyers, to raise money for the WSCL. We intend to use the money to host other classics events in the future, and possibly provide scholarships to high school students looking to attend the convention at a defrayed cost.

Anyone interested in helping out with any of these tasks, or anyone who would like to join the WSCL for future events, please email the WSCL board (wiscoscl@gmail.com) or text Theodore (414-881-9691) for more information.