Your winter bundle mailings have gone out and are probably on their way or in your hands already. In them, you will find your participation survey, which is of the utmost importance this time of year. You can also find the form on our website. On this form, you’ll tell us:

• The total number of students participating in History Day at your school in 2009
• The total number of entries, per category, you expect to be completed at your school in 2009

You will also circle the regional event that your school attends. If you are unsure about which region you attend, just give us a call at 651-259-3426.

Here’s the lowdown on these forms and why this information is important. In order to plan for the regional and state events, recruit judges and order supplies, we need to know how many entries will be at each event. We gather the total number of projects from each school and then allocate slots in the events based on a proportional allotment system. Each school receives a minimum of three slots in each category, and can receive more depending on how many projects will be completed at the school. We assess the total number of projects being created in each region and determine, from those numbers, how many each school can bring. This also helps us start to plan for the number of projects that can advance to state.

It can be kind of a complicated system, but it’s a fair way to maximize the size of the events, without overloading the judges or our venues. It’s tempting to ask for “just one more” in a category that you have many quality projects, but unfortunately we can’t honor those requests or our regional events would be overflowing.

We have received a smattering of surveys at this point, and are looking forward to receiving a flood of them next week. Thanks for your help — this is the first step on the way to a great regional event season!