By Donna Karoscik
The 2025 NCRA Speed and Realtime Contests will reflect a number of procedural and rules changes to streamline the events and better fit the Contests into the Association’s budget.
As the Contests have gained popularity over the years, with an increase in contestants from around 20 in the early 2000s to nearly double that since the 2020 pandemic, the workload on the Committee has also increased. To decrease grading time, the Committee has experimented with ways to streamline the process, including using online grading.
To remain effective and within budget, the Contests Committee has decided to implement changes sucha as: eliminating the Legal Opinion leg of the Speed Contest (so the Speed Contest will have only two legs); limiting the number of contestants to 35 for each Contest; eliminating the practice session on Tuesday and the review of papers on Saturday; and holding the Realtime and Speed Contests back-to-back on Wednesday.
The Realtime Contest is scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, July 23; contestants will be given a break for lunch; and then those interested in the Speed Contest will return for the competition after lunch on Wednesday afternoon. This will allow the Contest Committee the time needed to complete grading on the contestants’ qualifying legs and be prepared to announce winners at the Saturday Awards Luncheon.
Interested parties can consult the pdfs with the changes to the rules. The rules for the 2025 Contests are available on the NCRA website. National Realtime Contest Rules. National Speed Contest Rules.
Please contact me if you have questions or would like further clarification. We are excited for Minneapolis. Thank you in advance for your cooperation in transitioning to the new rules, and we look forward to seeing you there!
Donna J. Karoscik, FAPR, RDR, CRR, CRC, is the 2024-2025 NCRA Contests Committee Chair. She can be reached at realtimeadvantage@msn.com.
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