Bonny Kellermann (MIT Class of 1972) is the chair of the 2020 MIT Intercollegiate Team Skating Competition.

Have you or your club considered hosting an intercollegiate competition? While it's a lot of work to host a competition, it comes with great rewards for all involved. The MIT Figure Skating Club has been pleased to host an intercollegiate skating competition more than a dozen times throughout the years because of these awesome benefits:

1. Community Building

Hosting an intercollegiate team skating competition is an "all-hands-on-deck" undertaking, and it's easier to take on with a lot of volunteers. Our volunteers include current club members (students, alumni and staff) and former club members, making it a great way to reconnect and bond with some of our alums who've stayed in the area. Parents are also a great resource, and some of our current skaters' parents help. Students have even invited friends who enjoy watching skating but aren't skaters themselves to be a part of the show behind the scenes.

There is a strong component of community building when hosting a competition. Working together brings everyone closer and strengthens relationships. It's also helpful for our skaters competing to have a strong network of people helping so that they can focus on competing when the time comes.

2. Leadership Development

When we host a competition, our students take on several roles in planning and running the event that help them develop leadership skills. Since the competition is a one-time event, it's a great opportunity for students who may be hesitant to commit to a year-long role in the club to gain some leadership experience.

There are leadership roles available on a variety of scales and with different types of time commitment. Some roles span several months and require more planning ahead but also primarily involve online communication (e.g. making sure space is reserved and equipment is available). Other roles are concentrated in the weeks and days leading up to the competition and require more face-to-face interaction (e.g. organizing an army of day-of volunteers). Whatever their roles, students can take ownership and responsibility of an important task to ensure the competition runs smoothly.

3. Opportunities for our Skaters

When we host a competition at MIT, we've noticed far more of our students compete than they do at competitions hosted by other schools. What could be more convenient? They don't have to travel to another location, and they can come and go to the rink from their own living space throughout the competition. The only time commitment they truly need to make is when they're skating and volunteering.

The host school also gets money back from its skater's registration fees, and there are no traveling/hotel expenses! Some of our skaters are only able to compete at events we host, so this opens the door for getting more people to experience the excitement of competition.

4. Publicity for Intercollegiate Skating at our School

We usually try to connect with our school newspaper to include a story about our competition. It lets folks know that figure skating is alive and well at MIT and getting the word out could potentially recruit new skaters for the team. Knowing that we're hosting a regional competition also helps our athletic department take us seriously.

5. Making Money

Host schools make a lot of money each time they host a competition – thousands of dollars! We use the money in subsequent years to help pay expenses that aren't covered by our club sports program so that competitors don't have to pay out of pocket for competition fees, travel, lodging, etc. We also use our profits from previous competitions to subsidize private lessons for our students (we don't have a skating coach on staff, so this is very helpful!). We wouldn't be able to support our students as well as we do without the profit from hosting competitions.

6. Appreciation

Each time we host, we learn how to make the experience better in the future. We receive wonderful feedback from participants regarding how much they appreciate us hosting a competition.

7. It's Fun

True, planning and hosting an intercollegiate team skating competition is a lot of work. But in the end, it's a wonderfully exhilarating feeling to know that we've provided this wonderful experience for so many people.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges we've faced is getting the commitment from our athletic department for the use of facilities throughout the weekend. Sometimes a commitment can't be made until the hockey teams had their games scheduled for the year, but for us, that didn't happen until October. By then it was too late to submit a bid, so we pushed to have a commitment for use of the ice for a weekend with the hopes the hockey teams could schedule around that one weekend. We also had to work with teams who regularly had practices during the weekend. We promised them some of the time our club scheduled to use for a special event in exchange for some of their weekend practice time.

Preparing for a competition is not a one-man job, and we recommend implementing a large committee where each person takes different responsibilities. We have chairs for music, facilities, hotel, food, volunteers, judges, campus event registration paperwork, publicity, medals and more.

You will also need lots of volunteers to help the day of the event. Assume that not all of them will show up, so have back-up plans. We usually have one or two people assigned as "gophers" to fill in if there is a gap or unexpected needs. More importantly, make sure your volunteers are having fun and feel appreciated for their contribution, which will make them want to come back and do it again.

I would be happy to consult with any school hosting a competition for the first time regarding planning. U.S. Figure Skating is also wonderfully supportive with checklists and a competition handbook, and they're always available to answer questions.

Give hosting a try. It's a wonderfully rewarding experience for everyone!