IFTSA Competitions Penalty Policy

  • All deadlines are 11:59 PM CST on the date due. Penalties for violations will be determined by the judges and/or the competition chair, IFTSA VP of Competitions, IFTSA Competitions Subcommittee and the IFTSA Presidents.
     
  • Late proposals:
    • There is a five (5) point cap for all late proposals
    • Judges will be given time that proposal was submitted and be able to decide within those 5 points how much should be deducted
  • Proposals with extra pages in appendix or body of proposal:
    • Each competition has a maximum page limit
    • If a proposal is over the page count, the competition chair will delete all pages that exceed the page limit and judges will not be receive those pages for their review
    • Chair will remove extra pages from word document and reconvert to pdf
    • Chair will ensure that the pages removed correctly match up with those in the pdf
    • No additional penalty will be enacted
    • Removal of pages will be highlighted by chair on the document for the judges.
  • All other penalties that come up will be included in a table for the judges to decide what penalty, if any, should occur.
     
  • Penalties will be summarized on score sheets returned to teams.
     
  • Appeal Process: An appeal process should be put into place for any rule infractions that may occur during any of the final rounds of IFTSA competitions. There is no appeal process for preliminary proposals. The appeal process is as follows:
    • Competition Chair/VP of Competitions: Once a rule infraction is found, the Competition Chair or VP of Competitions will be allowed to present a report to the judges, and the team captain/contestant will be allowed to defend their actions to the judges in a sufficient amount of time
    • Teams: Teams with complaints will be allowed to inform the Competition Chair, VP of Competitions and judges within 5 minutes of the last competition event. Once the complaint is received the accused team captain/contestant will be allowed to defend their actions to the judges
    • Nobody else is able to make a complaint or report a rule infraction.
    • Decision: The judges will be left alone to make the decision as to the fault, and if guilty, the severity of penalty, if any. After the decision is made, they will notify both the Chair and the team captain. The judges' decision will be final