Greetings to All:

May 4, 2020

To Our Valued Senior Directors, and Vendors:

Greetings…we are hopeful that all of you and your respective families are doing well during this Covid-19 crisis. We have been discussing our plan to move forward with the final rounds of the 2020 Mind Challenge Competition. 

We will replicate the tournament in a virtual environment which will allow all of the remaining participants within their respective cities and regions to participate. 

Before we were so “rudely” interrupted by Covid-19 here are the numbers of teams that are remaining in each region.

Strongsville 10 teams/60 players, Rocky River 15 teams/90 players, Mentor 12 teams/72 players and Solon 10 teams/60 players( The number of players is a max of 6 per team realizing that some teams have less than that number.)

We will now conduct the Regional Rounds, originally scheduled for April 13th and 14th on Tuesday June 16, 2020 at 10am with the Strongsville Regional and 1pm with Rocky River Regional. On Wednesday June 17th we will conduct the tournament at 10am with the Mentor Regional and 1pm with the Solon Regional. 

The semi finals and finals, originally scheduled for May 6th, will be held on Tuesday June 23, 2020 with the times of 10am for the semi finals with the finals beginning at least thirty minutes following the conclusion of the semi finals. We will reward the prize money, trophies and other “goodies” for the final four players on each team by contacting the senior centers and delivering such to them.

The competition will be held via FACEBOOK LIVE. In researching the possible methods of conducting this (Zoom meeting, Google meeting, YOUTUBE Live etc.), our conclusion has led us to choose FACEBOOK LIVE as it is the easiest and least complicated method for our seniors to navigate. Our trivia host, Lana Oriani is creating a very simple but comprehensive tutorial on how the seniors can participate. Seniors will need either a smartphone, tablet or computer(desktop or laptop) This tutorial will be available on our website (www.themindchallenge.com) and our FACEBOOK page (facebook.com/themindchallenge/) as of June 1, 2020. Participants as well as vendors and senior directors are encouraged to watch. As soon as the tutorial is active, we will inform all so they can view.

Vendors will have the same opportunity as in earlier rounds to give their “elevator speeches” to the participants on FACEBOOK LIVE during the trivia at each of the dates mentioned above. We will need all our vendors to let Phil and Art know who will appear on FACEBOOK LIVE so we can coordinate the vendor participation. You will have the opportunity to present during EACH round.

We realize the current stress at all the senior centers during this pandemic. Therefore, the Mind Challenge team will communicate directly with the participating teams in the four regionals. With that in mind, can you please e-mail Art (poppaart3@gmail.com) or Phil (pglevine13@gmail.com) your roster of participants. This will enable us to cross check with our list so that no one is left uninformed.

Finally, let us address something that the three of us have discussed at length. This competition is will be held on the HONOR SYSTEM. As we will not be personally available at each person's home to monitor players as they compete, we can only hope that no cheatingwill take place. We realize these are unprecedented times, but we want to maintain the spirit of THE MIND CHALLENGE which is to stimulate the mind and enhance socialization with active seniors while competing for fun and enjoyment.

We thank you and look forward to finishing the 2020 Mind Challenge which has thus far been a fun and exciting competition.

Art/Phil/Lana