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The whole process of running for a seat in Parliament is, has been, and will (unless the political climate changes) be a long-drawn one.The crux is this - to be a Member of Parliament who can have a say in the country's policymaking, you MUST BE ELECTED. Yes, there are Nominated MPs and Non-Constituency MPs (this will be covered later), but only elected members of Parliament have full voting power when motions are set.The criteria for qualification is that youa. must hold Singapore citizenship (Pink IC and red passport);b. have to be at least 21 years of age on the date of Nomination Dayc. are registered and eligible to vote as an elector in the current registers of electorsd. have resided in Singapore on Nomination Day and has been so for a total period not less than 10 yearse. are not subject to any of the disqualifications specified in Article 45 of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (in essence, must be of sound mind, not an undischarged bankrupt, must have a conviction with a penalty of more than 1 year in prison or $2000 in fines etc.)f. should be basically proficient in English, Malay, Mandarin or Tamil and be able to take part in Parliament and its proceedings, unless impeded by physical disabilityIf you do qualify, there is another thing to consider - will you run as an independent, or as part of a party?The road of choosing the former has been met with no success ever since independence. From the 1968 general election, independent candidates have never won any seats in Parliament.The last time anyone contested in an election as an independent was in the 2001 general election, where 2 seats were contested. In Joo Chiat SMC, the independent candidate garnered only 16.5% of the votes in a straight fight, while the 3-cornered fight in Bukit Timah SMC saw the PAP, opposition coaltion SDA and the independent candidate vie for a single seat. The independent ended up with just 4.9% of the vote.The last time an independent went into the elections in 2001, it was Ooi Boon Ewe, perennial runner for MP and even the office of the President (he tried to run for President in 1999, succeed in getting nominated for the GE in 2001, then failed again in his bid for the presidency 2005, before setting up his one-man People's Liberal Democratic Party and failing to get nominated in the 2006 GE. His bids for Parliament and the President's office, both in 2011, failed. He even tried to run in the Hougang and Punggol-East by-elections in 2012 and 2013 respectively, but failed to get nominated.)So although their determination to fight alone may seem admirable to their supporters, their political ambitions couldn't stay afloat due to their lack of a solid support base and party machinery that candidates from seasoned political parties have always had.But if you want to contest as a member of a political party in Singapore, the first step is to join that party as a registered member.There are 34 registered political parties, with 3 in Parliament, 9 active (without members in Parliament) and 22 registered, out of which 10 have never contested an election since their inception.The ruling People's Action Party and the opposition Workers' Party and Singapore People's Party have members in Parliament, although the SPP only has one Non-Constituency MP, as opposed to the WP's 7 elected MPs and 2 NCMPs. The PAP has 80 seats.Regardless of whether you join the ruling PAP or any other party, in order to be considered for candidacy, you have to let the party's leadership see your performance on a grassroots level.Volunteering at grassroots events, attending functions organised by the party and meeting other members will not only give you a deeper understanding of how the party works, but also its ideology and plans for the country's development.Over time, if the party's leadership is satisfied with your performance and sees that you have spent a reasonable amount of time working the ground, understanding the people and letting the people know who you are, they may nominate you as a candidate in the next election for the constituency you work in.Charles Chong (left), PAP MP for Joo Chiat SMC, with rival Yee Jenn Jong (right), NCMP for the Workers' Party, at a street party along Opera Estate in Siglap, which is under Joo Chiat's electoral boundaries. MPs and aspirants alike should get to know the ground well before contesting in any election.In order for an election to occur, the Prime Minister will dissolve Parliament and advise the President to issue a Writ of Election. The Writ will dictate the date of Nomination Day, as well as Polling Day for constituencies being contested.A Writ of Election must be issued by the President in order for any election to take place. The President can only do so at the advice of the Prime Minister.Ever since 1988, Group Representation Constituencies were introduced. Apart from Single Member Constituencies, which are served by just one MP, GRCs have required at least 3 and no more than 6 MPs per constituency, depending on the size of the wards.In the 2011 GE, there were 2 6-member GRCs, 11 5-member GRCs and 2 4-member GRCs. There were only 12 SMCs drawn out in the map of electoral boundaries.The paperwork needed to run in a election consists of the Nomination Paper, the Political Donation Certificate and the election deposit.First, you need to apply for a Political Donation Certificate at the Elections Department. Once your applications are processed, the Department will notify you of who has been issued the certificates.The amount of money required for the election deposit depends on the monthly salary of MPs at the time of the election. As of the 2013 Punggol East SMC by-election, the deposit was set at $14,500. The deposit must be paid in cash or cheque to either the Accountant-General's Department or at the Nomination Centre. If the deposit has already been paid before Nomination Day, the receipt of payment must be produced at the Nomination Centre.You must then appoint one proposer and one assentor. They must be residents of the SMC you plan to contest in, in the sense that their polling stations have to be within the confines of the constituency's electoral boundary.On Nomination Day, you will have to proceed to the Nomination Centre, which has always been government school buildings, and file your papers before 12pm. Any submissions made after that point in time will be declared ineligible.Government schools, like primary schools, secondary schools and junior colleges, will have their compounds used as Nomination Centres.The Assistant Returning Officer at the Nomination Centre will review the forms. From here on, you will need to indicate how you wish your name to appear on the ballot paper; and inform the Returning Officer of the name and address of the person appointed as your election agent.3 forms are required, namely the Name for Ballot Paper form, the Appointment of Election Agent form and the Particulars of Election Agent form.You may also appoint one other person to file the Nomination Paper by using the the Appointment of the One Other Person form.Once the paperwork is done, the Nomination Papers will be placed on a notice board outside the Nomination Hall.In the event of any objection made against your nomination, the objection will be made known to the Returning Officer. If the objection is deemed valid and stands, your nomination will be declared as void and you will be unable to stand for election.In the event that by 12pm, no other candidate has filed valid papers which have been accepted, the Returning Officer shall declare, pursuant to Section 33, subsection 1 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, as the candidate elected to the electoral division in which you contested unopposed, making your election an automatic walkover.But if one or more other candidates stand nominated for the same electoral division as you, the Returning Officer will, pursuant to Section 34 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, adjourn the election to enable a poll to be taken.A Notice of Contested Election will also be put up.A Notice of Contested Election will be released by the Returning Officer once nominations are confirmed.The Returning Officer will also allot an election symbol for each candidate. The symbol will be printed on the box next to the name of the candidate on the ballot paper. The symbol will almost always be the logo of the party contesting, but for independent candidates who have not submitted their own symbol, the Returning Officer will allot a symbol from a list of approved symbols published in the Gazette shortly before the election.If, however, you plan to contest in a GRC, additional paperwork is required. You have to submit at least one Certificate of the Malay Community Committee or Certificate of the Indian and Other Minority Communities Committee. Depending on the ward in which you contest in, the President will designate the required number of minority candidates and their race. If the candidate is a Malay, they must make an application to the appointed Malay Community Committee. If the candidate is Indian or from another minority group, they must make an application to the appointed Indian and Other Minority Communities Committee.Once the candidates for the constituency have been announced, candidates will then be allocated a total of 3 minutes to address their supporters. Banners and flags, as well as election symbols may be shown from then on, and approved election campaign posters and other paraphernalia can be displayed.Every single piece of poster or printed paraphernalia must be approved by the Elections Department, and must bear the name and address of the printing company, as well as a sticker from the Elections Department. Those which do not comply with the requirement will be taken down. There is, however, a list of excluded items which do not need to comply with this rule, which can be viewed in the Candidates' Handbook.Another rule to note is the elections spending limit.For SMCs, the limit is $3.50 per elector in the register of electors for that constituency. For GRCs, it is $3.50 per elector in the register of electors for that group representation constituency divided by the number of candidates contesting the election in that constituency.Overspending may result in a fine of up to $2,000 and disqualification for 3 years from being on the registers of electors, from voting at any election and from being a candidate at a Parliamentary or Presidential election.The particulars of every Internet election advertising platform (e.g. podcasts, videocasts, blogs and social networking sites like Facebook) on which election advertising is or will be published by or on his or her behalf during the campaign period, which starts with the close of nomination proceedings and ending on the eve of polling day, must be declared to the Returning Officer, using the Declaration of Election Advertising by Candidate form.Rallies can only be held after the Police Elections Liaison Office issues a permit.These permits are issued on a first-come-first-issued basis. If more than one party chooses the same allocated location for a rally, and on the same day, the outcome of the bid will be decided by drawing lots.More rules and regulations can be seen at the PELO website.Rallies have been conducted by political parties during elections, even prior to Singapore's independence in 1965.Helpers conducting election activities will require a signed document of authority issued by the election agents, permitting them to engage in election activities.However, non-citizens, students of primary and secondary schools, undischarged bankrupts and individuals who have an order of supervision made against them under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act (Cap. 67) are not allowed to engage in election activity.Election activity includes house-to-house visits, distribution of pamphlets and handouts, displaying posters and banners, using vehicles for advertising (driving pre-ambulating vehicles or displaying election symbols on vehicles), advertising on the Internet and holding indoor or outdoor election meetings and rallies.During general elections, the opportunity to take part in Party Political Broadcasts is open to all parties which field a minimum of 6 candidates under a recognised party symbol in the election.The time allocated is proportional to the number of candidates fielded per party.A party fielding 6-7 candidates gets 2 1/2 minutes on air, while a party fielding 80-87 candidates gets a full 12 minutes of broadcast time per period.A period refers to one single broadcast done in each of the 4 languages, namely English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Tamil.One broadcast will be aired shortly after Nomination Day, while the 2nd message will be aired on the eve of Polling Day.More information about Party Political Broadcasts can be found at the MDA website.Party Political Broadcasts are the only way political parties can speak directly to audiences via national television.Campaigning usually lasts 9 days, inclusive of Nomination Day, with a Cooling Off Day in place right before Polling Day.On Cooling Off Day, no campaigning is allowed, although existing posters, banners and online advertising can continue to be placed up until the end of the campaign.Finally, D-Day comes, which is Polling Day. Polling stations islandwide will open at 8am and close at 8pm.Voters can cast their votes only at polling stations which they are assigned to, based on the polling card delivered to them via post shortly before Polling Day.Polling cards will be issued to every eligible voter before Polling Day.Polling Day for general elections is a public holiday and voting is compulsory. Employers are advised to allow employees sufficient time to cast their vote even if they have to work on Polling Day.Overseas polling stations will also be open. Voters who have registered themselves as overseas electors may cast their votes at their allocated overseas polling stations or at their constituency's polling station. They are only allowed to vote at one, and not both. Overseas polling stations will be open between 4 to 12 hours, although the timeframe may be extended if deemed necessary.During this period in time, candidates, their proposer, seconder, assentor, one other person and election agent may enter polling stations in their contesting constituency to witness the voting process. They are, however, prohibited from campaigning. This includes not be allowed to shake voters' hands.Polling stations usually have more than one polling place, and one Polling Agent from each contesting political party can be appointed to oversee the voting process for each polling place. This includes overseas polling stations as well.Polling Agents have to wear an identification tag at the Polling Centres at all times.The diagram above shows how the layout of a typical polling centre looks like.Ballot boxes will be sealed at 7.45am before the poll, and 8pm after the poll.After ballot boxes are sealed, they will be transported to a counting centre, with multiple counting places. Each political party can appoint one Counting Agent per counting place. They will oversee the counting process and can argue about the validity of votes in the event of ambiguity (whether or not a vote should be considered as valid or spoilt).Every Counting Agent will need an Oath of Secrecy Form and Appointment of Counting Agent Form, and present it to the relevant authorities to be granted entry as Counting Agents, into the counting centre.During the counting process, the ballots will be poured out onto a table at each counting place and sorted into which party the votes are cast in favour of, and then sealed.The diagram above shows the counting process at a counting place.Unmarked ballots, as well as those bearing identification of the voter, ballots which show votes for more than one candidate or party, or ballots which not bear the complete official mark for the authentication of the ballot paper will be rejected. The Assistant Returning Officer at the polling centere will endorse the rejection of ballots by endorsing the word "REJECTED" on the ballot paper. The decision to reject votes is final, therefore any action taken to reject votes must first be met with consultation by the candidates or counting agents present at the polling centre.A first-hand account given by a counting agent at the 2011 GE can be seen here.Candidates, their proposer, seconder, assentor and one other appointed person, as well as their counting agents, are allowed to enter the polling stations, provided that they wear identification tags at all times.When all ballots at a counting place have been counted, the result will be announced by the Assistant Returning Officer at the table.Ballot papers and all other election-related materials will be sealed up if no recount is allowed by the Returning Officer.Smoking, using handphones and image-capturing devices are strictly prohibited at the counting centres.Only one recount of votes is allowed if the margin of votes between the top 2 candidates is equal or less than 2% of the number of valid votes.Once counting of all votes at a constituency is completed, the Group AssistantReturning Officer at a principal counting place will aggregate the number of votes allocated to each candidate or group of candidates. He or she will then announce the results for that constituency to the candidates, and/or their election agents present at the principal counting centre and declared the parties elected for that electoral divison.If the total number of overseas voters is equal to, or more than the margin of votes between the top two candidates contesting in the election, the Returning Officer will declare, pursuant to section 49, subsection 7E, paragraph B of the Parliamentary Elections Act, shall declare the number of votes cast in Singapore in favour of each candidate or group of candidates at the election, and the date and premises at which the votes cast by the overseas electors will be counted.However, if the total number of overseas voters at the election in that electoral division is less than the margin between the top 2 candidates, the Returning Officer will declare, pursuant to section 49, subsection 7E, paragraph A of the Parliamentary Elections Act, the candidate or group of candidates elected to that electoral division.The Returning Officer will do so via live television, from the Elections Department Office.The 2011 GE saw Returning Officer Yam Ah Mee becoming an online sensation. He left public service in 2013, and if an election is called, the next Returning Officer will be Finance Ministry secretary Ng Wai Choong.He will announce in the following format for SMCs:Parliamentary general election year. Results for the electoral division of name of seat. Name of first candidate, party of first candidate, number of votes. Name of following candidate, party of following candidate, number of votes. Rejected votes, number of rejected votes. Total votes cast, number of total votes. The local votes counted for the electoral division of seat name are conclusive of the results. Pursuant to Section 49, Subsection 7E, Paragraph A of the Parliamentary Elections Act, I declare name of winning candidate of the party name as the candidate elected for the electoral division of seat name.If he is announcing the result for a GRC:Parliamentary general election year. Results for the electoral division of name of seat. Name of candidates in party of first group, party of first group, number of votes. Name of following candidates in party of following group, party of following group, number of votes. Rejected votes, number of rejected votes. Total votes cast, number of total votes. The local votes counted for the electoral division of seat name are conclusive of the results. Pursuant to Section 49, Subsection 7E, Paragraph A of the Parliamentary Elections Act, I declare name of winning group of candidates of the party of group of candidates as the group of candidates elected for the electoral division of seat name.Supporters may also watch the results at approved assembly centres. They are usually at stadiums, although in 2011 general election, the Singapore Democratic Party decided to have their assembly centre at a ballroom at the Quality Hotel in Balestier.Winners of the election will be declared as elected members of Parliament, but 'top losers' of elections from oppostion parties have a chance to become Non-constituency MPs (NCMP). This policy has been in place since 1984, and NCMPs have taken up seats since the 1988 general election.And that, through a long-drawn process, is how one has to work their way to Parliament.

Q. What happened after the American civil war?A. What happened after the Civil war ended? (qa.answers.com)TL;DR After the Civil War was over, all was still not well. Everything that had been destroyed by the war had to be rebuilt, including the government in the South. Laws were passed to give equal rights to blacks, but blacks continued to be treated differently. It took over 100 years, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the Reconstruction Acts to give Southern blacks political rights.Reconstruction - American Civil War - HISTORY.comThe Union victory in the Civil War in 1865 may have given some 4 million slaves their freedom, but the process of rebuilding the South during the Reconstruction period (1865-1877) introduced a new set of significant challenges. Under the administration of President Andrew Johnson in 1865 and 1866, new southern state legislatures passed restrictive “black codes” to control the labor and behavior of former slaves and other African Americans. Outrage in the North over these codes eroded support for the approach known as Presidential Reconstruction and led to the triumph of the more radical wing of the Republican Party. During Radical Reconstruction, which began in 1867, newly enfranchised blacks gained a voice in government for the first time in American history, winning election to southern state legislatures and even to the U.S. Congress. In less than a decade, however, reactionary forces–including the Ku Klux Klan–would reverse the changes wrought by Radical Reconstruction in a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the South.EMANCIPATION AND RECONSTRUCTIONAt the outset of the Civil War, to the dismay of the more radical abolitionists in the North, President Abraham Lincoln did not make abolition of slavery a goal of the Union war effort. To do so, he feared, would drive the border slave states still loyal to the Union into the Confederacy and anger more conservative northerners. By the summer of 1862, however, the slaves themselves had pushed the issue, heading by the thousands to the Union lines as Lincoln’s troops marched through the South. Their actions debunked one of the strongest myths underlying Southern devotion to the “peculiar institution”–that many slaves were truly content in bondage–and convinced Lincoln that emancipation had become a political and military necessity. In response to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which freed more than 3 million slaves in the Confederate states by January 1, 1863, blacks enlisted in the Union Army in large numbers, reaching some 180,000 by war’s end.Compromise With the South (1864) by Thomas NastDuring Reconstruction, the Republican Party in the South represented a coalition of blacks (who made up the overwhelming majority of Republican voters in the region) along with "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags," as white Republicans from the North and South, respectively, were known.Emancipation changed the stakes of the Civil War, ensuring that a Union victory would mean large-scale social revolution in the South. It was still very unclear, however, what form this revolution would take. Over the next several years, Lincoln considered ideas about how to welcome the devastated South back into the Union, but as the war drew to a close in early 1865 he still had no clear plan. In a speech delivered on April 11, while referring to plans for Reconstruction in Louisiana, Lincoln proposed that some blacks–including free blacks and those who had enlisted in the military–deserved the right to vote. He was assassinated three days later, however, and it would fall to his successor to put plans for Reconstruction in place. Reconstruction: A State Divided.PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTIONAt the end of May 1865, President Andrew Johnson announced his plans for Reconstruction, which reflected both his staunch Unionism and his firm belief in states’ rights. In Johnson’s view, the southern states had never given up their right to govern themselves, and the federal government had no right to determine voting requirements or other questions at the state level. Under Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction, all land that had been confiscated by the Union Army and distributed to the freed slaves by the army or the Freedmen’s Bureau (established by Congress in 1865) reverted to its prewar owners. Apart from being required to uphold the abolition of slavery (in compliance with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution), swear loyalty to the Union and pay off war debt, southern state governments were given free reign to rebuild themselves.As a result of Johnson’s leniency, many southern states in 1865 and 1866 successfully enacted a series of laws known as the “black codes,” which were designed to restrict freed blacks’ activity and ensure their availability as a labor force. These repressive codes enraged many in the North, including numerous members of Congress, which refused to seat congressmen and senators elected from the southern states. In early 1866, Congress passed the Freedmen’s Bureau and Civil Rights Bills and sent them to Johnson for his signature. The first bill extended the life of the bureau, originally established as a temporary organization charged with assisting refugees and freed slaves, while the second defined all persons born in the United States as national citizens who were to enjoy equality before the law. After Johnson vetoed the bills–causing a permanent rupture in his relationship with Congress that would culminate in his impeachment in 1868–the Civil Rights Act became the first major bill to become law over presidential veto.Series of racist posters supporting white-supremacist Hiester Clymer in Pennsylvania governor's race in 1866. Caricature of an ex-slave lounging idly while white men work captures the argument against the Freedman's Bureau, black suffrage, and other aspects of the Radical Republican reconstruction program. (Credit: Library of Congress)The Political Cartoon That Explains the Battle Over ReconstructionRADICAL RECONSTRUCTIONCivil War Reconstruction Era Civil War Aftermath AmericaAfter northern voters rejected Johnson’s policies in the congressional elections in late 1866, Republicans in Congress took firm hold of Reconstruction in the South. The following March, again over Johnson’s veto, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which temporarily divided the South into five military districts and outlined how governments based on universal (male) suffrage were to be organized. The law also required southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment, which broadened the definition of citizenship, granting “equal protection” of the Constitution to former slaves, before they could rejoin the Union. In February 1869, Congress approved the 15th Amendment (adopted in 1870), which guaranteed that a citizen’s right to vote would not be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”By 1870, all of the former Confederate states had been admitted to the Union, and the state constitutions during the years of Radical Reconstruction were the most progressive in the region’s history. African-American participation in southern public life after 1867 would be by far the most radical development of Reconstruction, which was essentially a large-scale experiment in interracial democracy unlike that of any other society following the abolition of slavery. Blacks won election to southern state governments and even to the U.S. Congress during this period. Among the other achievements of Reconstruction were the South’s first state-funded public school systems, more equitable taxation legislation, laws against racial discrimination in public transport and accommodations and ambitious economic development programs (including aid to railroads and other enterprises).Reconstruction in Mississippi, 1865-1876Reconstruction: Successes and FailuresRECONSTRUCTION COMES TO AN ENDAfter 1867, an increasing number of southern whites turned to violence in response to the revolutionary changes of Radical Reconstruction. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations targeted local Republican leaders, white and black, and other African Americans who challenged white authority. Though federal legislation passed during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant in 1871 took aim at the Klan and others who attempted to interfere with black suffrage and other political rights, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South after the early 1870s as support for Reconstruction waned. Racism was still a potent force in both South and North, and Republicans became more conservative and less egalitarian as the decade continued. In 1874–after an economic depression plunged much of the South into poverty–the Democratic Party won control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the Civil War.Grant and the Issues of His Time | American Experience | PBSWhen Democrats waged a campaign of violence to take control of Mississippi in 1875, Grant refused to send federal troops, marking the end of federal support for Reconstruction-era state governments in the South. By 1876, only Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina were still in Republican hands. In the contested presidential election that year, Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes reached a compromise with Democrats in Congress: In exchange for certification of his election, he acknowledged Democratic control of the entire South. The Compromise of 1876 marked the end of Reconstruction as a distinct period, but the struggle to deal with the revolution ushered in by slavery’s eradication would continue in the South and elsewhere long after that date. A century later, the legacy of Reconstruction would be revived during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, as African Americans fought for the political, economic and social equality that had long been denied them.

Repeating text is not cheating. It is reusing natural code. You will have to parse this for the funny stuff. Often the funny stuff is also the most challenging stuff.Of course, there was the time that Ali Orooji was asked to dance the hula. It is etched in my mind. There was the time that I met Steve Bourne who delighted in cleaning the glass in frames that held certificates. I knew we would become friends.There is the continuing plot to kidnap the World Champion Trophy and hold it ransom for a hot tub for the Systems crew. I delivered. They didn’t think that the six inch bowl with a water boiler qualified.There was the time that the Hilton Del Rio in San Antonio told me that they had been concerned about hosting a competition for college students during Spring Break. But, that the group was not only well-behaved, they repaired a number things in the hotel.There was the time that we couldn’t get decent Internet access to the Fairmont in Banff Springs (2008). So some of our guys put up a microwave link at the highest point of the hotel, linked it to a microwave tower on a ridge that provided Internet to the university system and worked out a deal where excess bandwidth turned into cash for the schools and bandwidth for a hotel that sat on a granite rock 1,000 feet in diameter, protected (a good thing) by the park service.There was the Harbin sliding incident. Did you know there is a monument to the ICPC at Harbin Engineering University? If you are ever near the library, you can visit it in the park.There was the time …. Oh well, here is the repeat. I am so sorry if this is boring.Here is the repeat:Without a doubt, the most challenging problem for me is the problem of putting on contests year after year, building on success, raising the bar, and not getting off track are a quadripartite problem that can only be done by thousands of great folks, institutions, companies, and communities working together for a common good.So, why don’t I start in 1984. (I know I’m not talking about contest problem sets, but I’ve been trying to answer these questions for five hours now, so I need a bit of liberty.) I was hooked on the “Scholastic Programming Contest” the first time I saw it in 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia, during the Annual Winter Meeting of the ACM Computer Science Conference. UPE was putting it on, giving the prizes, and ACM regional representatives had agreed to recruit contest directors from the 12 geographical regions of ACM that all had a foot in the US and spanned what we called the Free World. I think there were fewer than 1,000 CS faculty at the time.Now in 1984, I had agreed, along with my friend Don Gaitros, both of us at Baylor, and all of our faculty, to put on a regional contest in Austin in conjunction with the 1984 ACM South Central Regional Conference. We do that kind of thing at Baylor, being Texans and all.The contest was to be conducted on microcomputers for the very first time. I was an advocate having used them for teaching and development since their inception. I had tested a new version of Pascal with a neat IDE called “Turbo Pascal”. It was better than mine, so we decided to use it. Denny Frailey of TI and the ACM South Central Regional Representative arranged to provide TI microcomputers running a version of MS-DOS that we offered to the teams at cost of manufacturing. All of them took us up on the offer. I contacted Philippe Kahn, the author of Borland Turbo Pascal, endorsed it, and asked for copies. Philippe gave the software and many prizes to the contest for years to come. Thanks! However, it may have been his brother-in-law who was in charge of marketing who came to the event.Well, you know Marsha Poucher? She has been the ICPC Contest Manager for decades and my wife of 46 years. I’m a work in progress. She is very dedicated. So we had two wonderful daughters, but none had been born at Baylor. So about 9 months before hosting the regional contest… (What? OK? but can I tell the rest of it?)OK. So I knew several months before the November 1984 contest that though I was the Contest Director and the Finals Judges were coming and TI had committed the equipment and Philippe had committed the software and prizes, and Baylor had committed many volunteers (students, staff, faculty), and the reputation of ACM and everyone else was on the line, family comes first. My daughter Melinda was scheduled for delivery about the same time.So, I wrote the first cookbook for a contest where teams had one microcomputer and submissions were made by floppy disk. I designed a dataflow diagram and all of the data products, their flow, and accounting. I provided each person with a role, a written description of their procedures, basically programming the system. It was dubbed “sneaker net”. I had no idea at the time that this would be come the gold standard for contests for years to come.Why? Because, I didn’t think I would be able to come. In fact, the whole group got ready knowing I wouldn’t be there. However, Melinda has always been a most prompt and efficient daughter and an able statesman. She was born a few days before I was to leave. We came home from the hospital one day. My dear mother-in-law, Rea Henderson, was there to take care of Marsha, assisted by her sisters, Elaine and Karen. Marsha agreed and I left the next day for the contest.When I got there, Mark Measures had systems running, Don Gaitros has the judges in good order. All of my colleagues pitched in to run the contest system. I really didn’t have a lot to do other than to entertain the guests, call out the results, and hand out the prizes.The Finals Judges, James Comer and Dick Rinewalt, were impressed. They invited me to join them. And we transformed the finals to the same technology. But what made it special was the Baylor touch. We ran the contest based on visiting my grandmother’s home, Mrs. Monie Carson King, of Pontotoc and Verona, Mississippi.You had to get to grandma’s house. And, you might have to pitch in a little to make everything work well. But you were welcome. You could do no wrong other than to interfere with another. There was no limit to affection. But, you might have to compete a little for attention. And when the visit was over, you wanted to come back.So that is it.There are another forty or so stories.There was the time in New Orleans, 1985, when a colleague had secured computers from the US Army that were Zeniths. They were sweet. A light was out in the ceiling above several of the teams. So 30 minutes before the contest was to start, a maintenance man got on a tall ladder to replace the bulb. It still didn’t work. But, ah ha! There were a pair of dangling wires! He connected them. So 200v went coursing through six machines and fried them. It seems that the US Army had the circuit breakers removed so that they could provide their own power service. Lesson 0: With enough electrical current, everything is a fuse.Fortunately, we had exactly six judges machines. So we gave the six teams the machines (after the power was fixed by disconnecting the wires). And all was well except we could not judge any submissions. In the meantime, I had remembered that there were half a dozen IBM demo machines downstairs in the CSC Exhibit Area. Of course this was at night (6PM to midnight or later back then) and there was a guard, a very kind guard. I true gentleman of the South. Now after discussing matters with him and our concurring that a failed Finals was simply not acceptable in New Orleans, he let the judges come in and use the machines to judge the contest.You know, at the heart of it all, there is such a thing as love of community with all of its faults and failures. So, kudos to our knight in blue. The contest successfully concluded.There was the time that a colleague graciously accepted “NEXT” t-shirts for the contestants even though Apple was the sponsor. I think it was 1987 St. Louis. This was during the time of estrangement between Steve Jobs and Apple. So Apple spends maybe $100K for the contestants to all wear “NEXT” t-shirts? Sure. So I lost them. Of course after the Finals was over, we gave them to the contestants. We keep our commitments but sometimes… BTW, Burt Cummins of Apple sent me a “NEXT” t-shirt, but it was spelled “NEVR”, anyway, I think it was Burt.There was the time that Apple had provided equipment and a colleague was certain that we could handle submission over AppleTalk with a miserable mail system. That was 1888 in Atlanta, Georgia. We had sneaker net as a second contest system (we always have two ways to conduct the World Finals). To avoid embarrassment during testing, I collected the network hardware without approval. It was a bit tense, but the contest worked without a hitch.And then there was AT&T, a great sponsor! It was 1990 and we had the first Finals in which submissions were by Ethernet. Fortunately, we also had Mark Measures. We had the finest workstations running System V UNIX. The 1990 Finals were in Washington, D. C. Now this one was amazing. I had called in favors. Big time. All of us were invited to the White House the day after the contest to tour and then see President George Herbert Walker Bush and wife Barbara in the Rose Garden.We had a great contest! The three major networks agreed to cover part the Finals. They sent TV cameras and news crews. It was spectacular until…They all left just before the contest started. All of them. Not one of them stayed. You see, across the street from the hotel, there was a night club. There was a night club in which a fight broke out. And a knife came out. Triple Murder! Live on all of the news channels.So for the “I was born after the Internet” crowd, its a good thing that there are now a lot of channels and a lot of great reporters that cover the ACM-ICPC World Finals sponsored by IBM. Because IBM is a great company at getting the word out about you. A billion press impressions per year is amazing.So back to the contest, the contest succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. It ended with accurate results. The next day we all went to the White House and saw the President of the USA. By the way, did you know that President Clinton is a fan? There are many heads of state that think that the world would be a better place if we solved problems more frequently than we created them.OK. That got me to 1990. I’ve written replies now for 6 hours. So I’ll just highlight a few more.The introduction of balloons to bring back the visuals of sneaker net once we handled transactions (still by the Cookbook) over ethernet. Why there are different colored balloons. Why we reduced teams from 4 to 3.1991 San Antonio, what a great contest! CJ Hwang committed to grow the contest in Asia. What a miracle worker.1992 Kansas City, the University of Melbourne wins. Balloons start. Threatened with a $150 per balloon fee for getting them down, I bought a pump b-b gun with a scope, set up a range for Mark Measures, determined the necessary strength to pop the balloon but not embed in the ceiling, demoed one shot, handed Mark the gun and left. There were no fees and no lights knocked out. We were on a budget. At the awards ceremony I was given an incorrect order of finish. I announced that the Harvard team had won $1,000. I financed it. There is such a thing as honor. When they came up, I asked them given the circumstances, wouldn’t they come back the next year and win the championship?1993: Indianapolis, again. In 1982, it was -23 degrees F. Back to 1993. Harvard team wins the World Finals! Congratulations again, Derrick, Tony, and Craig! Now I didn’t go to Harvard. However, my 7th great grandfather Joshua Moodey graduate in 1658. He was a minister of 1st Church Boston. He was offered the job of President of Harvard but turned it down because the students were too rowdy. Must have gotten considerably better since then. OK, OK, ministers keep family records, and back then, four hour sermons. So it’s genetic and the reason that I rarely write.And then there were the Microsoft sponsorship years! What a great company. And Tonya Dressel, convincing “Good Morning America” to give us coverage. However, labeling me the “High Geek of Computing” in the Wall Street Journal was over the top. I still laugh about that. I could only image what my friends thought about that, especially given the work I was doing at the time. Anyway. Shout out.So we are in Nashville, 1995, at the Grand Old Opry Hotel. We are there during the country music awards and all of the stars are chatting us up. We are celebrities! So James Comer is talking to Dolly Parton and I look at the two of him. He is there with his “Director” ribbon, “Judge” ribbon, and ACM badge. ACM. “Academy of Country Music”. Oh well, the celebrity was short lived when they read the fine print, Association for Computing Machinery.OK, let’s wrap this up. There was Philadelphia and then San Jose. During the Awards Ceremony we had a bomb scare. There was the Unibomber. Letter from the FBI. Tonya Dressel, this was your fault!And then we came to 1998, the first year of IBM sponsorship in Atlanta. The ACM ICPC World Finals sponsored by IBM. Thanks Brenda Chow, John Swainson, and Steve Mills. We will complete 20 years of sponsorship in 2017. And we have a lot to do to make sure that the ICPC is here for another generation of problem solvers.So, it’s the night before the contest and all is well except my daughters are restless and asked to go take a tour of the hotel and contest area in the middle of the night. “Dad! There was a fork lift trying to get in the contest area! There were posters on all the walls. They aren’t IBM posters, they are Microsoft posters!” So I went down with them and there must have been 100–200 posters everywhere and a fork lift wanting to go through the contest area to put up some more signs. I fixed that.So we spent the next hour or so taking down signs, hundreds of signs. Signs on the walls, in the stair wells, on the doors, even in the rest rooms! It was hilarious! However, it was not the way to start the IBM sponsorship. I kept a couple of them. I gave John Swainson one of them as a souvenir. Do folks love the ICPC. You bet.There was one that I didn’t get. There was a Microsoft banner on the inside door of one of the stalls in the Lady’s Room. There are limits to what I will do as director.So maybe next year, I’ll tell you some really amazing things about contest problems, judging, printing, security, a seriel powerplug puller, and what happened during the 20 years of IBM sponsorship. But I’m pooped.Best,Bill