The Basics:

​​

• Each team will consist of three members. All three members must be employees/members of the participating organization. A business may choose to sponsor a team from a nonprofit or educational agency. Exceptions must be brought to the Biz Bee Committee for review.

 

• Words used in the Biz Bee will be selected from the Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (year TBD). Study guides are available online at www.myspellit.com.
   

• Team members may collaborate on the spelling of the word. The designated speller must begin spelling within 20 seconds and completely spell the word in 60 seconds.

 

• Any question relating to the spelling of a word shall be referred to the judges immediately. The deadline for making a protest is before the team affected would have received their next word had they stayed in the competition. The judges are in complete control of the Biz Bee. Their decisions shall be final on all questions.

 

The Order:

 

• Team members will be identified as 1, 2, 3; the designated speller will rotate. Team member #1 will be the designated speller in the first round; team member #2 will be the designated speller in the second round; team member #3 will be the designated speller in the third round, etc. Team members can collaborate and use paper to write words down.
   

• The pronouncer will pronounce the word, give the definition of the word, the MC will use it in a sentence, and the pronouncer will pronounce the word once more. Team members may ask for one additional pronunciation of the word, but no more. Team members may ask for the language of origin or any alternate pronunciations.
   

• The speller will not be disqualified for noting or failing to note punctuation, accents, or spacing within the word. 
   

• Having started to spell a word, the designated speller may stop and start over, retracing the spelling from the beginning, but in the retracing, there can be no changes of letters in the sequence from the first spelling. If letters, or their sequence, are changed in the respelling, the team will be eliminated. 

 

If a team does not know how to spell the word, it may use one of the following perks:

• Word Throw Out - Remove the word from circulation and get a new one (each team has the opportunity to throw out three words during the evening: $100 the first time, $200 the second time, and $350 the third time.)

•  Word Pass - Pass the word to another designated team and get a new word for the cost of $50. Only one pass can be purchased per team.

• Fly By - (obtained by selling the most raffle tickets) - Allows the team to hear a word and skip the round entirely within the first three rounds.

• First Round Buy Back - Upon missing the spelling of a word, the team immediately drops out of the competition. However, during the first round only, upon missing a word, a team may buy back into the competition for $100. This entitles them to compete in the second round.

The decision to pass, throw out a word, or use the Fly By must be made prior to any attempt to spell the word.

Lifelines (purchased during the event) - If the audience wishes to help out a team, they may pay for a lifeline!

​

The Showdown:

 

• When the teams are reduced to two, the elimination procedure changes. At that point, when one team misspells a word, the other team shall be given an opportunity to spell that same word. If the second team spells that word correctly, plus the next word on the pronouncer’s list, that team shall be declared the winner.

 

• If one of the last two teams misspells a word and the other team, after correcting the error, misspells the new word, then the misspelled new word shall be referred to the first team. If that team succeeds in correcting the error and then correctly spells the next word on the pronouncer’s list, that team shall be declared the winner.

 

• If both teams misspell the same word, both shall continue in the contest, and the team that first misspelled the word shall be given a new word to spell. The competition shall then continue under rules 11 and 12. *This rule only applies to the final two teams. The third-place team at no point re-enters the contest after Misspelling.

 

• Any question relating to the spelling of a word shall be referred to the judges immediately. The deadline for making a protest is before the team affected would have received their next word had they stayed in the competition. When only two teams remain, a protest must be made immediately before the second team has started to spell the word given to them, or if both have missed the same word, before the correct spelling is announced to the audience.

 

• No “passes” or word “throw outs” may be used during the final rounds, when only two teams remain. 

 

And remember...A $100,000 donation to the Literacy Council of Alaska will be assessed on any team using or having a printed or electronic dictionary during the spelling competition.