Bible Drill and Speakers Coronavirus Update 2

Due to the Coronavirus, we find ourselves in unprecedented times.  In addition to national/state guidelines and regulations, we also realize that each family, church, association, and community has different circumstances. We recommend that you follow the advice of your pastor, association, local government leaders and medical advice when making a determination regarding your option for a church and/or associational drill.  

If a Church or Associational Drill has been canceled due to the Coronavirus, we recommend the following:

• Reschedule the drill if time and circumstances allow.  We realize that this will probably not be an option for many churches or associations.
• Hold a small church drill (limit to 10 or less). You may have to schedule on different days and only drill 3-5 at a time with no family in the audience because of the need for judges/and caller.  Option: Limit drillers to 3-4 per drill and livestream your church drill.  
• If an Associational Drill is canceled: Under these special circumstances of the coronavirus, drillers can advance to the Regional/State Drills under one of these options:
  • Apply the Associational standards to your church drill.  Any children’s drillers who scored 16 at the church level may advance to the State Drill. Youth/High School Drillers who score 225 or more may advance to the Regional Drills.
  • Host a second drill at your church (limit attendance as described above) and designate it as your associational drill, using different “calls” and applying the associational standards to advance.
  • If you had a church drill scheduled later and are unable to host a small church drill, contact us at bibledrillspeakers@gmail.com.

Please keep in mind small groups of 10 or less, social distancing, and good cleaning/disinfecting procedures. 

At this point, we have not canceled any of our Regional Drills.  We’ll make individual Regional Drill locations final decisions closer to the dates. 

In the event Regional/State Drill Events are canceled:

• Children’s Bible Drillers will have the option to attend a later Regional/State Drill (if this option is available) or participate in a State Drill at their local church with guidelines/materials provided by Georgia Baptist Bible Drill and Speakers Inc., with an extended timeframe.
• Youth and High School Drillers will have the option to attend a later Regional/State Drill (if this option is available) or local churches will conduct the Regional Drill with guidelines/materials supplied by us and submit a video of the drill to us for scoring.
• Speakers – Speeches will be submitted via video along with a copy of their written speech and have our judges score it based 50% on delivery and 50% on written content.  

Registration for Regional Drills will now probably not open until the first week of April. We may only open an event or two at a time in order to closely monitor the current situation and make the best decisions possible.  Get immediate updates from our website by entering your e-mail address on our main webpage.

If we are able to host our Regional Drills as planned, the cost per driller/speaker to register will be $20.  If we move to the remote/video option, the cost to register for each driller/speaker will be $10.  (The remote registration fee will cover partial cost of administrative expenses, certificates/awards, and shipment expenses.). Member churches who contributed $250 or more to Georgia Baptist Bible Drill and Speakers Inc., earlier this year will receive special instructions to register each driller at a 50% discount.

We are still hoping to have a State Youth/High School Drill on our original date of May 9, but are also looking at a possible back-up date in June that we will announce in the near future.

Thank you for your patience and gracious consideration as events in our state and country are unfolding on a daily basis. Please understand that we may have to make additional future adjustments.