On Aug. 21, 2020, the Tarleton Activities Board (T.A.B.) hosted a trivia night in the Barry B. Thompson Student Center ballrooms.

This event was set up for students to win cash prizes, during five rounds of trivia for a total of $300 given away at the end of the night. The top three places in each round were paid $30, $20, and $10, with each student being able to win more than once.

To get into trivia night, each student had to have the Corq app installed on their phone and their event pass code was scanned by a T.A.B. member.

The Corq app allows for T.A.B. to keep track of the number of people attending events, as well as send out surveys for event attendees to answer.

While the scanners wore masks and encouraged students to wear masks, the social distancing guidelines were difficult to adhere to. A few students did not have the Corq app installed making the scanning process take up more time, which caused the line to back up. This made for more crowding in the hallway. People with the Corq app installed ahead of time moved past those waiting on the app to download to enter the room quickly. After the scanning process, most of the students followed both the social distancing guidelines and mask protocol.

The chairs in the ballrooms appeared to be six feet apart in every direction. The host also announced that if anyone was uncomfortable receiving cash in person they would Venmo or Cash App the winners.

The Trivia process happened on a website called triviastreamlive.com, and throughout the night many students experienced technical difficulties. The host said that the volume of people on the website caused the technical difficulties.

Some experienced a gray box appearing on their screen and stopping their answers from counting. Others had issues with disconnecting and Wi-Fi troubles. The first issue identified was after a person would select their answer, then the website would change the location of the answers. The box the person had clicked would stay the same but the answer inside the box would change. This caused a few people to become upset and leave the event because their answers were wrong.

The host tried to switch to the chat option on the website during the technical difficulties. The first person to answer the question correct in the chat won $10. The chat option was used twice in the night as some of the students were able to get back online right after the first round in the chat. The night only lasted for four rounds of trivia instead of five due to the technical difficulties.

In the fourth round the top three places won double the money of the payout for the other three rounds.

T.A.B. will host numerous events throughout the year on campus, including Coffee with Commuters on Sept. 17 in the commuter parking lots starting at 7:30 a.m.

T.A.B. is hosting Tarleton Trivia at noon on Wednesday Sept. 9 and 23, in the Barry B. Thompson Student Center lobby. Students will have an opportunity to win prizes and learn about Tarleton. Later in the month T.A.B. will be hosting the Tuesdays’ Treat with T.A.B. on Sept. 29 on the Dining Hall patio T.A.B. will be giving out treats and prizes.