Thank you for attending the MIST Texas 2010 Regional tournament this past weekend, and Congratulations to all the winners!

Though we only recognized the top 3 winners at the Awards Ceremony, the top 5 from each competition will move on to the Nationals tournament this summer. Those results will be posted on the MIST Texas website (www.getmistified.com/houston) within the next 2 weeks inshaAllah.

FEEDBACK

Every year we try to improve, and the best way is through constructive criticism from those who attended. So let us know what you, your school, and your coach thought about MIST by filling out this quick survey ->  CLICK

JazakAllahukhair!

Alhumdulillah, the weekend we have all been anticipating is finally here!

Please arrive at the University Center (map) of the University of Houston no later than 8am tomorrow morning.
Schools shall report to the Houston Room on the Second Floor.

Once there, each school will be asked for one representative to visit the Registration table and collect the school’s registration material, each student will then be given a program with the timings of all competitions and workshops. Please pay attention so that we may do this in a timely manner.

A few things to Remember…

COACHES
Coaches and their students must be present at ALL times during the 3 days. This year, coaches will have to accompany their schools to the workshops. It will be the coaches’ main reponsibility during the tournament to make sure their students are present and in order during the workshops.

PROJECTS
All Group Projects and Art Projects MUST be submitted on Saturday morning before any competitions begin. Report to the Houston Room and one or two representatives from each school will be asked to bring all of the school’s projects to the Proejct Turn In room. ALL PROJECTS MUST BE CLEARLY LABELED WITH THEIR MIST ID’s.

COMPETITIONS
Students should report to the assigned room for their competitions at the correct time on the schedule.
If you are late or miss your competitions, there will no make ups.
For comeptitions that have Finals Rounds, YOU will be solely respnsible to constantly check the projector in the main hallway to see if you or your school has advanced. If you advance to a Finals Round yet you do not show up because you didn’t check the projector, there is nothing we can do. When in doubt.. ask!

FOOD
Lunch and Dinner will be provided, you must present an ID badge in order to get food.

DRESS CODE
-Students should wear business casual attire for the entire tournament.
-Jeans are not allowed.
-Students cannot wear clothes that contain language or symbols that demean an identifiable person or group or otherwise infringe on the rights of others.
-Students should not wear short-sleeve shirts, shorts, and/or skirts above the ankle
-Students should not wear clothes that are see through, tight, or suggestive in any way. Shirts should be long enough to cover the stomach and back side. Students should not wear low rise pants that show any skin.
-Sisters must cover their bodies with Islamic attire. That includes wearing Hijab, loose clothing, and modestly covering the body.
Dress code violators will be penalized.

RULES
Students not in competitions must always be in a workshop at the assigned room on the schedule, no loitering in the halls will be permitted.
All Basketball players must be present on the days of MIST and must show up to their competitions. If students who played basketball do not show up to MIST, this calls for disqualification from the basketball tournament.

BEHAVIOR
All students must act in a professional, mature and responsible manner.
Any fights, whether physical or verbal are absolutely not permitted and calls for immediate disqualification from the tournament.
MIST wants to promote an appropriate Islamic environment so immodest behavior, foul language, and unnecessary social intermingling between opposite genders will NOT be permitted.
Remember.. This tournament is to build leaders and responsible young adults, so all forms of bad behavior will have repercussions. Offenses will be sent to the appropriate authorities.

AWARDS CEREMONY
Unruly and out of hand yelling or screaming will not be permitted. Remember the theme.. ‘Modesty’
Schools are permitted to bring in shakers or daffs to cheer on their team. No blow horns or other loud noise makers will be permitted.
We encourage all students to say the Takbeer – AllahuAkbar when their schools win an achievement, as all of our efforts would be nothing without the help and greatness of Allah!
_______________

We look forward to an amazing weekend with all of you. We have put in so much effort to make this tournament a great success for you and your school, and we know you have been working extremely hard as well! We hope that all of you may grow as better Muslims and future leaders of our community, and we hope MIST may facilitate that growth, inshaAllah.

Have fun and stay safe!

-Safiya Ravat
MIST Texas Director

First off, I wanted to thank all schools for their amazing cooperation with our Registration coordinator to get MIST Registration completed on time. Alhumdulillah this year we are expecting over 30 teams, and we are extremely excited!

Below are VERY important updates and reminders, PLEASE read all the way through!
_________________
BASKETBALL

Brother’s Basketball will be a 2-DAY EVENT on February 27th & 28th at 9AM at the
University of Houston – Campus Recreation and Wellness Center (Rec Center)
<<CLICK HERE for map and directions>>

Sister’s Basketball will be a 1-DAY EVENT on February 28th at 8AM at the
University of Houston – Melcher Gymnasium (near Garrison, same place as last year)
<<CLICK HERE for map and directions>>

Please read Basketball rules online HERE.
All players will need matching, numbered jerseys. Sisters’ Bball will be in an enclosed gym, however cameras may need to be referred to for security purposes if any violations occur. Sisters’ shorts must be no shorter than the knees.

NO STUDENT WILL BE ALLOWED TO PLAY WITHOUT A SCHOOL ID. If you are from an Islamic school without school issued IDs, you MUST have your coach present to verify that you are from the school, or you will not be able to play.

BROTHERS WILL NOT PLAY WITHOUT A PARENT-SIGNED WAIVER. CLICK HERE for the waiver. The Rec Center requires all players and parents to sign this waiver, so all brothers bball teams must bring them in on Saturday, no exceptions. Sisters will sign a waiver on-site, no parent signature necessary.

NOTE: Food will not be provided, but players will be given a lunch break to purchase food from either on or off campus vendors.

____________________
COMPETITIONS

All MIST Bowl packets are up. Debate topics will be up within the next few days, inshaAllah.

Make sure to keep up with the Early Deadlines:

Early Submission date is March 1, 2010 for
Prepared Essay, Short Fiction, Children’s Book, Short Film

Early Topic Submission date is February 21, 2010 for
Science Fair, Community Service

For those students who have not yet chosen a Community Service topic, here is an opportunity you may look into – CLICK HERE
__________
RULES

Please read through the rules HERE and notify your teams. General, Dress Code, Behavior, and Awards Ceremony rules have been posted.

MIST wished to promote an Islamic environment for all attendees, please help us to reach this goal!

And remember the theme… Modesty
__________

If you have any questions, contact mist.texas@gmail.com

JazakAllahukhair,
-Safiya Ravat
MIST Texas Director

InshaAllah, the MIST Texas 2010 basketball tournaments will take place on the weekend of

February 27th & February 28th, 2010

at the

University of Houston
Campus Recreation and Wellness Center (Rec Center)
CLICK HERE for map and directions

Many of you emailed MIST over concern about the dates of the Basketball tournament. Usually, we hold it the weekend before the tournament, but that weekend (March 13-14) happens to fall on an SAT testing weekend. In order to ensure that all students can attend the basketball competition, we have bumped the MIST Texas 2010 Basketball tournament to February 27-28, 2010, if there are any changes or updates, we will let you know ASAP.

All students who attend the Basketball tournament MUST sign a waiver and adhere to the dress code. Those updates will be coming soon!

Stay tuned for updates!

JazakAllahukhair,
-Safiya Ravat
MIST Texas Director

• For those who have registered for competitions– When you go to the payment tab, the system will say that you have a payment of $47.  However, if you make a small change to your registration (i.e. add a competition to your registration, then remove that competition so that everything is as it was originally set), the online system will update your fee, and show that you have a payment of $42.
• For those who have not yet registered — You will have a payment of $42
• For those who have already registered and Paid, please contact register.mist@gmail.com so we can discuss a partial refund.

Registration
Registration for MIST Texas 2010 is now open! CLICK HERE to Register your team before the deadline
Deadline: February 12, 2010
Late Deadline: February 19, 2010

The cost is $47 for competitors and $42 for non-competitors. MIST is working hard to get our students the best quality Halal cuisine that Houston offers, you will NOT be disappointed inshaAllah!

For Registration troubleshooting - CLICK HERE

If you have not already received your team code, or you have any questions about Registration, email register.mist@gmail.com

Competitions
Competition topics are now up!

Check out the Competitions section of our website HERE to see the following updates:

-Knowledge Books
-Writing and Oratory Topics
-Group Projects Topics

MIST Bowl Packets, Tafseer Packets, and Debate topics will be up February 1, 2010 inshaAllah.

Some competitions require students to submit their work early.
The mandatory Early Submission date is March 1, 2010 for
-Prepared Essay
-Short Fiction
-Children’s Book
-Short Film

The mandatory Early Topic Submission date is February 21, 2010 for
-Science Fair
-Community Service

If you have any questions about Competitions, email mist.competition@gmail.com

Saturday, March 20

Sunday, March 21

Monday, March 22

Save the dates!