I'm writing to invite you to help with the marking for Round 1 of the UK Linguistics Olympiad this year. If you're already registered as a marker, please ignore the rest of this message; but if not, please read on.

As you probably know, we depend on volunteers for almost everything in UKLO, including the marking of Advanced scripts in the first round. Last year we had 1500 Advanced scripts, but we never know the actual number until the competition is finished and we like to have a pool of potential markers in reserve, so it would be great if you could at least put yourself on the mailing list for messages from Neema Kotonya, our marking coordinator. It's very simple, and handled by our wonderful portal; it's explained at https://www.uklo.org/for-markers. You can choose your target number so it's no more onerous than you want it to be (and of course we may find we don't need your help at all this year, depending on the number of entries). It's all done online, including the marking, and of course we provide a detailed specification of the answers and how to mark them. The main constraint is that the marking has to be done in the week of 10-16 February.

With best wishes, Dick