Company Miscellany

• Official Policies
• Sub Host Policy
• PTO and Holidays
• Vacations, Wellness, Leaves of Absence
• Playing Trivia and Ineligibility
• Covid-19 Policy
• About Trivia Mafia
• Who can I contact for support?
• Glossary
• Code of Conduct

Official Policies

Sub Host Policy

Getting A Sub

If you know you are unable to keep a shift, you are going to require a substitute host to run your regular trivia night, and it is up to you to find and confirm that sub host in a timely fashion. Many of our hosts stay on the lookout for extra shifts!

Utilize the Sub Form to Request a sub (it creates a post in the #sub-needed channel in the Host Slack), or DM/email/text people you know directly. The On-Call staff can help get you ideas on who might be game if you don’t know anyone! 

When you secure a sub, fill out the Sub Form (under Notification): triviamafia.com/subform. This allows us to make sure your Sub gets the questions that day, and to make sure our payroll is accurate.

When you complete the Sub Form, both you and your Sub will get a confirmation email, which includes any notes you wrote in the form and a link to the folder of In Case of Emergency (ICOE) forms. An ICOE is automatically generated for every new site and should be updated within your first few weeks as the host; contact the AV Expert Davis for support with finding/filling in the ICOE.

Verify that your Sub has the necessary materials! You are responsible for ensuring your Sub has (access to) a PA (if applicable). Notify the On-Call or Host Manager immediately if you’re unable to get them supplies in time for your scheduled shift.

Ideally, start looking for a sub a week or two before it’s needed. However, we understand that a sub may be needed on short notice. We consider emergencies to be situations related to illness, family issues, transportation — not the results of poor planning. If you do not feel you can safely get to your site due to weather or other external issues, let us know! Your safety is more important than running a game.

If you find yourself in need of a sub within two days of your trivia night, please reach out to the On-Call or Host Manager in addition to posting your sub request to the Slack group. We can not guarantee a sub for your shift if you have not allowed more than 48 hours notice and it is not an emergency. We can and we have cancelled trivia with the customer if no sub is available, but it's the last resort - that can damage our relationship with the customer (and, ultimately, remove your job there if they end their contract with us). Post early, post often.

NO-CALL/NO-SHOWS ARE UNACCEPTABLE, AND ARE GROUNDS FOR IMMEDIATE TERMINATION.

Regarding Sub Frequency: We strive to provide a consistent experience for our players and our bars, and the best way to provide that is with a regular host. Our trivia players develop positive, personal connections with their hosts. When hosts frequently sub out of their shifts, turnouts decline and the customer may end their contract. We monitor for trivia nights that use a sub more than once a month. When we see that happen, we will reach out to the host and caution them that too much subbing can be problematic for the ongoing health of a trivia night. If you feel you need to take on that amount of substitutions on a routine basis, a weekly trivia night might not be the best fit for you and we may look to explore alternative options, like sharing the site with another host or shifting you to another location.

Long-Term Sub Needs

If you will need a sub for more than three weeks, that would be a Long-Term Sub situation. Talk to Mary Kate to arrange for that! (Three or fewer would be on you to find coverage for each shift.) As much as possible, we try to find one person to take the full run to support consistency for the site and players. 

Subbing In for Someone Else

If you pick up someone else’s shift, thank you!

Please make sure that you know the vitals details for their venue (i.e. scope out that ICOE sheet), especially if it will be your first night working at that particular location. If you do not have materials for the night, check with the person who you’re covering for, the On Call, or the Host Manager to get you the materials you need. If you do not see the questions email by 3:30 PM on the day of your event, post in #general on Slack or email Sophie. You should get a confirmation email when the Sub Form is submitted as well.

If you are traveling more than 20 miles round-trip, you can fill in the Reimbursement Form and we’ll pay you up to $25 as a bump for doing this solid for your coworkers and the company. It’s valuable to us!

Please consider taking sub shifts, particularly last-minute requests. Not only does it help out your fellow hosts, but it’s also great way to get mileage under your hosting belt, accrue more PTO, and build some karma for when you find yourself in need of a sub!
However, no host is required to be a sub outside of their regularly scheduled gig.

PTO and Holidays

Paid Time Off and Holidays

PTO

All Trivia Mafia employees (full or part time) accrue Paid Time Off (PTO) at the rate of 1 hour per 28 hours worked.

Employees may use their PTO for any shift they had the reasonable expectation to work. Took a planned vacation? Site cancelled due to schedule conflict or weather? Dog ate your phone and you had to get a sub? All good reasons to use PTO!

Any PTO balance over 80 hours of banked time will be automatically added to the first paycheck of each new calendar year. If an employee leaves Trivia Mafia (either voluntarily or involuntarily), any accrued PTO will be included in the final check.

To view your available PTO balance, please visit your profile at Gusto.com.

To use PTO hours, employees must send an email within seven days of the applicable date to payroll@triviamafia.com.

Trivia Mafia is a Minneapolis-based company and our PTO policies comply with the sick-and-safe policies of Minneapolis and St. Paul (which are applicable company-wide, regardless of where an employee works). To view those policies in full, please visit these links:

• MINNEAPOLIS POLICY

• ST. PAUL POLICY

Paid Holidays

Any Trivia Mafia employee averaging 35 hours per week or more qualifies for paid holidays. These holidays are: New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, the Day After Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, plus one floating holiday.

Holidays with No Trivia

Trivia Mafia does not run any regular, public games on the following holidays: Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or New Year’s Eve. If a host would have had a shift on one of those days, they may use their accrued PTO by emailing payroll@triviamafia.com. 

Vacations, Wellness, Leaves of Absence

Taking Vacations, Wellness Time, or a Leave of Absence

Staff can take time off from their duties as needed (or desired), so long as they get their work covered for the duration. We're not interested in policing your reasons! We just need to get the work done.

Alert us when you want to use PTO by emailing payroll@triviamafia.com. (Refer to this page for more info on PTO benefits.)

Hosts should fill in the Sub Form to post a Request for a host sub; then use the Sub Form to file a Notification. The Request step can also take the form of a Slack DM to contact other Trivia Mafia staff to arrange for shift coverage - hosts are responsible for finding a sub for their shift. (Refer to this page for more info on our Sub Host Policy.) For Hosts, more than three weeks would be a Long-Term Sub situation (talk to Mary Kate to arrange for that); three or fewer would be on you to find coverage for each shift.

Admin staff should use the Out-of-Office form to file notice for time off (noting that we have gradients in that form, from 100% out to Out But Sorta In for working while parenting, for example). 
For a longer leave or more complicated coverage support, reach out to the department manager to work out a schedule - or just email Brenna if you’re really unsure.

We will always work with you one-on-one to figure out the best way to accommodate your needs as a person to get time off and keep your job, in balance with the needs of the business to ensure that the work is getting done. The more we know, the better we can help.

Playing Trivia and Ineligibility

Hosts may play regular trivia or theme events, but Trivia Mafia staff are ineligible for participation in our large competitive tournaments. This includes all events for which we sell tickets and/or at which there is a monetary prize (i.e. the Tournament of Champions). The appearance of a conflict of interest is too great -- we trust our staff, but we don't want to put a sour feeling into our players.

Covid-19 Policy

Trivia Mafia's Covid-19 Policy

All Trivia Mafia hosts are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

All Trivia Mafia hosts are encouraged to wear masks during their trivia shifts, in accordance with local policies and personal comfort, with exceptions for eating, drinking, and speaking into a microphone. This includes both indoor and outdoor/patio trivia events. All Trivia Mafia hosts have been instructed to maintain a safe distance from their players as often as is reasonable.

Trivia Mafia relies on our venue partners to create live events that adhere to the most current recommendations from federal, state, and local authorities.

If you test positive for COVID-19, you will need to isolate for at least 7 days and provide proof of a negative Covid test (rapid or PCR) in order to return to the hosting schedule. This can be emailed or messaged to any of the Powers That Be, or the Host Manager.

About Trivia Mafia

Trivia Mafia began in 2007 as a weekly Sunday trivia night in Northeast Minneapolis, then called "Chuck & Sean's Trivia." It started small, but quickly grew, and was soon dubbed "the best bar trivia in Minneapolis." By 2009, they were getting asked to run games at enough other businesses that they got serious and created Trivia Mafia, LLC. 

In 2015, Trivia Mafia partnered with the people at 331 Club to create the Drinking Spelling Bee, which ran under our auspices until 2020. In 2021, we sold the rights to that game to the hosts, so they could continue the magic. 

During the 2010s, we invented a few holidays so we could play more games - Buxtahooda, which was like lawn games on steroids (with very little trivia) and Laborial Day, a taproom crawl with trivia at four spots, that happened sometime between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Participants would buy a wristband or tickets for a pint at each stop, and had to wear white and black clothing.

In 2014, we partnered with Ellie B. to take on the operations for Blingo! - a blinged-out Bingo game that specialized in hip-hop playlists and golden chalice prizes. 

In 2018, we first hit 100 regular trivia events in a week. We also introduced theme trivia events for the first time after testing the waters with "The Big Lebowski," "Gilmore Girls," and the "Game of Thrones" Geography Bee.

In 2019, we introduced QuizBang!! as a sister brand, creating a format with two 45-minute games that contained all general-knowledge questions. When we relaunched it in 2021, it evolved to the lean DIY format it has today, allowing customers to download just questions and marketing templates and do the rest on their own for a more affordable price. 

In 2020, just as we hit 200 customers, we had to stop everything. (There was a pandemic, you may recall.) We pivoted to online games, developing proficiency in Zoom and Twitch: the former, so we could make some money on Private Events, and the latter, so we could continue to bring joy into the lives of our loyal players. We also created a Patreon so that our company wouldn't crater; that support continues today!

In 2021, we returned to running live, in-person events, and introduced our digital answer site, AKA "the app." We changed the way we offer theme trivia so that customer locations could pick any day in a given month for a Featured theme, or a Rerun of a previously featured theme trivia. 

In 2024, we launched Initials Game Live in partnership with Cory Cove, who had created The Initials Game as a weekly segment on the KFAN Morning Trip radio show. He had also created a tabletop game, but was excited to bring The Initials Game into bars and taprooms as a way to combine his puzzle game with our recurring event savvy. We developed a special game app for this format as well, incorporating the same sounds used on the radio show, but all content is created fresh by the Trivia Mafia Editorial staff. 

As of 2025, we operate in seven states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, and California), have 20 Admin staff and nearly 200 Host staff. We run one big event, the Tournament of Champions, every November, and look forward to continuing to find new and fun ways to promote knowledge and facts and hanging out with people you like. 

Good trivia isn't trivial. 

Who can I contact for support?

At any time, with any questions, you may contact any of these fine folks: 

Mary Kate Derrick, Host Manager

MARYKATE@TRIVIAMAFIA.COM
(563) 349-7847

Brenna Proczko, Executive Vice President

BRENNA@TRIVIAMAFIA.COM
(651) 497-5441

Chuck Terhark, Owner-Operator

CHUCK@TRIVIAMAFIA.COM
(612) 423-4366

Corrin Voeller, Recruiter

CORRIN@TRIVIAMAFIA.COM

Use this contact list for any questions, comments, complaints, quibbles, or clarifications you may have relating to your trivia night, or for any employment-related things. Your primary point of contact will be the Host Manager, but continue down the list if they are not available.

Note: Questions about paychecks, PTO balance, reimbursement et al should be sent to payroll@triviamafia.com. 

On the night of hosting, you can reply-all to the questions email to get thoughts from your fellow hosts.

You can call the On-Call person for your event's day (Mary Kate and Brenna cover Friday-Monday; Tuesday is Charles Spolyar, Wednesday is Richard Thorson, Thursday is Marcus Woodard). You can also contact AV Expert Davis Steen via Slack or email.

You can post in the Host Slack under the channel that matches your issue, whether it be #answer-app, #avtroubleshooting, #content, #initialsgame, #social-media, #sub-needed, or #general.

If you're hosting a Private Event, you can use the #privateevents channel in Host Slack, email Richard or Greg or events@triviamafia.com, or any of the On-Call team (if it's the day of the week they are on).

Glossary

Here are some of the frequently used jargon, terminology, acronyms and abbreviations used internally here at Trivia Mafia, LLC. 

Term/Abbv	Simple Definition	Longer Explanation
IGL	Initials Game Live	newest offering from Trivia Mafia, partnership with KFAN host Cory Cove: three rounds with one initials set each that has five items; customers get full staff and marketing support
PE	Private Events	one-off or limited series contracts for wide variety of clients, from corporations to birthday parties to fundraisers; clients can do content-only or get fully hosted programming of nearly any length, with customizable content; typically TMC
PTB, TPTB	the Powers That Be	referring to the Trivia Mafia leadership; specifically Chuck, Brenna, Sean, but generally the admin people who run things
QB or QB!!	QuizBang!!	a sister brand, utilizing vetted content that is scaled to be more accessible, and delivered directly to customers who run their own shows. Trivia Mafia does not provide staff, online presence, or social media support, just the questions and marketing asset templates.
TMC	Trivia Mafia Classic	the original flavor format of Trivia Mafia: eight rounds, ~two hours; customers get full staffing and marketing support

TMC = Trivia Mafia Classic = the original flavor format of Trivia Mafia: eight rounds, ~two hours, with full staffing and marketing support

IGL = Initials Game Live = newest offering from Trivia Mafia: three rounds with one initials set each that has five items; customers get full staff and marketing support

QB!! = QuizBang!! = a sister brand of trivia, utilizing vetted content that is scaled to be more accessible, and delivered directly to customers who run their own shows. Trivia Mafia does not provide staff, online presence, or social media support, just the questions and marketing asset templates. 

Event = a single instance of a trivia game (as in, a theme night is an event, a regular Tuesday game is a schedule event, a one-time special game is a Private Event, etc)

Code of Conduct

Be Respectful

Always be fair and courteous to fellow Trivia Mafia employees, customers, players, and the staff of businesses associated with Trivia Mafia. You may get heckled, but keep to the high road when you respond. While some teasing and joking is fun to toss in as a host, we never want to mock or disparage players who don’t know answers — we want to generate an inclusive atmosphere! It’s cool to be kind.

Also, keep in mind that you are more likely to resolve work-related complaints by speaking directly with the Powers That Be than by posting complaints to a social media outlet or general Slack channel. If you decide to post complaints or criticism, avoid using statements, photographs, video or audio that reasonably could be viewed as malicious, obscene, threatening or intimidating, that disparage Trivia Mafia customers, employees, players, or suppliers, or that might constitute harassment or bullying. It could make you liable for defamation, and could jeopardize your employment. It could also be lame.

Expect Respect

We advocate for all our staff, for situations minor and major. Just as players are on the honor system, we trust our employees to act in good faith and do what they can in the moment.

The most common issues arise in making a call during a game related to scoring — if a player feels that they were unfairly denied a point, or that our content was faulty, the host on the scene has to handle that. We back up their decisions, but will always try to hear out a player to ensure that we can get the full context and help determine any coaching or other takeaways (maybe a question should be rewritten, for example). 

If a host is insulted or harassed while at work, Trivia Mafia will work with our business partner to change the environment. We will never ask you to return to hosting at a site where you feel unsafe! When it comes from a player, we'll advocate for that player to no longer be allowed to patronize the business on trivia nights. When it comes from staff at the site, we'll request that they no longer be scheduled on nights when there is trivia. We will talk to our customer contacts about how to create a safe and respectful space. If they cannot accommodate that, then we may end our partnership. The wellbeing of our employees is more important.

Personal Appearance

Trivia Mafia recognizes that mode of dress and standards of personal appearance are a matter of individual taste, but they must not hinder the employee’s abilities to perform their duties. You may be in a bar/taproom, but you’re still at work; clothes should be clean, hygiene should be healthy. If setting up a PA is part of the equation, your clothing should allow for sufficient movement to do that. If you're physically unable to perform actions like lifting a PA, we will work to determine if there the customer staff can assist, or if you'd be better suited at a different site. 

We also ask that any text on clothing be free of swear words and generally considered appropriate for the audience — i.e. if you are hosting at a family-friendly restaurant at 6pm, your ensemble should likewise be family-friendly. We have no issues with tattoos, piercings, hair color, dreadlocks, etc, but we do take into account any customer feedback when a venue finds a host appearance to be a mismatch with the vibe of their business. This falls under the category of reading the room; think of your personal presentation to be a little like the music on your playlist, and adjust accordingly.