The German situation:
In my local club we have a Duplimate. 1 or 2 volunteers make the boards for the week, once a week. This takes them about 90 minutes.
For the German Teams and German Mixed Teams (both Swiss), boards are duplicated beforehand, we also have about 1 set for 4 tables, but instead of making 4-table groups we proviede the boards incrementally. Boards progress downward, normally table N-> N-1 -> N-2 -> etc. This makes it tougher for players to know what boards are played where and when.
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are all the boards made before the event, or is someone paid to make them during? Who does the duplicating, a 3rd party, director, caddies? Does anyone know the costs involved?
The boards are duplicated by a 3rd party and sent by mail. Costs are something like 1 per board all inclusive. At the biggest tourneys, boards are sometimes made at the venue.
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Are boards just passed on to the next table as in pairs or are they just put in a stack in the middle of a group of tables? How is it handled when a table is slow and causing another table to wait for boards?
Handed down to the next table. If a table is slow and the other table is waiting, you can simply give them the NEXT board up. The basic position is:
Table 1: (finished board 1,2,3, waiting for #4)
Table 2: (finished board 3, playing #4)
Table 3: (finished board 5,6, playing #7)
Now you give table 1 board 5, telling them to return it to table 2 when they are finished. When table 2 has finished board 4, they will give it to table 1 and will play number 6 first.
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How many teams attend the typical weekend ~monthly tournament in your area?
Unfortunately, only 30 or so teams attend to the weekend tournaments.