All students participating in the ACTR Olympiada of Spoken Russian must have a sponsor, who will register the students in advance of the event and chaperone the students at the event.

STUDENTS ENROLLED IN A FORMAL PROGRAM OF RUSSIAN STUDY
1) The sponsor will be the student’s Russian teacher.  Teachers who register student participants must be current members of the American Council of Teachers of Russian as shown in the ACTR Directory of Members. They should enroll only students that they themselves teach.
2) Students in a school or other institution that offers a formal Russian program must be currently enrolled in a Russian class.

STUDENTS NOT ENROLLED IN A FORMAL PROGRAM OF RUSSIAN STUDY
1) If a student's school does not have a formal Russian language program, he or she may participate with the approval of the state or regional coordinator;
2) If the school or institution has a formal Russian program in which the student is not enrolled, he/she may not register for the Olympiada, unless he/she has exhausted all of the school’s offerings in Russian;
3) If the student is otherwise eligible, a teacher, tutor, or other adult may sponsor the student. 

The sponsor must become a Regular Member of ACTR, pay the appropriate dues in the Pre-College Teachers category, and chaperone the student at the Olympiada.
4) If the state or regional competition collects a school participation fee in addition to the ACTR participation fee (currently $6.00), it will be the state or regional coordinator's decision as to whether an individual student participant's sponsor is liable for that fee.