The Cloud and The Paper

South Dakota Science Olympiad uses multiple avenues to communicate effectively with coaches, Event Supervisors, and the National Science Olympiad. These formats include: 

• Email
• Website
• Print (Administrative & Tournament Day)
• File Sharing 

Many are still adapting to using File Sharing for efficient access to "living" documents, or documents that are actively updated during the course of a project, often by multiple users. 

Below are the steps that can help you make use of File Sharing!

The Invitation

At the start of the season, whether in Fall if you are a team Coach or in the Winter/Spring if you are an Event Supervisor, you will receive access to several documents and shared files by the State Director. This is often about tournament-specific documents such as schedulers or room assignments. 
You will receive access first as in invitation to access the shared files or folder(s):

The best practice is to immediately

• flag the email or save it to a dedicated folder
• click the link to gain access to the shared file(s) or folder(s)

By saving the email or otherwise using features such as 'pin' or 'flag', you can return to this link as needed for future use.

What Can Go Wrong? 

There are times the state director may communicate about shared files and, for convenience, include the share link in the email communication. There are times these emails are seen very close in one's inbox, where it may seem more convenient to click on the emailed link rather than the official invitation to share. 
However, many coaches and ES's have more than one email address, and there may be more than one use who uses a given device to access email. As a result, simply clicking on the link in the email without first using the invitation may lead to an Request Access page, similar to this (but not the same!):

It may seem straightforward, but careful reading of the Request page will show an email other than your official / preferred email address to access shared files. 
Now, this is not a problem, per se, but it does lead to confusion and perhaps frustration, especially if you do not want to access shared folders and files using the default email address.  

TLDR;

If you get a Request Access page when trying to access a link to a file or folder you believe you should have access to, first make sure to use the shared link in the Invitation email whenever possible. 
However, if you get a Request Access page and don't mind the email address being used to obtain access, simply complete the Request Access and let the State Director know that the alternate email is legitimate so they may grant access.

By the way...

Depending on how you access the file, that is, depending on whether you use the emailed link or the share invitation, you will see one of two view: 

The image on the left should be what you see if you click on the invitation. You are taken to a screen showing all the shared contents of the folder, as if you are in the folder.
The image on the right is likely to be what you see if you have a OneDrive account and access the files by clicking "Shared" on the left menu!