The Director of Competitions is responsible for the following chapter committee activities:
· Art Judging
· Online Judging
· Publications Judging
· Call-for-Entries
· Database
· Judging Party
· Awards Certificates
· Banquet Invitations
· Banquet Program
· Banquet Arrangements
· When applicable, provide information to the President for announcements about your committees’ activities during regular program meetings.
· From June through August, gather committee manager names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. Give the information to the President before the first Board meeting. Throughout the year, make sure the President has information and changes about your committee managers. Verify that the information gets updated on the President’s Leadership list each month.
· From June through August, make sure your committee managers have information they need to prepare budgets and activity plans from past committee managers. Make sure they provide this information to the President and Treasurer on the date requested and that they attend Board meetings when their budgets and activities are discussed.
· From June through August, make sure your committee managers receive all committee files and information that they need to plan and manage activities. Make sure past committee managers provide an effective handoff to the new managers.
· Before each Board meeting, contact your committee managers for activity updates and to provide committee information as requested by the President.
· Review past year’s Chapter Achievement nomination forms; throughout the year, provide information to the President for your committees’ Chapter Achievement activities.
· From June through August, gather information about your committees’ planned activities. Give the information to the Director of Communications and make sure it gets passed to the Webmaster, Newsletter Editor, and Internal and External Publicity committees. Throughout the year, make sure the Director of Communications has information about changes to your committees’ activities. Periodically check the chapter web site, chapter phone service message, and newsletter for accurate information about your committees.
· If a temporary message is added about the competition, give necessary information to the Director of Communications and make sure it gets passed to the Phone Service committee.
· Before the first Board meeting, give the Director of Communications committee manager names, phone numbers, and email addresses. Throughout the year, give the Director of Communications information and changes about your committee managers. Periodically check the chapter web site and newsletter for accurate information about your committees.
· As needed, assist the Director of Volunteer Resources and the Volunteer Coordinator with recruitment of managers, committee members, and temporary volunteers for your committees’ activities. Provide descriptions of committee activities. If you can, provide names of potential volunteers. You are not expected to staff your committees, but try to help others who are responsible for staffing.
· Periodically, give the Director of Volunteer Resources information about your committees’ volunteers for recognition (Volunteer of the Month, Volunteer of the Year.), Society awards and nominations (Distinguished Chapter Service, Associate Fellow), and for future chapter officer candidates. If you can, assist in the writeup of recognition articles and award/nomination forms.
· As needed, assist the Competition manager in finalizing dates for entry submission deadline, judging party, and the reception/banquet, allowing time to mail winning entries to international competitions before the deadlines.
· You may need to assist the Competition manager in finding a chapter to exchange entries.
· You may need to assist the Competition manager in finding a hotel for the Awards reception/banquet. Help negotiate the cost of the Awards banquet and sign the contract with the hotel. However, the hotel contract must be reviewed and approved by the Treasurer and the President before you sign it.
· As needed, assist the Competition manager and the Corporate Sponsor manager in finding a company to donate the design and printing of the call-for-entries, reception/banquet invitations, and awards certificates.
· For the Awards banquet, help the Competition manager ensure that the list of winners (program), awards certificates, slide show, and awards announcements contain the same names/awards in the same order and help ensure the master list is distributed to the President, list of winners (program) creator, awards announcer, person handing out certificates, and slide show creator.
· For the Awards banquet, help the Competition manager create an agenda listing the order of events and announcements and make sure it is distributed to the President, Competition Arrangements manager and other managers whose activities are included in the announcements.
· Encourage committee members to write a newsletter article for October about the competition and another article about winners and entries after the banquet.
· Prepare a budget of estimated income and expenses before the first Board meeting and submit to the President in time for inclusion in the President budget. If you expect some expenses to be donated, include them in the budget with an estimated cost. (Keep an extra copy of the budget to pass on to your successor.) Monitor your actual expenses against your budgeted expenses from the Treasurer’s monthly reports.
· Give merchants a copy of the Texas Sales Tax Exemption Certificate when buying committee supplies. (We don’t pay sales tax as a nonprofit organization.) Complete the chapter’s Request for Payment/Deposit Form for purchases and deposits and give it to the Treasurer.
· Inform the Board if you believe your expenses may exceed your approved budget.
· Ability to spend an average of 2 hours a week on chapter work throughout the year; more hours may be required during October-January.
· Ability to hold at least 5 telephone calls a week during business hours; some calls are long distance; more telephone calls may be required during October-January.
· Ability to attend some of the chapter functions for general membership and to attend the Competition Judging Party and the Awards Banquet.
· Access to fax machine and/or email.
· Give committee members appreciation for their work.
· Give committee members support, and enable them to do all they want on the committee. Perform the tasks they don’t want to do.
· Organize and schedule the chapter’s annual Technical Art, Publications, and Online competitions according to guidelines and deadlines from the STC international office. Get a copy of Hosting an STC Chapter Competition which gives detail information on all aspects of organizing and scheduling the chapter’s competition.
· Obtain agreement with another chapter to exchange entries for judging of publication entries. Determine if you want to or are able to exchange art and online entries. Some chapters are unable to hold art and online competitions. Art entries are expensive to mail.
· Make sure the President submits information to the STC international office by the July deadline about the competitions we plan to hold.
· With the incoming President in May or June, find a location and set a date for the Awards banquet/reception. Make sure you address the needs of the winner displays, food or dinner tables, and slide show, if applicable (room size, layout, audio visual equipment). Estimate at least 100 people in attendance.
· Find a location for sending and receiving entries. Allow for storage of at least 50 boxes.
· With the incoming President, set entry fees for members, nonmembers, and students. The chapter has not always followed the fees recommended by the Society, and many chapters differ significantly in how they set entry fees.
· Recruit committee members to:
— Coordinate the design, printing, and mailing of the call-for-entries.
— Coordinate the design, printing, and mailing of the Awards banquet/reception invitations and handle registration and receipt of money.
— Coordinate the design, printing, calligraphy, and distribution of the winner certificates and covers.
— Locate Art judges; form judges into teams of three on each category; prepare instruction packets for judge.
— Locate Publications judges; form judges into teams of three on each category; prepare instruction packets for judge.
— Locate Online judges; form judges into teams of three on each category; prepare instruction packets for judge.
— Receive Houston entries, ship them to the exchange-chapter for judging, and receive them afterwards. Receive the exchange-chapter’s entries and return them with completed judging evaluation sheets and lists of awards given.
— Host a thank-you party for judges.
— Create a database of the entrants, entries, and awards.
— Create and mail winner and nonwinner letters with the judges’ completed evaluation sheets and order Best of Show plaques.
— Arrange for computers with the necessary software to display online entries.
— Arrange for slide show of entries (optional).
— Help decorate and arrange entry display at the Awards banquet/reception.
· Design, print, and mail the call-for-entries. Include in the call-for-entries: the chapter’s entry fees, instructions and entry forms received from the STC international office (usually arrives in July), and telephone numbers and email addresses for competition and membership contacts.
· Give final competition information and dates to the President, Vice-president, Webmaster, Publicity manager, and Newsletter editor. Consider giving the information to the Phone Service manager to include in our answering service announcement; this will cost the chapter extra money for the additional message.
· Coordinate with the Database & Directory manager, Publicity managers, STC international office, and other organizations to develop a mailing list. Mail the call-for-entries through the mailing service to:
— Last year’s entrants
— Chapter members
— Guests from chapter meetings
— Members of other chapters in STC Region 5
— Other persons interested in STC
— Members of local related professional organizations
— Local media
· Consider creating an online version of the call-for-entries in PDF format, and ask the Webmaster to post on the Chapter Web site.
· About four weeks before the call-for-entries submission deadline, broadcast summary competition information to the chapter email list, SIG and satellite group email lists, and other lists.
· Recruit judging team leaders and team members.
· Recruit volunteers to unpack, sort, and record Houston entries and collect fees before sending publication entries to the judging exchange-chapter.
· Recruit volunteers to unpack and sort entries received from the exchange-chapter and give them to the judges with instructions.
· Receive all exchange-chapter entries, completed judging sheets, and lists of award winners at the judging party.
· Create and maintain a database of the entrant names and addresses, entry names, and awards won.
· At the judging party, have the judges choose Best of Show winners in Art, Publications, and Online competitions. The judges should only consider entries that have a Distinguished award. If no entries have a Distinguished award, you may choose not to award Best of Show.
· Consider having a slide show presentation of the winning entries as the winners are announced at the Awards banquet/reception. Make sure that the list of winners is displayed in the order in which the awards certificates are stacked and in which the winners are announced.
· Design, print, and mail the Awards banquet/reception invitations.
· If dinner will be served at the Awards banquet/reception, set banquet registration fees for members, nonmembers, and students.
· Design, print, and arrange for calligraphy of the winner certificates. Order certificate covers and Best of Show plaques. You will not know the winners until the exchange-chapter completes their judging. When preparing the certificates for the Awards banquet/reception, stack the certificates in the order in which the winners will be announced.
· Consider making photographic slides of winning entries for a slide show presentation at the Awards banquet/reception. When preparing slide show, make sure the slides are in the order in which the winners will be announced.
· Consider having the winners announcer include information about each winning entry at the Awards banquet/reception. Make sure the announcer knows the order in which the winners will be announced.
· Create a program or a list of winners to handout at the Awards banquet/reception. Make sure the program list of winners is in the same order in which the winners will be announced.
· Coordinate with the President and Vice-president on the schedule of events for the Awards banquet/reception. Consider having a rehearsal before the actual event.
· At the Awards banquet/reception, advertise the sale of extra awards certificates. You will receive number of requests for duplicate certificates sometimes months after the Awards banquet/reception.
· Mail certificates not claimed at the reception or banquet and extra certificates that are requested.
· Consider publishing all local winners in the newsletter. Write a newsletter article on international awards won by Houston entries.
· Have seating for at least 100 people (based on previous Awards receptions). If the reception is highly publicized, you may get as many as 200 people.
· Specify a replenishing buffet with at least one or two refills (based on your estimates for attendance), if you are having a buffet (generally for a reception).
· Before the Awards banquet/reception, receive RSVP cards and payments from attendees.
· Make name tags beforehand for Awards banquet/reception attendees. These name tags will serve as an indication of who has paid.
· Decorate and arrange the entry display at the Awards banquet/reception. For the entry display, make category signs and show each award won. and bring the nonwinning entries for entrants who indicated they would pick them up.
· For the online entry display, give winning entries to the person in charge of obtaining computers. Have that person carefully read system requirements on each entry form. Obtain computers to meet the system requirements and have each display already loaded and ready to start before the Awards banquet/reception.
· Recruit at least four volunteers to monitor the display and make sure that none of the entries are removed.
· After the Awards banquet/reception, mail the Houston’s top winning entries with appropriate fees to the international STC competitions.
· Prepare a budget of estimated income and expenses for the August board meeting. If you expect some expenses to be donated, include them in the budget with an estimated cost. (Keep an extra copy of the budget to pass on to your successor.)
· Give merchant’s a copy of the Texas Sales Tax Exemption Certificate when buying committee supplies. (We don’t pay sales tax as a nonprofit organization.) Complete the chapter’s Request for Payment/Deposit Form for purchases and deposits and give it to the Treasurer.
· Inform the Board if you believe your expenses may exceed your approved budget.
· Attend each Board meeting, if possible. If you cannot attend, submit a report to the President beforehand on your committees activities.
· Report on your actual expenses and income and on your committee’s accomplishments at the June Board meeting.
· Ability to attend as many regular program meetings as possible.
· Ability to attend the first Board meetings during budget discussion and approval.
· Ability to attend Board meetings whenever the agenda includes topics relating to your committee.
· Ability to attend the Awards banquet/reception.
· 10 to 15 committee members, several of whom may need to recruit others.
· STC’s Guidelines for Technical Art, Publications, and Online Competitions
· Houston Chapter’s Hosting an STC Chapter Competition
· Ability to make numerous telephone calls a day during working hours after the call-for-entries is mailed and before the entry submission deadline.
· Ability to receive, store, and mail at least 50 boxes of entries.
· Ability to spend occasionally up to 10 hours a week coordinating award events.
· Access to fax machine and/or email.
· Setting competition dates
— Make sure the other chapter’s call-for-entries submission and judging deadlines are the same as ours.
— Allow enough time for mailing, receiving, and distributing entries when setting judging deadlines.
— Allow enough time between when you receive winner information from the exchange-chapter and when you need to have the printed awards certificates and ordered plaques for the Awards banquet/reception.
— If you decide to have an entry slide show presentation at the Awards banquet/reception, allow enough time between when you receive winner information and how long it takes to have pictures taken and slides made of the winning entries.
— If you decide to have the winners announcer include information about each winner at the Awards banquet/reception, allow enough time between when you receive winner information and how long it takes the announcer to develop a script.
· Mailing the call-for-entries
— Consult with the Treasurer and mailing service to ensure that the nonprofit organization permit and registered return address appear correctly on the envelope for the call for entries.
· Judging
— Avoid using any negative terms as evaluation criteria on the judging sheets. Do not use any check-off terms such as “poor,” “unsatisfactory,” or “inadequate.” This should be as positive an experience as possible for the participants. Also, negative comments may be seen by others and could even jeopardize someone’s job.
— Avoid ranking entries with others in a category. Entries should be judged on their own merits.
— Use numerical criteria as guidelines only. Avoid picking winners by merely totaling scores. This method does not allow for differences in judges. Have the judges for each category reach a consensus on how to assign awards to the entries in a category.
— Expect some judges that you have lined up in advance to be unable to honor their commitments because of changes in circumstances.
— Make copies of any entry forms, judge’s comments, and paperwork that you send or give to someone else. This ensures that there will always be a backup copy in case anything gets lost.
· Planning for the Awards banquet/reception
— Send out invitations and use RSVPs to calculate the approximate attendance. With an approximate expected attendance, you can better plan the room size, setup, and food service.
— Expect to encounter delays in obtaining service from the staff at the facility. These delays make it difficult to keep to the setup schedule and the event schedule.
· Hosting the Awards banquet/reception
— Several days before the event, have a dress rehearsal of how you will display the winning entries. This will help to save time and avoid confusion the night of the event. With many volunteers helping, you need a blueprint of what gets placed where.
— Carefully package or label the display items before taking them to the facility. If this is not done, the volunteers are likely to mix up the display and consume a great deal of setup time trying to straighten things out.
— Make sure that the online displays are already loaded on the computers and ready to start. Volunteers will already have to spend time figuring out how to hook up the computers and peripherals and get the online displays up and running. It is not wise to wait until the day of the Awards ceremony to load online entries. Many entry forms do not include all of the system requirements that are needed, and you will find out what is missing only after you try to load the files.
— Carefully isolate and label nonwinning entries that are to be picked up the night of the event. Do not allow volunteers to get into these reserves.
— Put a monitor at each display table to ensure that no one takes any entries. Ask for identification, and have people sign for any winning entries they take after the ceremony. Also put monitors at the exits. Give people some type of receipt to show the exit monitors to confirm that they have officially checked out the materials they have.
· Sending Winning Entries to International Competitions
— Verify with the international competition managers which level of award-winning entries they will accept. Do not tell award winners that their entries will go to the international competitions unless you have verified this information.
|
Deliverable |
Due Date |
Receiver |
|
Preliminary budget |
Aug Board meeting |
Administrative Council |
|
Final budget |
Sept Board meeting |
Treasurer, V-P, President |
|
Call-for-entries |
8 to 12 weeks before the seminar |
Printer |
|
Awards banquet/reception invitations |
8 to 12 weeks before the seminar |
Arrangements manager for program meetings |
|
Newsletter articles |
8 to 12 weeks before the seminar |
Newsletter and Publicity managers |
|
Call-for-entries form in PDF format (optional) |
8 to 12 weeks before the seminar |
Webmaster |
|
Messages to email lists |
2 to 4 weeks before the seminar |
Email list manager, SIG managers, Publicity manager, other members |
|
Awards certificates |
Awards banquet/reception |
Speakers and committee members |
|
List of winning entries and awards in competition and appropriate category order |
December |
Producer of slide presentation, producer of awards certificate, producer of program winners, and announcer at Awards banquet/reception |
|
Computers for online display |
Awards banquet/reception |
Person setting up awards display |
|
Competition and category signs |
Awards banquet/reception |
Person setting up awards display |
|
Committee status report |
Board meetings before and after competition |
Administrative Council |
|
Receivable |
Due Date |
Sender |
|
Instructions and entry forms for call-for-entries |
July |
STC international office |
|
Estimated printing and mailing costs |
Aug or Sept Board meeting |
Printer and mailing service |
|
Mailing labels for Awards banquet/reception invitations |
6 to 8 weeks before the submission deadline |
Database & Directory manager |
|
Mailing labels for call-for-entries |
8 weeks before the submission deadline |
Database & Directory manager and other organizations |
|
List of winning entries and awards |
December |
Judging exchange-chapter |