Sharing STC Competition Information

[George Hayhoe <GFHayhoe -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

Garrett Romaine of the Willamette Valley chapter asked whether other STC
chapters would share their experiences regarding competitions.

Most chapters have devised databases to track entries in their local
competitions. I dare say most chapters would be willling to share their
solutions to this problem. I've got a FileMaker Pro database which I devised
several years ago to track art and pubs entries for the South Carolina and
Carolina Foothills chapters' competition which handles the fields on the
ITPC/ITAC entry forms. This database requires FileMaker Pro but runs on both
the Mac and Windows platforms.

Also, the STC office (stc -at- tmn -dot- com) has a dBASE III Clipper application and
database (along with an accompanying user's guide) which can be used for pubs
entries. It's an executable which runs under DOS (doesn't require dBASE), but
its reporting capabilities are limited.

The STC Competitions area is investigating other alternatives for the
international pubs, art, and online competitions which might eventually be
shared with chapters, but it will probably take us several months to solve
the problem.

Regarding certificates or other tangible recognition items and presentation
ceremonies, there are many alternatives. Some chapters provide very elaborate
plaques for winners; others give certificates. (The North Central Florida
chapter, I believe, will produce very handsome certificates for you at
nominal cost; contact information for their chapter president is in the STC
Administrative Directory.) Some chapters have very elegant banquets with
guest speakers; others host more informal or less costly lunches or
receptions. What's important is to provide some tangible recognition as well
as an event that celebrates the competition and the participants (including
competition committees and judges).

And don't forget to issue a press release to your local media about the
competition (both before, to solicit entries, and after, to announce the
results).

The STC office will be mailing competition rules, sample brochure copy, and
entry forms to all chapters which have alerted the office that they are
holding competitions later this month.

Finally, the STC Competitions area is also working on training materials for
competition managers and judges. This results of this work will not be
available for this year's competitions, but should be available in draft form
for the 1996-97 round of competitions.

Any competition manager or chapter president who has questions about holding
a pubs, art, or online competition is welcome to write or call me at the
address/number below. And if you have suggestions for improving our
competitions, I'd be happy to hear them.

--George Hayhoe
  STC Assistant to the President for Competitions
  GFHayhoe -at- aol -dot- com
  803-642-2156