The purpose of the International Bulletin Contest is to promote better communication within our Society. All chapters are encouraged to produce a bulletin (HARDCOPY and/or ELECTRONIC); districts are encouraged to give recognition to their chapter editors.
An IBC Chairman for HARDCOPY bulletins and an IBC Chairman for ELECTRONIC bulletins shall be appointed by the PROBE president not later than November 15 of the year preceding the contest.
The ELECTRONIC Chairman shall appoint six judges for the three categories with the assistance of the Vice President for Bulletin Editors. The ELECTRONIC scoresheets to be used follow these Guidelines on the webpage.
The VP-BE shall send a news release containing information about the IBC, including the chairman's name, address, and phone number, to the PROBEmoter editor, The Harmonizer, LiveWire, PROBEmail, The Harmonet, Special Email Lists and District Bulletin Editors in time for publication in the fall issues. He shall also address a letter with this information to all district bulletin contest chairmen. A copy of these guidelines shall accompany those letters.
Editors can enter one contest or the other, but not both. All entrants must be paid up members of PROBE. Starting in 2008, pre-qualifying contests will be held by districts. The editor will submit an entry form to the District BETY Coordinator stating he has produced at least 6 months of online bulletins during the contest (calendar) year. Entries done by a professional web page designer will not be eligible if the designer is reimbursed in any way including a fee or an advertisement in the submitted issue. That entry will be subject to disqualification as determined by the chairman of judges in advance of the contest.
The editor will email a copy of the entry form (available via the PROBE website) with the two URL's of his two consecutive monthly issues or four consecutive biweekly issues or eight consecutive weekly issues (they may be HTML, PDF, Blog, Email, or any type of internet communication other than text messaging). Entries must be accessible via the Internet and any passwords needed must be provided. Hard copies or copies on CDs will NOT be accepted. Deadline is April 1 to the IBC Chairman who will forward to the assigned judges.
Each member of the double panel shall judge one issue of the two monthly (two biweekly, four weekly) entries. Scoring in the ELECTRONIC Contests will be done in three categories, as follows:
Design & Graphics (D&G) - 300 points per issue (or set of issues if
biweekly or weekly)
Content (CON) - 400 points
Grammar & Style (G&S) - 300 points
TOTAL - 1000 points per issue or 2000 total for the set.
Judges shall return all entries, completed judging forms, a scoring summary, and critiques (optional) for the Electronic IBC to the IBC ELECTRONICChairman by June 1. All mailings between judges and the District Coordinator shall be at PROBE expense. The IBC ELECTRONIC chairmen shall tabulate scores from the judges' score sheets and shall determine the final ranking of all entries. In case of ties, the Content score will break the tie. If a tie still exists, the Grammar & Style score will be used as the tiebreaker.
Winners will be announced at the annual PROBE meeting at the international convention, and awards will be made to those present. Awards for those not present will be forwarded to the appropriate district representative for later presentation at a district function at which the winner can be properly recognized. The IBC chairman will provide the results to the PROBE President & PROBE VP BE in advance of the announcement of the winners. The IBC Chairman will also distribute the results to all possible communication outlets: The First Place winner will have his/her hame inscribed on the permanent trophy, which will be on disply at Society Headquarters in Nashville, and also receive a personal plaque. Second & Third place winners will receive plaques.
The IBC ELECTRONIC Chairman will send the Score Sheets with judges' critiques (optional) with a copy of the scores for the entire contest for each editor, to the bulletin editors.
An IBC ONLINE winner shall not again be eligible to participate in competition at the international level for TWO years. The PROBE Secretary/Treasurer will certify each editor as a paid member of PROBE for the year the bulletins were published, and for the year they are judged.
Rev 11/08