2015 Contest Rules Now Available

Chapters! It’s the most wonderful time of the year–Contest Time!

Here’s the link to this year’s contest rules: 2015 SCJ Contest Rules

Please note one important change to this year’s contest is the entry deadline. We moved the deadline back by one month to allow chapters more time to prepare their materials. And because, let’s face it, nobody likes a deadline on New Year’s Eve!

Here are the general rules. For specifics on categories, please see the PDF link above.

General Rules:

THERE ARE NO FEES & ALL CATEGORIES ARE PROFESSIONALLY JUDGED

Only active chapters of SCJ and their initiated members are eligible to participate.
All entries must have been published or broadcast in the calendar year 2014 except the submissions for overall excellence in the online categories. The online entries will be judged at times selected by the judges.
This year all categories except yearbook are online entry. All entries (except yearbook) should be sent to scjnational@gmail.com. All email entries must be date-stamped no later than January 31, 2015.
Entries for Newspaper Overall Excellence are as follows: Three complete issues published on or nearest the 2014 dates of March 15, October 15 and December 1. Yearbooks: one complete copy; no tearsheets. Magazines: all (up to four) consecutive issues.
Stories in a series or continuing coverage may be submitted as one entry.
No more than three entries from each chapter may be submitted in any individual category. Submit only entries of high quality, which merit attention.
Improperly prepared, or late, entries will be disqualified.
No entries will be returned to chapters of individual members. Where possible, judges’ comments will be published with awards listings on scjnational.org and disseminated over the email list.
The SCJ Contest Director has final say over contest decisions. For example, if too few entries are received in any category the contest director may choose to eliminate the category.
All work must have been produced by a student member of an SCJ chapter and must have appeared in a student publication or website or aired on a student broadcasting facility. The contest is not for faculty or staff of the university or for work that has been edited or worked on by outside professionals.
If appropriate, attach a statement of no more than 100 words explaining unusual circumstances under which an entry was published or broadcast. For example, you may want to put a news story in context, describe action that resulted from it, or detail difficulties encountered in gathering information. All statements must be typed and attached to the email entry in the appropriate category.
Entry deadline is January 31, 2015. All entries must be postmarked for yearbook or date-stamped for the other categories by this date. Late entries will be discarded.
Send entries to: scjnational@gmail.com
Yearbook entries should be mailed to: