ABC’s of Contest Coordinating--Part Two

So how do you make a contest run smoothly?

Develop a timeline and stick to it.  It doesn’t have to be a visible timeline for the entrants, but as coordinator, your life will go more smoothly because of it.  Allow 5-7 days padding (after receiving the entries, after receiving the judged entries), just in case.

Make new email accounts for each contest category and check them DAILY.  So if you change your personal email, who cares?  The contest isn’t linked to any one person’s account it belongs to the contest.

Excel spreadsheets are your friend—use them for EVERYTHING

Backup, backup, backup!  Plus send the info to another coordinator/friend who is on a different network, use an external backup (hard drive or flash)

If using PayPal to receive monies from entrants, the Treasurer needs to confirm with the category coordinator that payment has been received.

Cross-reference everything (list of judges, list of entrants, who is judging whom).

EVERYONE ON THE COMMITTEE NEEDS TO BE ON THE SAME PAGE—the contest coordinator is the rudder, it’s up to her to stress the communication factor, the fun factor, the thrill of communicating with various editors and agents.

Usually editor/agents final judges are set up many months in advance.  About a month out, someone needs to touch base with the final judges to see if they are still able to judge.  One year, I had an erroneous email for one judge.  She’d been waiting for her entries and never got them, but I sent them. . . . to the wrong place.  Eventually she got the packet and it all worked out, but I felt awful! Some editors are horrible about reading the entries and ranking them.  Personally, I wouldn’t enter a contest if that particular editor is a judge for my category.

Remember to be courteous.  Send an email to each entrant acknowledging an entrants submission.  This is where communication with the treasurer is paramount.  Entrants spend a lot of money and energy getting a submission ready, the least the coordinator can do is let us know it arrived and she was able to open it.  In the long run it will result in less hassle for the coordinator.

Every day the category coordinator needs to check the email inbox, processing the entries when they arrive otherwise you will get seriously snowed under.  The category coordinator WILL get seriously snowed under during the last 48 hours—BE PREPARED!  If you are surprised by this, then you are too stupid for your own good and let someone else handle the responsibility.

Post a copy of the score sheet on your contest web site.  Judges and entrants want to know how detailed the comments will be.  Trust me on this one. 

Oh, DO NOT LET A POTENTIAL JUDGE REQUEST TO JUDGE A CATEGORY TO SEE “WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT.”   True story here:  A while back on one of the RWA loops, some idiot (yes, I know I’m playing fast and loose with the term) said she wanted to judge paranormal—she’d never read a paranormal story, but she wanted to see what the hubbub was about.  Are you EFFIN’ serious???  If a coordinator finds this out, she needs to have a discussion with the judge.  I’m sorry, but if you are going to judge a contest, pick the category you read or write.  Don’t pick one out of the blue because you want to see what the big deal is.  You aren’t doing the entrant or the chapter any favors if this is allowed to happen.

Get your judges lined up.  You need to let them know when to expect their packet—remember the timeline?—USE IT.  If you have a list from a previous year, send emails to the judges to see if they are interested in judging again.  If their experience was a pleasant one, then they will.  It will cut down on the time you’ll need lining up judges.

For example:  If the deadline for the contest is 9/1 be prepared to have entries emailed to you as late as 11:58. And yes, I have emailed my entry this late before.  It might be the night of 9/2 before you get everything logged in (email to entrant acknowledging submission, jotted on spread sheet with spaces for scores and list of judges, and generic email ready to go to the judge as you attach a copy of the entry).  If you have been keeping up with it, you should have your judges sitting with a draft folder with the entries they are to judge.  Allow yourself 5-7 days before you HAVE to get the entries into your judge’s hands.  The sooner the better.  MAKE THE JUDGE RESPOND TO THE EMAIL, ACKNOWLEDGING THEY RECEIVED THE PACKET, CAN OPEN THE SUBMISSIONS, AND HAVEN’T PREVIOUSLY JUDGED OR CRITIQUED THEM. 

The same thing needs to happen in the reverse order when you get the judged entries back.  Document the scores, scan the judge’s comment, have a generic email ready to send to the contest entrant attaching the judged entry, and thank the judge for being so prompt with their judging.

When you are 10 days out from when the entries are due—SEND THE JUDGES WHO HAVEN’T RETURNED THEIR PACKET A COUNTDOWN NOTE.  Do this for 7,3, and 1 days left—be sure to take the compliant judges off the notification list.  If you haven’t gotten response from a judge—start compiling packets to send to your standby judges.  Yes, some judges go MIA and you need to have a plan already formulated and ready to go. 

If your contest has a rule that the judge MUST comment on an entry when scoring a 3 or lower—FORCE THE FREAKIN’ JUDGE TO COMMENT.  If the judge is late sending in the submission back and doesn’t answer your emails—BLACK BALL THEM FROM EVER JUDGING YOUR CONTEST AGAIN—AND PULL UP YOUR BIG GIRL COORDINATOR PANTIES AND FINISH THE DAMN JOB!!  

This isn’t about how hard it is to coordinate a contest (yes, it’s hard)—it’s about client satisfaction.  If you made a promise to your contest entrants that every entry will have comments, then you better have someone ready to judge on the fly and MAKE COMMENTS!  This is where you have the reliable judges (the ones who finished their packet during the first week), your chapter mates and your reserve judges ready to do it on the fly. 

IT ISN’T ABOUT THE JUDGE IT’S ABOUT YOUR CONTEST’S REPUTATION.

DO SEND ALL YOUR JUDGES A LIST OF THE FINALISTS.  We want to know if one of our favorites finaled.  I HATE having to find out from the loops.  This is a simple courtesy that the list should be sent to judges and entrants alike.  I mean, COME ON—HOW HARD IS IT TO BCC THE EMAILS???

Do NOT post the list of finalists until all the non-finalist entries are ready to be sent back.  AGAIN, common courtesy.   If you keep up with it, during the process, how hard is it? Simply have the list of the entrants (alphabetized, of course) in your draft folder.   All you have to do is hit send.

Things I HATE:
--a single score sheet where the judge records their scores--talk about a clusterf*ck waiting to happen.  Plus double work for the coordinator--if they are doing their job.  They still have to cross check the addition, plus they need to see if the judge commented on scores below 3 (provided that was part of the contest guarentee).  The argument is that it's easier for the coordinator, but I see it as easier for someone to skew their scores for their friends.

--judging grids.  Many times in the past I was worried I scored the entries that I judged too low--it was nice to see that wasn't the case.  EVERYTHING IS SUBJECTIVE, PEOPLE!!  What I like, you might not like.  I might see great storytelling and score high, but you might be nit-picking the grammar and score low. But, in the long run, it's not worth it for the judge OR the entrant to see where they landed in the grid.  And yes, as an entrant, I saw that I was third from the bottom of 25 entries--and this was AFTER I had been writing for five years.  It's a blow to one's writing ego that need not be delivered.  FORGET THE GRIDS.

--wearing my judge's hat here: I'm sorry, but unless an entrant can't string a sentence together, head-hops like nobody's business, or adds a southern twang to a proper Brit's dialogue there is NO real reason to give someone below a 3 out of 5 as a score.  A solid set of threes won't final, but it shouldn't totally destroy the writer's ego if accompanied by decent comments or even craft book recommendations.  Some judges believe giving a 3 instead of a 1 is doing a disservice to the entrant, but IMO I feel they are overly cruel because of the anonymity of the judge.  Be truthful, but not cruel.

I'm sure there are many other suggestions that can help potential coordinators.  Please chime in if you have something to share that helped you.

Write on!

Next week will be my Halloween blog posting!