Your contest here
Running a contest on what your organization can do about climate change
To run such a contest, your organization should be prepared to:
- manage the contest and give serious consideration to implementing the best ideas that emerge,
- monitor the contest on ongoing basis in accordance with the Climate CoLab’s Community Philosophy and Policies (key principles are adherence to scientific method /rational argument and ensuring that people treat each other with respect and courtesy).
What the organization needs to do to run a contest
It is recommended that the organization appoint specific people to oversee the contest. If you'd like to define particular roles, more senior members of the team can provide overall guidance, oversee evaluation of entries, and guide the process of moving forward with the most promising contest entries. More junior members of the team can assume responsibility for monitoring contest activities on a day-to-day basis.
Contests typically last between two and six months. Organizations can pick any time schedule they want for this contest, but only winners selected before the Climate CoLab's other winners are announced will be honored at the Climate CoLab Conference in November . Winners in contests that end after that time will be recognized in a future Climate CoLab Conference.
Sponsoring organizations should be ready to undertake three primary activities:
- Marketing/Promotion All organizations with Climate CoLab contests will be able to draw upon participants from the whole Climate CoLab community. In addition, to attract broad participation in their specific contests, organizations are encouraged to undertake dedicated promotion of their own contests. For instance, organizations might promote the contest to their own employees and customers, and to other groups likely to have specific insights about what the organization can do about climate change. The most important times for this publicity are right after the contest is launched, near the submission deadline, and during voting, when members of the community can select which proposals they believe are most promising.
- Evaluating entries Organizations that sponsor contests are responsible for evaluating entries. They can use the tools built into the Climate CoLab site or, if they prefer, use their own offline tools.
- Help the most promising entries move toward implementation Organizations that sponsor contests are asked to help promising ideas that emerge from the contest move forward toward implementation in ways consistent with the organization’s mission. The Climate CoLab will also acknowledge all contest winners at its annual conference (see details on last year’s 2013 conference), on the CoLab site, and in press releases.
Process for launching a contest
First, a representative of the organization fills out a form with information needed to launch the contest. To access the form, go to the contest home page and click the "Create proposal" button.
Please ensure that each team member listed on the form registers on the Climate CoLab, uploads a photo and enters a short bio on their profile page. When the contest is launched, the names and pictures of the team members will be displayed on the contest home page.
The representative also arranges for a responsible officer of the organization to send an email to admin@climatecolab.org guaranteeing the organization’s commitment to manage the contest. See the page entitled Email from responsible officer for sample email text.
After receiving the form, the Climate CoLab team will review it and ask for any needed clarification. When all needed information has been received, the Climate CoLab team will launch the contest.
As noted above, the sponsoring organization will be responsible for attracting participants to the contest, evaluating entries, and deciding what to do with the most promising proposals. To reflect this, text will appear on the contest home page reading, "This contest was initiated and is managed by [organization name].”?
Financial support for the Climate CoLab
The Climate CoLab team appreciates financial support from organizations that use its platform. Such support can help to defray the costs of developing and maintaining the software, cultivating the online community, publicizing the CoLab’s activities overall, and running the annual conference.
We leave the amount of the financial contribution up to the collaborating organization.
