COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY COMPETITION
| GreenSTART Program Rules |
Everyone This competition is open to all local citizens, whether or not they are residents of Atherton. There are two primary ways to participate: Students Student-aged children participate by conceiving of an environmental project that they would like to do, creating a presentation about their project and how they would implement it, and then presenting this presentation at the GreenSTART Fair. Children can register as attending a particular Atherton School or they can register as an independent student, meaning that they attend another, non-participating school or they are a home-schooled student. Adult Residents Any adult who wishes (whether or not an Atherton resident) is invited to participate by taking a look at their home environmental footprint, finding ways to reduce their footprint and then making a contribution to the program as a way to offset their remaining footprint. Adults are further able to assist students by helping them with their projects (called "sponsoring" a project) and there is no specific limitation on what the adults can do, so long as the project is a learning experience for the students and the students present the project themselves at the GreenSTART Fair. Other Adults Adults who do not wish to participate themselves, can assist students as Project Sponsors. These can be teachers, mentors, tutors, older siblings (older than 22), relatives, school staff or administrators, coaches, etc. Schools All Atherton schools will be competing on the number of student projects participating in the GreenSTART program. The school with the most projects will be eligible for the School Grand Prize. Administrators and Teachers participate primarily in distributing the program information and encouraging students to participate. When needed, they can help students to find sponsors and help them prepare their project presentations. They also can assist with getting students to inform their parents about the program and encouraging parental participation as "Resident" participants. Town The EPC and other staff members of Atherton are participating by assisting with the implementation of this program and helping students find projects ideas. The EPC and the Tree Committee have several great project ideas that could be adopted by students. The Town benefits from having more projects that directly address the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the town, the ten schools and the residents. |
Students enter by registering their project using the Student Registration Form. To be eligible for the GreenSTART prizes, the students must register, develop their project idea, complete the Project Summary form and present their project at the GreenSTART Fair all according to the dates provided on the Calendar. Residents enter by registering as a Resident Participant using the Resident Participation Form. To be a registered Participant, the resident must (at a minimum) complete the contact information in Part I, complete the Affirmation portion of the form at the end of Part III, and send a contribution of a minimum of $50. If they complete this, the resident will be registered as a participant and be eligible to vote for projects at the Fair. They will have a vote card waiting for them at the fair. (Registrations without contributions, will be recognized but no right to vote at the Fair accrues.) All information provided on the Resident Participation Form will be kept strictly confidential as to the participants. The only information compiled from the forms will be data on an aggregate basis regarding cummulative resident measures taken to reduce carbon footprints. This aggregate data will be used to assess the progress towards the town's goals of achieving reductions in carbon emissions from residences. Schools All Atherton schools are automatically entered. Non-Atherton schools may contact the Atherton Environmental Programs Committee to register, and they will be eligible to participate towards our School Grand Prize. |
| Residents who pre-registered will be able to pick up a Vote Card upon arrival at the fair. Residents who did not previously register will be allowed to register as participants at the Fair by completing a Participation Form and providing their off-set contribution at that time. Residents registering at the fair will receive a Vote Card while supplies last. We would prefer residents to register before this, however, so we have sufficient Vote Cards at the fair. Residents and other community members who have not registered will be welcome to attend the fair but will not be able to vote for projects. Students who registered a project will be entitled to a Student Vote Card, allowing them to vote for the prizes for student projects. Student Vote Card will not be able to vote for project funding. |
| The level of committed donations will be tracked on the "Status" page of this web site up until the date of the fair, so all participants can keep an eye on the level of prizes available. The EPC will send out an update notice periodically to announce new prize levels. The exact amount of the prizes will not be completely known, however, until at or after the fair, as we expect some number of residents to opt to register and make contributions at that time. |
| The students will have an opportunity to display information about their project concepts to the community at the fair. There, they will have a half to a full table to lay out their plans for their project visually. They can use almost any media to create the type of presentation that they think will be most compelling, for a combination of graphical and written information that clearly shows what they would like to accomplish and why. They can be as creative as they would like, including making sketches or drawings, creating scale models or dioramas of their plan. They can create a photo montage or use poster boards to highlight the key milestones of their work plan. Each project needs to have a completed Project Summary form available on the table, so that the key elements are spelled out (unifying information about each project) but what else the students wish to present is up to them. Their project will be judged both for the substance of what they will be attempting with the project, as well as their visual and verbal presentation. Students will have the opportunity, when residents come around, to try to convince the residents that their project is an important one for the community and will accomplish an important environmental objective. Students can do their own assessment of the amount of carbon that could be eliminated by their project. Students will also be able to present their analysis for the project funding that they may choose to apply for. Project funding approval will be one of the items that the participating residents will get to vote on. Students should refer to the page on "Judging" to better understand the evaluation criteria. |
All participating students will be eligible to vote for best project and best presentations prizes. They will get to vote on project funding if they are part of a Participating Resident family, in which case they also get a Resident Vote Card. |
| GreenSTART will award project funding from May through to the end of 2008. More information about this phase of the program will be available shortly. |
| Will all the prizes be awarded if there are few entries? |
| GreenSTART prizes will be awarded as described on the web site unless there are fewer than 30 projects submitted in total or fewer than three projects per grade or per specific prize. In the event the number of projects submitted by students does not meet these minimums, then the EPC may elect to reserve certain prizes to be awarded in the next round of funding, anticipated to be held in the 2008-2009 school year. |
| Other restrictions: |
| The EPC may, from time to time, add special awards, promotions or premiums as offered by sponsors and establish rules that pertain to those special awards, promotions or premiums. In such cases, the EPC shall have the right to establish rules that make the offer of such awards, promotions or premiums feasible. In the case of any award offered per project entered, there may be a limit set for instances where students submit multiple projects or where multiple students are registered on a single project. The EPC shall endeavor to be as fair as possible under the circumstances. |