Official Rules and Regulations for the APHA Flu Near You Challenge
The overall goal of the APHA Flu Near You Challenge is to create the largest national self-reporting open surveillance platform for influenza. Register now and start signing up users today!
By entering this challenge, you accept the following official rules and regulations:
1. ELIGIBILITY: Entrants must be at least 18 years of age and currently active (paid-up) members of the American Public Health Association and remain active members through the end of the challenge. APHA and HealthMap employees and immediate family members are not eligible to participate in the APHA Flu Near You Challenge.
2. DEFINITIONS:
An “entrant” is an actively paid-up APHA member who is 18 years of age or older and has registered for the challenge through the APHA Flu Near You Challenge webpage on the Get Ready website.
A “user” is defined as any individual, including APHA members, who resides in the U.S., is at least 13 years of age or older, and registers for Flu Near You. Users can only sign up once (i.e., a single individual using multiple email addresses is prohibited). A user can only fill out one survey per week.
A “group” includes Sections, Special Primary Interest Groups, the Student Assembly, state and regional Affiliates, Caucuses and Agency Members of APHA.
All Entrants are competing in the challenge for individual awards. In addition, entrants may elect to have their recruited users also count towards one APHA group. APHA has predetermined the groups eligible for the group awards (i.e., Sections, Special Primary Interest Groups, the Student Assembly, state and regional Affiliates, Caucuses and Agency Members). Entrants may select only one group.
Upon registration, APHA members will be provided with a unique personalized link (based on their APHA Membership ID number) to recruit participants into Flu Near You that are tracked directly to that APHA member for both their individual and group survey totals.
3. SCHEDULE: Enrollment for APHA entrants will open Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011, at 7 p.m. EST and close 5 p.m. EST on Monday, Oct. 15, 2012.
4. JUDGING CRITERIA:
Individual awards
To be eligible for the individual top three awards ($25,000, $15,000, $10,000), entrants must obtain a minimum of 10,000 surveys from their recruited users. Each user can only contribute one survey per week. For example, you are eligible to compete for the top three individual prizes if you recruit 200 people who each complete 50 weekly surveys throughout the year (200 x 50 = 10,000). The goal is to keep users in the system completing surveys every week. Therefore, we have created a measure to give entrants credit for every survey filled out by their recruited users. Note: This measure was created to emphasize the desire to recruit dedicated weekly users rather than one-time users.
The winners of the top three individual awards will be determined by the highest total number of surveys completed by the users recruited by a single APHA entrant, provided they meet the minimum threshold of 10,000 surveys.
In addition to the top three individual awards, APHA will be giving awards based on other criteria:
• Three honorable mention awards of $2,500 each will be awarded to the next three individuals
who have the highest numbers of surveys, provided they meet a minimum threshold of 2,500 surveys.
• Ten honorable mention awards of $1,000 each will be awarded to the next 10 individuals who have the highest number of surveys, provided they meet a minimum threshold of 1,000 surveys.
• All participants who reach 500 surveys will be eligible for a lottery drawing for non-cash prizes at periodic intervals during the course of the challenge. If an individual wins one of the non-cash awards in a lottery, they are still eligible to win one of the cash awards at the end of the challenge.
Individual entrants can only win one cash award.
Group awards
When an entrant enrolls, he or she has the option of designating one group as the entity that will get credit for their users’ surveys. You always retain your recruited users for your own individual total, but assigning them also to a group allows your efforts to count toward a group award.
The entrant will have two opportunities to designate his or her group. The first is during enrollment when he or she is asked to select a group from the drop-down menus. If none are selected at that time, or if an individual chooses a group upon enrollment and then changes his or her mind, a notice will be sent to all entrants on the procedure for choosing their final group designee before Nov. 30, 2011. After this date, changes to the group designation will not be permitted. Any entrant who registers for the challenge after Nov. 30, 2011, will have to choose a group upon registration; he or she will not have an option to change at a later date.
To be eligible for the top three group prizes ($50,000, $25,000, $15,000), the total number of surveys of the group’s users (sum total of the users of all individual entrants who have selected that group) must be at least 100,000 surveys during the challenge period. For example, a group is eligible to compete for the top group awards if the individuals in the group collectively recruit 2,000 people who each complete 50 weekly surveys throughout the year (2,000 x 50 = 100,000).
The winners of the group challenge will be determined by the highest total number of surveys completed by all the users recruited by individual entrants who have selected that group for their designee, provided the group as a whole meets the minimum threshold of 100,000 surveys.
By designating a group, the individual does not detract from his or her individual total.
In addition to the top three group awards, APHA will be giving awards based on other criteria:
• Three honorable mention awards of $5,000 each will be awarded to the next three groups who have the highest number of surveys, provided they meet a minimum threshold of 25,000 surveys as a group.
• Ten honorable mention awards of $1,000 each will be awarded to the next 10 groups who have the highest number of surveys, provided they meet a minimum threshold of 10,000 surveys as a group.
A group can only win one cash award.
5. OTHER AWARDS (TBD): Additional awards may given by APHA in individual and group categories during the challenge. Additional information will be posted on APHA’s Get Ready website.
6. SELECTION OF WINNERS: All prizes will be awarded based on the judging criteria. All winners are subject to verification, including without limitation, verification of eligibility and compliance with these official rules. If a winner cannot be verified or in any way was not compliant with the rules, or if a winner is otherwise unable to accept their prize, the prize will be forfeited and may be awarded to an alternate winner. All judging decisions are final and irrevocable and are at the sole discretion of APHA and HealthMap, who reserve the right to disqualify and/or eliminate entrants from the competition if they do not abide by these rules. All winners are responsible for ensuring and covering the relevant taxes for their prizes. All prizes are non-transferable, non-refundable, and non-exchangeable.
7. ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS: The individual and group award winners will be announced at APHA’s 140th Annual Meeting, which will be held Oct. 27-31, 2012, in San Francisco. Challenge winners will be notified in advance via email.
8. DISCLAIMER: APHA and HealthMap will collect personal information such as, but not limited to, email address and Internet protocol addresses. APHA and HealthMap reserve the right to use this information internally, including for correspondence with the entrants, but will not sell, share, rent, or otherwise reveal this information to any third party except as required by law, or to address issues of noncompliance.
APHA and HealthMap and its employees are not responsible for and shall not be liable for: late, lost, delayed, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, illegible or unintelligible entries, telephone, electronic, hardware, or software program, network, internet, or computer malfunctions, failures, or difficulties, errors in transmission, any condition caused by events beyond the control of APHA and HealthMap that may cause the challenge to be disrupted or corrupted, any injuries, losses, or damages of any kind caused by a prize or resulting from acceptance, possession, or use of a prize, or from participation in the challenge, or any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the challenge.
Each entrant irrevocably grants to APHA and HealthMap’s legal representatives, assigns, agents and licensees, the right and permission to reproduce, encode, store, copy, transmit, publish, adapt and/or otherwise use or reuse the entrant's name and user name and other materials relating to the entrant and arising out of her/his participation in this challenge (with or without using the entrant's name) in any media, without limitation, and without additional review, compensation or approval from the entrant or any other party.
Each entrant agrees to indemnify and hold APHA and its respective affiliates, officers, directors, agents and any employees, harmless from any and all claims, damages, expenses, costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) and liabilities (including settlements) brought or asserted by any third party against any of the Indemnities due to or arising out of the entrant's conduct during and in connection with this challenge.
Need more information about APHA's Flu Near You Challenge? Contact us
Have questions? Call us at 202-777-2425 or send an e-mail.
Return to the APHA Flu Near You Challenge homepage
