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Michigan Interscholastic Press Association

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Call for entries: 2022 MIPA Yearbook Contests

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To: MIPA Yearbook Advisers
From: Jeremy Steele, MIPA director
Subject:  MIPA Contests for 2022 Yearbooks

As we wind down the school year, don’t forget to prepare your 2022 edition of your yearbook for MIPA contests! Gather your digital files while you still have easy access to them! You can put your students to work helping you organize or even submit entry materials, or save your files in a safe place so you can do it later.

Deadlines

Deadlines for yearbook contests vary. Please carefully review the schedule below.

  • Yearbook individual categories 1-33 (from your 2022 book): Feb. 17, 2023
    • Save 10% off individual contest entry fees when you submit by Nov. 15!
  • Spartan Critique deadline for spring-delivery yearbooks: July 15, 2022
  • Spartan Critique LATE deadline for spring-delivery yearbooks: Aug. 15, 2022
  • Spartan Critique deadline for fall-delivery yearbooks: Nov. 15, 2022
  • Spartan Critique LATE deadline for fall-delivery yearbooks: Dec. 15, 2022
  • Judging Day: Mark your calendar for Saturday, March 4, 2023, at Michigan State University

Contests overview

  • Please go https://mipamsu.org/contest-central to get all contest information. You can also find all contest information by clicking on the Contests & Awards menu at MIPA’s website.
  • Award winners will be announced in the spring. We have not finalized event plans yet for 2022-2023.
  • It’s important to carefully read category descriptions and contest rules. Failure to follow contest directions may result in your entries being disqualified.
  • YOU MUST BE A MIPA MEMBER TO ENTER CONTESTS. Membership information, including a member list that is updated weekly, is available at https://mipamsu.org/membership. Membership in MIPA runs the academic year. We welcome you to renew your membership now for 2022-2023 to secure our lowest membership rate!
  • All entries must be submitted by the deadline to be eligible for awards. Entries submitted electronically must be uploaded using MIPA’s contest submission system by 11:59 p.m. on the deadline day. Books for Spartan Critiques should be be postmarked by the deadline. Payment is due by the same deadline.
  • We are using the same online systems as last year to run contests. Some systems require you to make a new account to submit entries.
  • PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW YOUR STUDENTS TO CREATE THEIR OWN ACCOUNTS TO UPLOAD INDIVIDUAL CATEGORY CONTEST ENTRIES! You should have only one account for your media program. It’s OK with us if you allow students to your log-in information to help submit entries.
  • DO NOT RELY ON YOUR CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION OFFICE TO MAIL CONTEST MATERIALS! It’s best to go to the post office yourself and mail the package! It is too important to you and to your students to risk letting it go through school mail. And to be even more sure (especially if you are mailing it on the deadline day), ask to see the postmark on the package and then get a receipt. We also recommend you get a tracking number.
  • Please keep a copy of each of the forms that you send for your records. Also, please don’t hesitate to contact the MIPA office if you have questions at 517-353-6761 or ask@mipamsu.org.
  • A Cut Above, MIPA’s showcase of first-place contest winners, is available online at http://acutabove.mipamsu.org. This website features first-place winners in each division of previous contests to help you get an idea of what judges are looking for. (We are continuing to update this site with last year’s contest winners.)

Solve our most common problems by carefully reading category descriptions!

  • Most problems we run across are because entry instructions were not followed.
  • Carefully check over any entries uploaded into the contest system by students. See the contest how-to guide for information on how to view and edit entries.
  • We strongly recommend that you submit original photos AND the final designed pages for photography categories. It helps judges more accurately determine the quality of an image.
  • Uploaded files are capped at 100 MB total per entry. If your files exceed this limit, you can submit them via URL to a website or a shared location on a file service such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc. Make sure any shared files are set to public view or the entry could be disqualified.
  • Double-check to make sure entries are submitted into the correct category. Entries submitted into the wrong category will be disqualified. You must delete and then resubmit any materials submitted into the wrong category.
  • Please plan ahead so your contest entry fees are processed by the contest deadline. It is taking many school business offices longer than normal to issue checks or make credit card payments.
  • If an entry is one of several similar items on a page, make sure it is very clear which item should be judged!

Find these materials at mipamsu.org

These are the items you will find at the MIPA website on the contest page. Look for the Contests & Awards menu at the top of the page:

Spartan Critique – July 15 (spring books); Nov. 15 (fall books)*

Your yearbook will be evaluated against MIPA’s standards for excellence. You’ll receive written comments and an award based on your score.

*It is possible to send your Yearbook Spartan entry up to one month late (see deadlines above) for an additional $40 fee. Spartan submissions postmarked after the late deadline may receive a critique, but will not be eligible to receive an award ranking. Late entries will not be accepted for the Individual Category Contests.

Individual Category Contests – Feb. 17. 2023

Students’ work will compete head-to-head in one of our 33 yearbook-only categories! (Your program also can enter our Digital Media categories, which includes social media, once those categories are released in the fall.)

ACES – OUR CONTEST SUBMISSION SYSTEM

  • We use the ACES platform – Advanced Contest Entry System – designed by our friends at the Illinois Press Association.
  • Each MIPA member will need to register for an ACES account – even if you had one last year.
  • Before you can create your ACES account, we need information about your yearbook to program into the contest system. Complete this form
  • View video tutorials on how to use the new system in our “how to” guide
  • All categories in our contest use the same fields. Some categories use fields differently, so it’s important to read the instructions for each category.
  • If you can’t find your yearbook program in the pre-programmed list, please contact the MIPA office before you begin uploading.
  • Programs compete in divisions (sort of like your sports teams) based on the page count of books. Page counts in ACES are represented in the “enrollment” field.
  • If you run into any problems, please contact the MIPA office. We’re happy to help you!

WHAT’S NEW FOR THE 2022 YEARBOOK CONTEST?

Every year, we try to improve MIPA’s contests to keep up with changing technologies and the world of media. We also are constantly working to make the contests easier to enter and manage. Here are some changes for this year’s contest:

GENERAL RULES REVISIONS

  • No major changes

NEW CATEGORIES

No new yearbook categories

CATEGORY REVISIONS

  • Y-13. Business Advertisement: This category has been revised so that judging is of a single advertisement rather than portfolio of ads, which better reflects the entries MIPA has been receiving.
  • Y-04. Feature Writing – Sports: This category has been revised to exclude personality profiles, which should be entered into the Personality Profile category. MIPA previously was getting entries of sports profiles into both categories. Profiles also are excluded from the other variations Feature Writing categories.
  • Y-05. Personality Profile: This category has been revised to make it clear that it includes sports-related profiles.