Article Competition

NEC Article Competition Rules

The purpose of the NEC article competition is to reward individual achievement in writing by The Northeast Council of Aquarium Society club members. There will be five categories in the competition with certificate awards of first, second and third place in each category. Cash prizes will be awarded as follows: First prize is $20, Second Prize is $10 and Third prize is $5. All prizes will be given at the NEC Convention.

The competition will include all articles published from January 1st to December 31st. Club publications must be mailed to the Article Competition Chairman as part of the club’s regular mailing schedule, i.e. monthly, bimonthly or quarterly. Articles must be submitted during the year of their original publication and cannot be resubmitted a following year. Clubs are not to mail all of the year’s issues to the chairman at the end of that year, as it may not allow sufficient time for all entries to be properly judged.

The clarity and grammar of the information in the article will be taken into account, as will the technical, scientific and taxonomic information. Information taken from other sources such as books, magazines, newsletters and web sites should be footnoted. Spelling, most notably the spelling of scientific names will be considered. It is recommended that "spell check" be used for all articles.

An article may only be considered once for an NEC award, and only the first time it is printed in an NEC newsletter or publication. If an author submits an article to multiple clubs for publication, the club that prints it first will get credit for that article. Subsequent printings, even those occurring in the same month will be considered reprints. Reprints from other NEC publications must be labeled as such at the time of publication and are not eligible for consideration.

Articles submitted for consideration should be labeled as to their specific category as follows: Breeder Article, Open Class, Humor Article, Junior (Age 17 and under) and Continuing Column. Articles not properly labeled will be categorized at the discretion of the Article Competition chairman.

Qualified persons will judge each category of the competition. The judges will be selected and overseen by the Article Competition chairman.

Article Criteria

Best Breeder Article - The best breeder article should include detailed descriptions of the fish, fish husbandry (including tank & water conditions), feeding, steps taken to accomplish breeding and breeding behavior. Scientific names of all fish are recommended.

Best Article Open Class - Any subject pertaining to the aquarium hobby that does not fall into the breeder or humor category.

Best Humor Article - Article needs to be specifically identified as a humor article. Articles with humorous stories and anecdotes do not necessarily have to be placed in the humor category.

Best Junior Article - Any subject as long as the author is 17 or under. Articles not labeled as done by a junior will be categorized at the discretion of the Article Competition chairman and judged in another class.

Best Continuing Column - Included for consideration will be President and Editor’s columns, and any continuing feature regularly printed in a NEC club publication.

Addendum

At the end of the year each club will choose four (4) articles for each category and submit their choices to the Articles Chair. One bonus article may be submitted per club for at total of 21 articles. All submissions will be in electronic format. Web based newsletters submissions can be submitted as a PDF or a link directly to the article submitted.

Please send all submissions to:  Dave Hardenbrook, Articles Chair, @ mailto:david.hardenbrook@cox.net  by Wednesday, January 20, 2022