Earn It! Keep It! Save It!

My VITA Volunteer Video Contest

Yes, we’re doing it again! After the success we had with our first video contest, we just couldn’t help ourselves.

Make a video about your free tax site to win a celebration party for your volunteers for Tax Season 2012. This year’s theme is going to be around volunteering. Your video should demonstrate the importance of your VITA volunteers and how they contribute to the Earn It! Keep It! Save It! program, your clients, and the community.  This year, we want you to make it your own.  If you’re in search of ideas, here are some themes that may get your creativity flowing:

Serious/touching theme ideas   
•    Volunteer Self Development
•    Quantifying the worth of each individual volunteer (i.e.: MasterCard “Priceless” commercials)
•    A Day in the Life of a VITA Volunteer
•    Nominating your best volunteers for the season

Humorous theme ideas
•    Lip dubs: A lip synching video.  See definition of a Lip dub and examples here
•    Commercial: Advertising your tax site, services provided and how much fun it is to be there etc.!

To Enter: Contest begins January 27, 2012 (National Earned Income Tax Credit Awareness Day) and ends April 1, 2012. You may enter the “My VITA Volunteer" Video Contest by posting your video (no longer than three minutes in length) on YouTube and e-mailing the corresponding URL along with your VITA Site Name, your first and last name, phone number and e-mail address to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it prior to contest submission deadline. You must be a participating VITA site in one of the United Way of the Bay Area’s seven counties to be eligible (See Eligibility section for details).

Submission Requirements:
•    Video Submissions may be no more than three minutes in length, including titles.
•    All video entries must be the original creation of the entrant.  Contest art must have the rights to use, display and publish all images, music, text and other content included in the submission.
•    Video submissions must not contain any pictures or shots of client’s tax documents and personal identifying information. Entries that contain such material will not be considered.
•    Video Submissions may use any narrative and technical style, including documentary, fiction, live action or animation.
•    All Entrants must have consent of any video participants or actors. Here is the required consent form.
•    When uploading the Video Submission, the Contestant must include the following information in the YouTube branding box:
a. The Contestant's YouTube account name; and
b. The name of the video (in English)
•    Each VITA Site may submit only one Video Submission.
•    Video Submissions must be in English or have English subtitles. Contestants may use an online translation tool such as translate.google.com to create the English text. Most video editing software includes a titling tool, but free titling software is also available on the Internet.
•    Video Submissions must be uploaded to YouTube beginning 12:00:01 January 27, 2012 and no later than 11:59:59 p.m. PST April 1, 2012. To become a registered user of the YouTube Site, individuals must register for an account and agree to the YouTube Site's "terms of use" set forth at http://www.YouTube.com/t/terms ("Terms of Service"). There is no fee or charge to become a registered user.
•    E-mail the corresponding YouTube URL along with your VITA Site Name, your first and last name, phone number and e-mail address to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it no later than 11:59:59 p.m. PST April 1, 2012. 
•    Once Earn It! Keep It! Save It! is notified of the URL, the uploaded video is considered final and may not be modified or edited.
•    Video entries that exhibit any use of profanity or nudity will automatically be disqualified from the contest.
•    The video must not have been previously submitted, distributed, aired or have won any other award in any other competition.
•    Finalists may be expected to provide Contest Sponsors with a high-quality copy (uncompressed video file) of their Video Submissions within two weeks of the finalist announcement, in the event Contest Sponsors decide to use Submission in promotional materials.
•    No Video Submissions will be returned.

Judging:
All submissions will be reviewed by the UWBA Earn It! Keep It! Save It! team to determine if they met the Contest Guidelines.
•    The videos will be placed into Earn It! Keep It! Save It!’s YouTube, Facebook and website on April 2, 2012 and can then be viewed by the community at large.
•    To determine the best video submission the general public can vote by: visiting http://earnitkeepitsaveit.org/coordinators/videocontest.  You will then follow the link provided that will direct you to a survey where you will vote for your favorite video.  Public voting ends on April 16, 2012 09:00:00 am PST.
•    In the event of a tie, the UWBA Earn It! Keep It! Save It! team will make the final decision.

Here is the official evaluation form that will be used to by our panel of judges

Prizes:
One (1) Grand Prize: Grand Prize winner will win a celebration party at your VITA site hosted by Earn It! Keep It! Save It!. Winner will be determined on or about April 17, 2012 and will be posted on www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org after April 18, 2012.
________________________________________

Eligibility:
Employees, and their immediate families and household members, of the United way of the Bay Area, are not eligible. Only participating VITA sites in the United Way of the Bay Area’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It! seven county coalitions are eligible. The seven counties include: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Solano. Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Entries received prior to or after Entry Period are void. By entering this contest,  entrants consent to the use of their name, video entry, biographical information, photographs and or likenesses for advertising and publicity purposes without additional compensation (except where prohibited) by Sponsor for editorial purposes concerning this contest or succeeding contests and for editorial publicity, special events and advertising purposes in connection with promoting Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, its services, its Website www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org and/or this contest or succeeding contests. By submitting an entry in connection herewith, Entrant unconditionally assigns and transfers to Sponsor all rights, title, interest and claim, which it now has or may in the future have to entries (including, without limitation, the submitted video), whether acceptable or not regardless of the form they take, or any element(s) thereof including, without limitation, the copyright therein and further grants the Sponsor the right to use, publish, exploit and/or modify any entry and/or video submitted in connection herewith in any manner it wishes. Sponsor reserves the right to modify video or video titles and publish or advertise the video without approval, acknowledgement or compensation unless prohibited by law. By entering, entrants agree to defend, release and hold harmless the sponsor and their agents from and against any claims, action and/or liability for injury, loss or damage of any kind resulting from participating in this promotion (including in connection with the use and/or exploitation of the submitted video) or from the acceptance or use of prize awarded. Sponsor reserves the right to verify eligibility qualifications of the winner. US law governs these contest rules.

Entry Limits:
Limit one entry per site. Subsequent entries submitted by a single entrant are void.  By submitting a video to the contest, you are verifying the originality of the video and compliance with contest rules. Entry cannot defame or invade the rights or privacy of any person, living or deceased, or otherwise infringe upon any third party personal or proprietary rights. Any entrant whose work includes likenesses of third parties or contains elements not owned by the entrant (such as, but not limited to music depictions of buildings, trademarks or logos) must be able to provide legal releases for such use including Sponsor’s use of such entry, in a form satisfactory to judges. Entry must be in keeping with Sponsor’s image and may not be offensive, as determined by judges in their sole discretion. Judging will be conducted under the supervision of Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, whose decisions are final and binding on matters relating to this contest. Judges reserve the right not to award the Grand Prize if it determines that no entry is qualified.

Release:
Neither Sponsor, their affiliates, subsidiaries, divisions, advertising and promotion agencies, sponsors, and their respective officers, directors, shareholders and employees (collectively “Releasees”) nor any service providers are responsible for incorrect or inaccurate transcription of entry information, or for any human or other error, technical malfunctions, lost/delayed data transmission, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, line failures of any telephone network, computer equipment, software, inability to access any online service or website, or any other error or malfunction, or any injury or damage to participant’s or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participation in this Contest, or for any injury to person or property, including but not limited to video equipment, arising from the entrant’s participation in this Contest or for the use or misuse of any prize won. Releasees are not responsible for lost, late, illegible or misdirected entries.

Additional Restrictions:
Caution: Any attempt by an entrant or any other individual to deliberately damage any online service or website, tamper with the judging process, or otherwise undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest is a violation of criminal and civil laws and should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages and/or other remedies from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. Failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision. If for any reason the Contest is not capable of being executed as planned, or infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, action of entrants, technical failures or any other causes beyond the control of Sponsor, corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Contest, Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to disqualify any suspect entry or entrant and to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest and/or award the prize from among all eligible, non-suspect entries received as of the date of the termination, as Sponsor determines in its sole discretion. Entries not complying with all rules are subject to disqualification. No correspondence regarding entries will be entered into with entrants other than the potential winner. By entering, each entrant licenses all rights to the content of his/her entry and the ideas/concepts embodied therein. Sponsor shall have the right to modify, use, assign or dispose of such entries however they see fit without approval of entrants or any third party. Entrants grant Sponsor the right to use their names, images, likenesses, photographs, voices and biographical materials, and video submissions, for advertising, publicity and promotion purposes including posting the videos or screen names online for any purpose or on a winner’s list and other online announcements, and for sharing the videos with the media for viewing, whether TV or print, without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law. Neither entrants nor winner shall receive any compensation or credit for use of entries, other than that disclosed in these rules. Entrants agree that if selected as the winner, they grant Sponsor and its designees the right to film and later publish footage of the winner preparing for the premiere.

Sponsors: The Sponsor of this contest is United Way of the Bay Area