**FIRST EMAIL**/FIRSTawards.org Tips for Upcoming Award Submissions

[Mark McLeod]

Greetings Teams:

In an effort to further assist you with successful Chairman's and Woodie Flowers Award submissions via www.firstawards.org, we have reviewed common issues encountered last year and are sharing below. All teams submitting for these awards should read through these carefully.

Scenario 1

"The submission form did not take. By the time it did, the deadline was past by 1 or 2 minutes."

Teams must allow for enough time should any technical issues occur. We cannot stress this enough. Please note the clock used on the site for the Chairman's Award and Woodie Flower's submission is synchronized to an atomic clock and is highly accurate. There will be NO extensions for late submissions of this type.

Scenario 2

"I believe that I have made a horrendous mistake...I managed to not submit our Chairman's Application because I failed to actually go to the submit page."

You must press the "Final Submit" button. This is critical, and if not done, your submission will not go through! We urge all teams to double check if there is any question as to whether or not they have a valid submission. There will be NO extensions for teams who fail to press the "Final Submit" button.

Scenario 3

"I just tried to submit the Chairman's Award, and for the last 2 hours every time I hit the "save and proceed" button I would be re-routed to the login page and everything typed in was erased. I would then have to re-type everything and try again. After three complete tries and no more time, I had to stop."

Should your team encounter any such issue you must contact firstawards.org to let them know immediately. Do not wait until after the deadline to do so! There will be NO extensions if firstawards.org is not properly notified prior to the deadline regarding a technical issue of this type.

Extension Exception - Should there be a technical issue with firstawards.org itself, FIRST will consider extension requests for teams adversely affected. However, teams must notify firstawards.org with a complete description of the issue encountered prior to the deadline.

Scenario 4

"I lost my password and have requested it several times with no response. Since firstawards.org failed to send me my password, I would like to have an extension so that our team can submit our entry."

Some e-mail providers will mark these automated e-mails as spam and filter them out of their inboxes. If you request your password and don't get a response, you need to check your spam and/or trash folders for these e-mails. Do not assume it is due to firstaward.org not being responsive. If you still do not find them in these areas, please contact support@firstawards.org for support. Remember to allow enough time for firstawards to respond to you (i.e., do not wait until the last minute)

Finally, please bear in mind if you wait until the last hour or minutes prior to the deadline to submit, there is the potential for many simultaneous requests for "immediate" help, with limited resources at firstawards.org to handle.

We highly encourage all teams to submit for these prestigious awards, and wish you the best of luck with your submissions!

Go Teams!