SHMA Photo Contest Official Rules and Conditions

SHMA Photo Contest Official Rules & Conditions:  There is no purchase necessary to enter or win the prizes.  This contest is open to all, regardless of SHMA Membership status. 

Deadlines for entry: The Contest begins at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (“PT”), May 1^st , 2008, and closes at 11:59 p.m. PT, June 30^th, 2008 (“Contest Period”). Regular postal mail entries must be postmarked no later than June 30^th, 2008.

How to enter: You can enter the Contest on-line or by regular postal mail. No entries will be accepted by any other means. To enter the Contest on-line: visit http://www.steilacoomhistorical.org and click on the Entry Form link at the Photo Contest Webpage.  Complete the entry form and either mail or email your pictures accordingly.  Photos submitted via email are accepted in most formats.  They must be a minimum of 72 dpi and at least 500 pixels with respect to the photo’s width. To enter the Contest by regular postal mail: complete the Photo Contest entry form and attach one, unframed 10 x 15 cm or 13 x 18 cm (4” x 6” or 5” x 7”) black-and-white or color photo to the back of it (“Postal Entry”).  Send Postal Entry to Steilacoom Historical Museum Association, ATTN:  WAMC, P.O. Box 88016, Steilacoom, WA 98388,

Entries are limited to four (4) pictures per person. No mechanically or electronically reproduced entries will be accepted. Pictures, including copyright thereto, become the property of the Steilacoom Historical Museum Association (SHMA), also known as Sponsor.  No acknowledgement of receipt will be sent. All email entries must be submitted from a valid e-mail account. Multiple Entries by the same person using more than one e-mail account shall result in disqualification. Entry in this contest constitutes acceptance of these Contest Rules.

Image guidelines: 1. Photos must be suitable for viewing by the general public regardless of age; 2. Photos must be taken by participant prior to the date the Contest closes; 3. Previously published photos are acceptable; 4. Participants must know the names and addresses of all identifiable people in their photo and may be required to provide supporting evidence; 5. Photos must be the sole and original work of the participant; 6. Images may not be altered or manipulated except by adjustment of brightness, contrast, and color, and by dodging and burning; 7. Composite images, including images created from separate images, and multiple exposures are not eligible for entry.

License, waiver and release: SHMA reserves the exclusive right to publish your submitted photo or use it in any promotional material (i.e. 2009 calendar). By participating and submitting an Entry into this competition, you grant SHMA a exclusive and royalty-free right and license (but not the obligation), in perpetuity throughout the world, to use, reproduce, store, transmit, communicate your submitted photo, in whole or in part, in any media, in marketing, advertising or promotional materials, advertisements, or Web sites, by SHMA, its licensees, successors or assigns, and/or for the purpose of promoting your photo and its submission to the Contest. You irrevocably waive any and all so-called "moral rights" in connection with your photo in favor of SHMA, its licensees, successors and assigns. You grant these rights and this waiver to SHMA free of charge. If you are selected as a Winner, by accepting a prize you agree to grant SHMA the above license to use your photo on an exclusive basis. You agree that you relinquish all of the rights in and to your submitted photo and that it is wholly original with you and not copied in whole or in part from any other work, and/ or you have obtained all necessary rights or licenses in order to authorize use of your photo for the above purposes, including any model releases. All photos submitted shall become property of SHMA and shall not be returned.

Who can participate: This Contest is open to all persons.  You need not be an existing SHMA member prior to the commencement of the Contest to participate. Professional photographers are allowed to enter the Contest.  All personal and other information requested by and supplied to the Sponsor for the purpose of this Contest must be truthful, complete, accurate and in no way misleading. The Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any entry or entrant, in its sole discretion, should any Entry or entrant at any stage supply untruthful, incomplete, inaccurate or misleading personal details and/or information.

Winner selection:  By August 30th, 2008, in Steilacoom, Washington, USA, a panel of judges, appointed by the Sponsor in its sole discretion.  This “Panel” will select twelve (12) potential winners (“Potential Winners”) from among all eligible Email and Postal Entries received during the Contest Period based upon the following subjective criteria:  1)  photographic quality; 2)  creativity; and, 3) how the picture succeeded in capturing the 4-Seasons theme of the Contest.  The selection of Potential Winners, as well as the interpretation and enforcement of the Contest Rules, shall be determined by the Panel in its sole discretion. All Panel decisions are final.

Notification of Winner: The Potential Winners will be notified by e-mail or mail within 10 days after their photos have been selected (“Prize Notification”).  The Potential Winners will receive a release form (“Release”). In order to claim a prize, each Potential Winner must fill out the Release within 14 days from the date of the Prize Notification. Each Potential Winner will forfeit their prize if: (1) the Prize Notification is returned to the Sponsor as undeliverable; (2) the Release is not returned or is returned unsigned; (3) the Release is not received by the Sponsor within the 14-day time limit. The Sponsor reserves the right to select an alternate Potential Winner for a prize that has been forfeited. In the Release form, the Potential Winner will be required to confirm: (i) eligibility for the Contest and compliance with these Contest Rules; (ii) acceptance of the prize as offered; and (iii) release of the Sponsor and its parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, and their employees, directors, officers, suppliers and agents from any and all liability for any loss, harm, damages, cost or expense arising out of participation in this Contest, participation in any Contest-related activity or the acceptance, use, or misuse of any prize including without limitation, costs, injuries, losses related to personal injuries, death, damage to, loss or destruction of property, rights of publicity or privacy, defamation, or portrayal in a false light, or from any and all claims of third parties arising there from; and (iv) grant the Sponsor the unrestricted right, in the Sponsor’s sole discretion, to publish without any further compensation the name, picture, portrait, likeness, of the Winner for advertising and promotional purposes.

Odds of winning: Odds of winning a prize will depend on the total number of eligible Entries received during the Contest Period and the quality of the photos received.

Miscellaneous conditions: By participating, each entrant agrees (1) that they have read and understood these Contest Rules and are bound by them, (2) that they are bound by any decision of the Sponsor or its agents regarding the awarding of the prize, (3) to accept any prize won in the form in which it is awarded, (4) that no trades, substitutions or exchanges will be allowed, and that the prize is not redeemable for cash. By accepting the prize, the Winner agrees: (1) to hold harmless the Sponsor, its parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, and their employees, officers, directors, representatives and agents (“Sponsor and Affiliates”) from all liability, including but not limited to injuries or damages of any sort connected with the receipt, use or misuse or possession of the prize, or connected in any way whatsoever with the Contest; and (2) that the Sponsor and Affiliates have not offered any guarantee, express or implied, in connection with the prize. The Sponsor reserves the right to amend or terminate all or any portion of this Contest at any time for any reason without prior notice, including the right to cancel or suspend the e-mail portion of this contest should a virus, bug or other cause, beyond the reasonable control of the Sponsor, corrupt the security or proper administration of the Contest.

Limitation of liability: All Entries/prize claims become the property of the Sponsor, which assumes no responsibility for lost, stolen, delayed, damaged or misdirected Entries/prize claims or for any failure of the Web site during the Contest Period, for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, access providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail or Entry to be received by the Sponsor on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any Web site, or any combination thereof including any injury or damage to an entrant’s or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from playing or downloading any material in the promotion. Any attempt to deliberately damage any Web site or to undermine the legitimate operation of this promotion is a violation of criminal and civil laws, and should such an attempt be made, the Sponsor reserves the right to seek remedies and damages to the fullest extent permitted by law, including criminal prosecution. Entries are subject to verification and will be declared invalid if they are illegible, mechanically reproduced, mutilated, forged, falsified, altered or tampered with in any way.

Use of personal information: By entering the Contest, an entrant agrees to the collection, use and disclosure by the Sponsor of the entrant’s personal information (1) for the purposes of administering the Contest and awarding the prize, if any, including but not limited to releasing the name of a Winner to those who request such information in accordance with the section entitled “Contest winner list” below; (2) to the Sponsor’s use of their name, likeness, and statements in any activities defined by the Sponsor without compensation. The entrant further understands and agrees that his/her personal information submitted may be stored on servers in the United States of America, and therefore may be subject to U.S. law, and/or disclosure to or access by U.S. authorities in accordance with or as required by U.S. law or courts.

Contest winner list: The Winners’ names will be published in the Fall 2008 issue of The SHMA newsletter.