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CONTEST FEE & PER-ENTRY FEES
We charge each school a contest fee of $20, which entitles each school to five entries without additional charge. After your first five entries, each additional entry will cost $5 each.

IJEA MEMBERSHIP FEE
In addition to the $20 contest fee and any relevant per-entry fees, you will also owe $25 if you are not yet an IJEA member for 2024-25.

MAXIMUM POSSIBLE COST FOR A SCHOOL
As mentioned above, each school may submit a maximum of two entries per category except for Best Website, which is limited to one entry. Our contest consists of 30 categories, resulting in a maximum of 59 possible entries per school. This means that the maximum possible cost for a school entering all 30 categories would be $290 ($20 contest fee + $0 for first five entries + $270 for remaining 54 entries) if the adviser is ALREADY a 2024-25 IJEA member, or $315 if the adviser is not yet a member ($290 + $25 membership fee).

WHERE TO SEND YOUR PAYMENT
Make checks payable to "Illinois Journalism Education Association." Please mail your entry fee and (if applicable) your membership fee to:

Susan Bookless, IJEA Treasurer
11420 West Chetlain Lane
Galena, IL 61036

IJEA MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENT FOR ADVISERS
You must be an IJEA member for your students’ work to be eligible for this contest. Membership becomes effective only when we receive payment of your membership fee. If you are not a member at the time you submit your students’ entries, you will have a seven-day grace period in which to join. We must receive your membership form and your $25 membership fee within seven days of receiving your contest entries for your students to be eligible. To join IJEA, complete and submit our online membership form or our PDF membership form, both of which are available on the IJEA website:

• Online Membership Form
• PDF Membership Form

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WELCOME TO OUR CONTEST PLATFORM
As we have done since 2022, we are using a contest platform constructed by BetterBNC, a company that specializes in administering publication contests around the country.

DON'T FORGET THE IJEA ADVISER INFORMATION FORM
Before or after using the contest platform, please fill out and submit the IJEA Adviser Information Form. This form is separate from the platform. A link to the form is located directly below. Filling out the form takes less than a minute or two, and doing so provides us with the information needed to place your publication in the correct enrollment division and correct publication category (print, digital or hybrid). The form is also where you calculate your total fees owed. The form is available at this link:

• 2025 IJEA Adviser Information Form

TO GET STARTED ON THE CONTEST PLATFORM
To get started with the platform itself, click “ENTER THE CONTEST HERE,” which is located in the upper right corner of the contest platform homepage.

AFTER YOU CLICK “ENTER THE CONTEST HERE”
As your publication’s adviser, you will serve as your students’ “Contestant Manager.” So click “Contestant Manager” if it has not already been preselected for you. Then for “Media Organization” select the name of your school.

IF YOUR SCHOOL IS NOT LISTED
Contact Dave Porreca at dporreca@illinoisjea.org and let him know that your school isn't listed in the "Media Organization" dropdown menu. He will add your school, and you'll be good to go.

PASSWORD
For “Password” you have three options, depending on whether your publication competed in last year’s contest and whether you served as the publication’s contestant manager.

OPTION 1: If your publication DID compete in last year’s contest AND if you were your publication’s contestant manager, then your login information is still stored in the platform. You will use the same password that you used last year. If you have forgotten your password, first select your school and then click “Forgot Password?,” and this will send the password to whatever email address you used last year. (It’s important that you select your school before clicking “Forgot Password?,” because if you don’t, you will receive an error message.) Once you have received your password from last year, enter it in the password area (the area that’s underlined in red) and click “Login.”

OPTION 2: If your publication DID compete in last year’s contest BUT someone else was your publication’s contestant manager, then that person’s login information is still stored in the platform. If you don’t know that person’s password, contact Dave Porreca at dporreca@illinoisjea.org, and he will retrieve the necessary information. Once you have received the password from last year, enter it and click “Login.”

OPTION 3: If your publication DID NOT compete in last year’s contest, first make sure that your school has been listed in the “Media Organization” dropdown menu. (Contact Dave Porreca at dporreca@illinoisjea.org if it has not been listed yet.) Once it has been listed, select your school and then type “bnc” (all lower case) into the password area. This is a generic password that you will use only once. Then hit “Login.” After you login, you will immediately be asked to create your own password. You will also be asked to provide basic contact information and to accept the BNC terms of use. Once you complete all of that, hit “Submit.”

AFTER YOU HAVE LOGGED IN
After you have completed your login process, you will see a screen with your school’s name in the upper right corner. On the left side of the page, you'll see "Welcome to the BNC" with three links located below it: "My Account," Submit Entry" and "Logout." To begin the submission process, hit “Submit Entry." This will take you to your entry submission page.

USING THE ENTRY SUBMISSION PAGE
The entry submission page is self-explanatory except for the first step. In the first step, you will be asked to choose a “Division.” In this context, “Division” DOES NOT refer to enrollment divisions. Instead, “Division” refers to different types of contest categories grouped together based on shared elements. You will find nine divisions listed:

• Art & Graphics (three categories — open to all publications)
• Digital-Only Categories (five categories — open to digital pubs or digital hybrids only)
• Features (two categories — open to all)
• Miscellaneous (four categories — open to all)
• News (two categories — open to all)
• Opinion (four categories — open to all)
• Photos (two categories — open to all)
• Print-Only Categories (five categories — open to print pubs or print hybrids only)
• Sports (three categories — open to all)

To begin the entry process, select the division you want. Then choose the category within that division which you would like to enter. After that, simply follow the directions; everything will be self-explanatory from that point on. Then repeat the process for each entry you want to submit. You can enter all of the categories in a division, with a maximum of two entries per category.

Good luck to you and your students! If you have questions about the platform, please contact Dave Porreca at dporreca@illinosjea.org.