cwfa - Queen's Contest Page

CENTRAL WESTERN FIREMAN’S ASSOCIATION

QUEEN’S CONTEST RULES

OBJECTIVE :

This contest is to determine the queen to reign at the annual conference of the Central Western Firemen's Association. The girl chosen as queen, should represent the meaning of the fire and emergency services, that being dedication to helping others. This contest is not to be strictly a beauty pageant, the queen shall reign over all festivities at the June conference, she and her court shall be present at the conference business meeting, and she shall return the following year to the conference to participate in the Queen's parade on Friday evening. The queen and all contestants should be encouraged to attend Friday night's activities. The queen should be a hostess to contestants, and offer to help in any way she can to make the competition enjoyable for contestants and their families. The queen should be invited to attend any community function parade when asked by a Central Western Association Department. Invitations to the queen to attend such events should be encouraged by departments, as to promote good public relations with all communities involved.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS :

1. Age 16 by deadline of the entry form (Postmarked the 2nd Saturday in June before the competition) to a current graduating senior of an accredited high school.

2. Shall be from the sponsoring organization's fire or school district. If candidate is from divorced parents one must reside in sponsoring district. (Amended 6/2007)

3. Shall be unmarried.

4. Shall wear a formal dress, NO PANTS!

5. Department dues shall be paid up and application must have signature of chief or president of sponsoring organization.

GENERAL RULES :

1. Sponsoring organization will be fully responsible for the queen's candidates' needs at the conference. They will furnish a car for her. The host department will furnish a dressing area, with security, a hostess for the candidates and queen, a sash for each contestant, as well as a sign for the car each candidate will ride in during the parade.

The host department will provide three (3) reputable judges, a place to hold the contest, which will hold as many people as deemed necessary to hold contestants, friends and family of contestants, C.W.F.A. members and their families. The host department will also provide an adequate sound system so that all present can hear well. Judges need to be notified that they need to be familiar with what the contest is about. Host departments should provide some type of short entertainment during the tabulation of scores.

2. Entry fee to be determined by and paid to the host department, with the approval of the Executive Board.

3. The queen and her court will ride on a vehicle provided by the host department, on Saturday, and all other contestants are invited and encouraged to be in Saturday's parade.

4. Photograph of the contestants must be one 8x10” color photo copy for placement of the queen's bulletin board and one wallet size photo copy for the program shall be made up by the host department and any news articles which may be placed in local papers. Photos will not be returned.

5. The entry fee and photograph must be post marked no later than the 2nd Saturday in June.

6. Applications to show the duties of the C.W.F.A. queen, so that all contestants understand what she is to do if chosen queen.

7. Trophies or plaques will be awarded to all five finalists, and prize money paid will be determined by the host department, any additional prizes awarded will be at the discretion of the host department.

8. Queen's application or entry form should which is essential to scoring. Essay needs to be more than two lines typed. Essay value is 10 points in scoring.

9. Times for judging and queen's parade will be established by the host department, with the approval of the Executive Board.

10. The host department will provide a lunch for the queen and her court on Saturday.

11. The queen and her court shall attend the C.W.F.A. business meeting at 9:00 a.m. Saturday.

12. A copy of rules, judging sheets, and queen's contest applications shall be sent out by the host department. to all member departments no later than MAY 1.

13. The C.W.F.A. shall provide a list of all responsibilities of the host department concerning the queen's contest.

14. All decisions of the judges are final.

15. At least one (1) member of the C.W.F.A. Queen's Committee shall be present at the judging table during the contest.

16. The sponsoring contestant’s department MUST provide an escort from the sponsoring fire department and that escort MUST be in dress uniform, that is a minimum of a dress shirt and dress slacks (NO SHORTS). The escort will escort the contestant into the contest, to the stage and whenever indicated by necessity and host department.

QUEEN’S CONTEST JUDGING GUIDELINES

These guidelines are established to help keep the contest similar from year to year. Additions or modifications by the judges from the host department are allowed.

1. Information on entry form to be part of the final decision.

2. Personal interviews in an informal session will not be part of the final decision.

3. Questions answered at the formal contest will be part of the final decision.

4. During interviews, contestants should be encouraged to talk about their sponsoring departments.

5. When entry field exceeds fourteen (14), a preliminary judging will occur, reducing the field in half for the final judging prior to the selection of a queen and her court (5 finalists).

6. Formal contest shall be in formal wear (no pants) with a series of general questions.

7. Judges and master of ceremonies should conduct themselves in such a manner as not to embarrass the contestants or their families.

8. Judges will follow provided score sheets and use the point system provided.

9. In the event of a tie, the master of ceremonies will have available to him by the host department, one question to ask each contestant involved, in the tie. Points achieved through that question will be included on the judging sheet.

10. It will be host department’s responsibility to see that a Miss Congeniality is chosen. This will be done at the Tea reception for the contestants and will be voted on by the contestants themselves.

QUEEN’S CONTEST TALLYING THE VOTES

1. Judges will have one judging sheet per contestant, and will rate contestant from 1-10 in each category. The Master of Ceremonies will not call up the next contestant until all judges have completed the scoring of the previous Contestant. (Ex....Contestant # 1's judging must be done and given to a runner before Contestant #2 is introduced.)

2. Total points will be tabulated at the bottom of each sheet at the time of the judging by a clerk.

3. The three sheets of scores for each contestant will be added together and a total shown and then divided by three.

4. The contestants with the highest scores will be chosen into the finalists. (If there are no more than 14 contestants, there need not be finalists.) If there are more than 14 contestants, there shall be 7 finalists chosen.

5. The finalists will begin again with new judging sheets. Scores will be totaled from the three judges again.

6. The five highest scores from the finalists will be the fourth, third, second and first runner up, and the highest score being the queen.

7. In case of a tie, a tie breaking question furnished by the host department will be asked of the tied contestants and the score from that question totaled from all three judges will determine the placement of the contestant.

8. All scores tallied and totaled will be added together for each contestant, and the highest scores determine the winners.

9. A C.W.F.A. Queen's Committee member should be present during tabulation.

(In case of questions or situations.)

10. The Queen's Committee should see that the contestant’s vote on Miss Congeniality.

C.W.F.A. QUEEN’S CONTEST

RESPONSIBILITIES OF HOST DEPARTMENT

1. Choose chairperson and committee to run contest smoothly. Notify the CWFA queen’s committee chairperson of ALL meetings for conference competition.

2. Provide a place to hold the contest which will hold as many people deemed necessary as to hold contestants, families and friends, C.W.F.A. members and families.

3. Shall provide an adequate sound system so that all present can hear well.

4. Shall provide sashes for all contestants.

5. Flowers are to be provided to each contestant, by the host department.

6. Shall provide three (3) reputable judges. Provide the judges with information that will help them do their job smoothly. Must make sure that each judge does not know any contestant. If so, that person cannot be a judge.

7. Shall send out to all department members, applications for the queen's contest so that all departments have equal opportunity to enter. (No later than May 1.)

8. Provide some type of short entertainment during the tabulation of scores.

9. Construct bulletin board to display photographs of all queen's candidates and place it in the registration area, and can be moved to the judging area.

10. If possible place photographs and article in local paper about the queen's contest.

11. Provide trophies or plaques to all five members of the queen's court and Miss Congeniality.

12. Shall provide lunch for queen and her court on Saturday.

13. Shall provide someone from host department to act as a hostess to the queen and the candidates so as to help them find things and get acquainted.

14. Shall provide signs/posters for queen candidate’s vehicles.

15. Shall provide vehicle for the selected queen & court to ride in on Saturday’s parade.

Updated May, 2009