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Electronic Devices Use of any electronic devices that assist in computation or communication are forbidden during the contest. This includes phones, tablets, calculators, and wearable devices such as smart watches. The intent of this policy is to isolate the student from communicating with others during the contest and to require hand computation in applicable areas (e.g. determination of erosion). Students observed using such devices during the contest will be disqualified. If you have a question, please contact Dr. Ellis. County Winners All teams wishing to compete must do so at their designated county contest. A team that wins its class at the county level is eligible to proceed to state and compete in that class as outlined in eligibility section of the contest policies. The local contest organizers are the recognized authority to declare contest winners. Multi-County Contests Sometimes counties will pool resources and have a multi-county contest. In this situation, teams from multiple counties are at the same contest, but are only in competition with the teams from their county. All teams from these counties must compete in this multi-county contest. Low Competition in a Class In some counties there may be only one team competing in a particular class. That team may be declared the county winner for that class provided the team competes at its designated local contest. The local contest organizers are the recognized authority to declare the winner. No Local Contest Occasionally, a county will have no recent participation and make no plans for a local contest. A team from this county may compete in another local contest. Teams do not have the authority to choose which contest they wish to attend. Teams must coordinate this through the local Soil and Water Conservation District Board. The purpose of this is to avoid teams independently declaring themselves the county winner. In the event that the board does not wish to coordinate, the local NRCS District Conservationist will serve as the coordinator. The NRCS DC may delegate this authority to another NRCS staff member. If no local coordinator is available, the State Land Judging Commitee will serve as the coordinator of last resort. Teams must document communication with local SWCD Board and NRCS staff prior to the State Land Judging Committee assuming this role. Go here for contacts. Dr. Ellis will serve as the point of contact for the State Land Judging Committee. |