Canon Envirothon

Adopted February 1, 2009 – Revised January 30, 2011

The Canon Envirothon Annual Competition shall be conducted under the following Program Policies:

Canon Envirothon Annual Competition is offered and operated on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, religion, natural origin, sex, age, marital status or physical/mental challenges. All team and participants will be treated with the utmost of respect and fairness.

1. Team Members, other minor-aged guests, advisors, volunteers, guests and CEC must sign a Canon Envirothon “Code of Conduct”.
2. Housing and meals will be provided by the host state or province for registered five (5) member student teams and up to two (2) adult advisors per team. Additional guests (adults, students, minors) may purchase meals and housing (if available) at a rate established by the Host.
3. Every person attending the Annual Competition in any capacity must be registered.
4. Transportation and meals en-route to and from the Annual Competition will be the responsibility of each participating team. Meals will be provided beginning the evening of registration day and ending with breakfast following the banquet.
5. The Annual Competition shall take place between July 15 and August 7, with the specific dates for each competition to be selected by the host state/province. The Annual Competition shall last a minimum of five and a maximum of six days.
6. Pre-registration forms and a non-refundable fee established by the Host and approved by the Canon Envirothon Board of Directors (CEBOD) shall be submitted to the Canon Envirothon office by a date set by the CEBOD. An additional 50% late fee may be imposed and enforced for registrations postmarked after this date.
   1. Registration Fees for the Annual Competition will be paid to Canon Envirothon (CE), with those fees utilized to offset a portion of the costs of room and board.
   2. The Annual Competition will be subject to a written agreement between the CE and the Host Member (The Hosting Agreement) and will be delivered according to an agreed upon budget between the two parties. The Hosting Agreement will specify those items for which CE is financially responsible and those items for which the host is responsible. Sponsorships of the Annual Competition sought by Host are subject to guidelines for sponsorship provided by the CEBOD.
   3. The Hosting Agreement will also include a Host/CEBOD working/target schedule along with critical or completion dates for all items. The grant of funds provided by the CEBOD to offset costs involved in hosting the Annual Competition will be reduced as specified in the Host Agreement in the event the host fails to meet the applicable benchmarks. The grant may be increased by the amount specified in the Host Agreement if all critical items are received on time and are deemed suitable to the CEBOD, but in no event shall the grant exceed the actual costs incurred by the Host of hosting of the Annual Competition.
   4. Fifty percent (50%) of the grant will be provided at the Winter Meeting prior to the Annual Competition, with the remainder provided at the time of the Annual Competition.
7. Reference Materials:
   1. Reference materials will be identified and/or mailed by the Host committee to the designated Canon Envirothon Committee Representatives no later than April 15 prior to the competition.
   2. The Representatives are responsible for making references known to and/or available to their participating team prior to the competition, but no earlier than May 1st.
8. There shall be five (5) natural resource testing stations:
   1. Soils/Land Use, Aquatic Ecology, Forestry, Wildlife, and a Current Environmental Issue, each with a percentage limitation on the amount of local content identified in the approved test writing guidelines.
   2. The Current Environmental Issue, learning objectives, and a list of suggested study resources shall be submitted as required in the Host bid package and should be approved and confirmed by the CEBOD with the Host announced no less than 24 months in advance of the applicable competition. With a target date of April 15 of the competition year, the site specific study materials should be either mailed or posted on the CE website. The volume of study materials will be limited to 200 pages.
   3. The five station tests will be conducted by cooperating agencies and/or independent environmental professionals.
   4. The five stations will be comprehensive in nature.
   5. Each of the five station tests will run 45-60 minutes.
   6. The five station tests will reflect the scientific methodology and the use of U.S. and metric measurements.
   7. The Host will provide equipment and resource material. Sets of such standard testing equipment and material will be made available by Canon Envirothon. However, unique and specialty equipment and material required beyond that made available by Canon Envirothon shall be the responsibility of the Host. Sample sets of equipment will be provided to the Host one year prior to the Annual Competition.
   8. Any changes to the Annual Competition format must be made as set forth in CE Bylaws and approved by the CEBOD no later than one year prior to the Annual Competition to which the changes will apply (i.e. splitting the training and/or testing up between two days, holding ecosystem testing vs. specific station testing, etc.).
   9. Additional rules specific to and required by the Host site/campus must be submitted to CEBOD for review and approval no later than one year prior to the Annual Competition.
9. Advisors and approved guests may be offered a chance to participate in the teaching and testing stations at a time when such stations are not in use by the teams.
10. Oral presentation will be judged by professionals from various state/provincial and natural organizations, agencies and/or businesses.
    1. The oral presentation problem may or may not reflect the topic of the Current Environmental Issue station.
    2. Judges for the oral presentation will be required to participate in an orientation and training session delivered jointly by the CEBOD and the Host.
    3. Oral topic presentations and resources will be provided to both the judges and the teams.
    4. This makeup of the oral presentation judges (preliminary and final) should include two environmental educators per judging room from high school level or above or from an accredited nature/environmental education center.
11. All station presenters and oral presentation presenters and judges will be selected by the Host with advice from the CEBOD.
12. Awards for the Annual Competition will be announced prior to the Annual Competition. Minimum awards will include:
    1. Monetary awards for the top ten teams.
    2. Trophy appropriate for display at school for top 15 teams.
    3. Individual team member awards for top 10 teams.
    4. Canon Envirothon rotating award for that year’s first place team. This award will be returned and passed on to the next year’s first place team.
    5. Awards for the top ten team(s) in Soil/Land Use, Aquatic Ecology, Forestry, Wildlife, and Current Environmental Issue.
    6. Award for the highest Oral Competition score.
    7. Additional awards may be made but must be approved by the CEBOD one year prior to the Annual Competition.
13. All participants in the Annual Competition must provide proof of health insurance to participate in any Canon Envirothon scheduled functions.
14. State/Province host must provide proof of event insurance and meet the approval of the CEBOD.
15. English shall be the designated official language of the Canon Envirothon. All written (field) tests shall be in English. Where French is a team’s first language, (i.e., a Francophone team), the team shall be permitted to use word-for-word French to English translation dictionaries for oral presentation preparation. Oral presentation scenarios will be provided in both English and French where needed, though oral presentations shall be presented by the team in English. A translator shall be furnished to assist judges with questions during the presentation question/answer/scoring phase. Canon Envirothon will be responsible for the additional expense of dictionaries, translations, translators, etc. Other language scenarios and requirements will be reviewed on a case by case basis by the CEBOD. The Canon Envirothon Board of Directors, Executive Director and the Canadian Outreach Coordinator will further research the language issue. This needs to be in place by 2011. Official Canon Envirothon information for promotion and marketing purposes for use and distribution in Canada will be in both French and English.
16. Canon Envirothon Program Policies are subject to change pending approval as set forth in the Canon Envirothon Bylaws. Changes will be provided in advance to all teams and advisors.
17. A Grievance Committee will be appointed for each Annual Competition to review Grievances/violation(s) of the Rules, Canon Envirothon Code of Conduct, or Policy by the CEBOD. The protocol for filing Grievances /notice of violations shall be promulgated by the CEBOD and made available to all teams at the beginning of the Annual Competition. The Grievance Committee and/or the CEBOD will provide a schedule identifying requirements for appeals and a protocol for responding in an expeditious fashion to appeals that are filed. Appeals, grievances, and Notices of Violations etc. will be submitted to the Grievance Committee which may refer appeals and violations to the CEBOD. In the absence of the appointment of the Grievance Committee, violations and appeals will be filed directly with the CEBOD. The decisions of the Grievance Committee and/or of the CEBOD will be final. See detailed operating protocol.
18. A Competition Advisory Team designated by the CEBOD will assist the Host during the field training, testing and orals competition, will serve as proctors at each station, will be available to interpret CEC Rules and testing protocols and will be available to resolve issues of fairness and equity. See detailed guidelines.