While some chapters organize very large contests involving hundreds of schools, please don’t presume that all contests must be run very elaborately. The forms found online are based on the contests of chapters that have several years of experience under their belts. But a small contest is just as effective in promoting the benefits of immigration to your community, and AILF staff stand ready to be of assistance to your chapter.

Consider these quick tips for getting an initial, small, local contest up and running in your chapter:

1. Sponsor the contest in just ONE school in your area. Is there a chapter leader, or any local chapter member, who has a fifth grade child (or grandchild!) and would be willing to call his child’s teacher to suggest this contest? Or, put a notice in your chapter newsletter asking interested members to contact the chapter chair for a copy of the new AILF contest brochure. If your chapter gets more than one classroom participating, your local executive committee can pick the winning entry, and can then submit it to the national contest.
   
   

2. Prizes do not need to be elaborate. While some chapters have developed enviable awards that include symphony tickets and museum passes, a chapter running a first contest could issue a $100 savings bond to the winning student or invite the winner and his parents to a chapter dinner in his honor. AILF can even provide your chapter with an American Immigrants poster or small supply of bumper sticker for winners and runners-up.
   
   

3. Politicians and the press love local stories about kids winning contests. Call your Congressman’s or Mayor’s office and ask if they would write a congratulatory letter to the winner that you can frame, read, and present to the winner. Call the city desk or style section of your hometown newspaper or local access cable tv station and ask if they could send a photographer or video camera to the chapter dinner where the winner will read his essay.
   
   

4. Use the contest as a project for up and coming leaders in your chapter to test their organizational skills. Current chapter executive committee members are likely overworked already fielding mentoring calls, handling liaison duties with government agencies, and organizing chapter conferences. Why not assign coordination of your local contest to a recent AILA member in your area who regularly shows up at meetings and has expressed an interest in becoming more involved? Or why not use the contest as a challenge to a potential leader you’d like to see become more involved: urge them to help out the chapter. Law student members make good coordinators, too!
   
   

5. If your chapter is unable to sponsor a local version of the AILF Creative Writing contest, please consider making a financial contribution to our national contest prize package. Funds raised are used to pay the airfare, lodging, and expenses for the national winner and his/her family to attend the AILF Annual Benefit Dinner and see the sites in the conference city. Your $250-500- or $1000 chapter donation would allow AILF to offer a great prize package!