Last year we started a new tradition, an “All-America Stories” video contest. People from the finalist communities made videos telling their stories of positive community change. We posted them on the Internet and readers of our AAC blog voted for their favorites. Members of the public were encouraged to vote for their favorite videos and the winner was announced Friday night at the All-America City Awards celebration.
We’re doing it again this year. To view two of last year’s top vote getters, link here.
This is a voluntary contest and will have no bearing on your “official” bid for the All-America City Award. It’s something we do for fun and to encourage the use of social networking/new media so we can spread the word about the All-America City Awards and your community successes.
Specs
Videos should be anywhere from three to five minutes long. They should tell the story of your community and/or the innovative community projects that were part of the AAC application you submitted. You could focus on one project or more. Or, you could tell an overview story about your community and how it tackled its challenges. We encourage creativity, good story-telling and effective use of the medium, recognizing that you are not professional videographers. We want you to have fun. Use whatever software you have at your disposal to make the videos—Windows Moviemaker or iMovie or any video-making software you prefer.
Delivering the video
Videos should be completed and sent to the National Civic League by Friday, June 3. You can deliver the edited video to us in the following ways:
- Send us a file (preferably a Quicktime or WMV file) on a jump drive or disk.
- Use a third party “large file sharing provider” such as YouSendit to e-mail the file.
- Upload your video on You Tube or Vimeo and e-mail us a link to the video.
Voting Instructions
Encourage everyone you know to “vote” for their favorite video (hint, hint, your community’s video) by visiting the All-America City Award Facebook page. Use social media to spread the word. You can even use regular media (newspapers, TV news, etc) if they are willing.
Step 1: Voters should visit the AAC Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-America-City-Awards/277887828621) and click on “like” if they haven’t already done so.
Step 2: Click on the video icon on the left side of the screen and go to our Facebook Video page.
Step 3: Click on the video to watch it.
Step 4: Click on the word “like” that will be displayed beneath the video once it begins to play.
The video with the most “likes” will be declared the winner.
If you have any further questions, contact Mike McGrath at 303 571 4343.
