Judge Reference Guide & Video
Part 1: Understanding SIFE
The Organization
- Founded in 1975, SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) is an international non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together the top leaders of today and tomorrow to create a better, more sustainable world through the positive power of business.
- There are more than 34,000 students actively participating in SIFE programs at more than 1,300 college and university campuses in 41 countries.
- With the support and encouragement of their faculty advisors and a local business advisory board, SIFE students apply business concepts to develop community outreach projects that improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need.
- SIFE teams' projects address a variety of topics, such as market economics, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, personal success skills, environmental sustainability and business ethics.
- The connections made possible through the SIFE network are benefiting individuals and communities around the world while fostering an environment for personal and professional development among the participants.
The Individual SIFE Team
- SIFE teams are organized by individual university campuses. There are intentionally very few rules or procedures established by the SIFE World Headquarters for how these teams are organized and structured. Some teams will have one faculty advisor and others will have several; some teams will have a large number of student participants and others will have a small number; some teams will establish eligibility requirements for membership on the team and others will offer membership to any interested student; some teams will have a very complex organizational structure with multiple officer positions and others will have a very flat structure; some teams will have arranged for SIFE students to receive academic credit and others have not, etc.
- Every institution is unique, as is the community it serves, thus the flexibility in organization allows each university to organize and structure its SIFE team in a manner that best fits its faculty, student and community needs. This same flexibility applies to each team's educational efforts.
- The only parameters that SIFE World Headquarters places on project activity is that teams educational programs should be designed to create economic opportunity for others by helping them learn about 1) market economics, 2) personal success skills, 3) entrepreneurship, 4) financial literacy , 5) environmental sustainability and 6) business ethics. Beyond this, questions as to how many projects teams choose to do, which audiences they target their outreach efforts towards, whether they design original educational material or use pre-designed material, etc., are all left to the discretion of each team.
The Competition
- The SIFE program year ends with the overall competition. This process provides teams with the opportunity to present their outreach projects to a panel of judges who evaluate those projects and determine which teams had the most impact improving the quality of life and standard of living for members of their community.
- This competitive process creates a "best-practice" sharing environment and fosters a healthy spirit of competition, which encourages and rewards excellence.
- Every country that operates a SIFE program, at minimum, organizes a national competition, from which one institution will be named national champion and advance to compete at the SIFE World Cup. Countries that operate large SIFE programs may host a series of regional competitions to narrow down the number of teams eligible to compete at their national competition.
- In every country around the world, and at each level of the overall competition, the format, rules and judging criteria remain the same.
Part 2: Judging Instructions - Competition & Judging Process
Competition Process
Written Annual Report
Each competing team is required to create a written annual report of their team's activities and educational outreach efforts. Annual reports are limited to a total of four printed pages on 8.5 x 11 inch or A4 size paper (two pages front to back) or on one sheet of 11 x 17 inch or A5 size paper, with print on both sides. If a team uses a cover or back page, it will count as one of those pages.
Live Presentation
Each competing team will have a 37 minute time block to deliver a live audiovisual presentation to the judges. After the team is formally introduced, the structure of this time block will be:
- Equipment set-up and annual report distribution - 7 minutes
- Live audiovisual presentation - 24 minutes
- Question and answer session - 5 minutes
Judging Process
At the end of the day, after all the teams in your league have concluded their presentations, the judging process will occur as follows:
- Take a few minutes to review and make any additional comments on the Individual Team Evaluation Sheets. The SIFE staff plays no role in the judging process - your comments will be the only formal review of the teams' activities. Please do your best to complete these evaluations thoroughly and try to offer feedback that is constructive in nature and provides suggestions for how the team can improve.
- Use the Cumulative Score Sheet to rank each team in order, giving a number one ranking to the team you think did the best overall job of fulfilling all seven judging criteria, a two to the second, and so on, assigning a numerical place to each competing team. A tie between two or more teams is not permitted - please rank each team from first to last, assigning no two teams with the same rank.
- Submit your Individual Team Evaluation Sheets and Cumulative Score Sheet to the League Coordinator.
- The final results will be announced at an awards ceremony, which you are invited to attend. Please do not share the results of your league with anyone else.
As a SIFE judge, please know that the comments on the Individual Team Evaluation Sheets are the only formal feedback teams receive from judges during the competitive process. SIFE strongly encourages you to take the time to give specific feedback on their current programs and explain how to improve and build for the future.
Part 3: Judging Instructions - Making Your Decision
- The most important activity that SIFE teams engage in is developing projects that address market economics, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, personal success skills, environmental sustainability and business ethics.
- SIFE teams receive very specific training and instruction to focus their efforts towards the six criteria outlined above, which have been determined by the SIFE WHQ Board of Directors, plus an additional criterion that focuses on the overall team & program sustainability. This 7th criterion would include activities such as recruiting students, assembling a business advisory board, using the mass media, securing the financial contributions necessary to support their teaching initiatives, etc.
- Although you may personally believe there are other worthwhile activities that SIFE teams should engage in, or actually hear about other activities from the teams that present to you, please base your judging decisions on how well each team's educational programs fulfilled the criteria outlined above.
- Remember that within the framework of these concepts, teams have complete discretion to choose the audiences they work with. You may hear examples of many different groups that the SIFE teams have targeted their programs towards, such as school children in an affluent suburb, small business owners, villagers in a rural area, individuals on welfare, other university students, etc. Although some of the audiences that teams will target may appear to have more need than others, you should not automatically give preference to these teams but rather, base your judging decisions on which teams were able to demonstrate having had the most impact on the audiences they chose to work with.
- SIFE teams put a tremendous amount of time and energy into the creation of their annual report and audiovisual presentation. You will likely see very talented students, who are dynamic speakers and that have employed the use of sophisticated technology in their presentation. Teams are certainly encouraged to be as creative as possible with their presentation and we would ask that you not penalize any teams for being too "flashy". However, please do your best to look past the quality of the teams' presentations and base your evaluation on a serious review of the content of the teams' educational programs.
IMPORTANT! What SIFE is NOT About:
- SIFE is NOT a competition about which team recruited the most students, raised the most money, received the most media coverage, etc. These activities are only relevant to the degree that they enhanced the team's ability to fulfill their primary mission of creating economic opportunity for others.
- SIFE does NOT require teams to conduct projects abroad. Although it may be impressive to see that teams are able to impact those outside of their home countries, this mere international activity should not automatically warrant the team additional points. Your focus should always be on the need, relevance, depth, and meaningful impact of the project - regardless of it being abroad or in their own home-countries.
- SIFE is NOT necessarily focused on the INPUT or OUTPUT from teams. Rather, competitions allow them to illustrate their focus on high-quality and meaningful OUTCOME of their efforts.
- SIFE is NOT focused on inflated results/numbers - quality and depth of impact, outcomes and reach are more valuable.
- SIFE is NOT a speech and/or presentation contest. Our competitions are not focused on who gave the best speech or which team had the best group of presenters. It is also not a contest on the best audiovisual effects or most creative annual report.
Part 4: Reference Points - Q & A and Level of Impact
Question and Answer Session
Reference Points
The Question and Answer session allows you the opportunity to seek additional insight and/or clarification on the full scope, depth and impact of the team's projects.
The following represent some key factors to consider when engaging the team during the Question and Answer session. This list is in no way all-inclusive; you are encouraged to explore all aspects of the team's program and activities.
- New versus continuing projects
- Extent to which new knowledge was applied by project beneficiaries
- Where one project meets multiple criteria consider the depth of impact per criterion
- In cases of joint ventures, assess the extent of the team's activities/impact versus those of other project partners
- Distinction between fully-completed versus partially completed projects
- Degree of sustainability for projects conducted over long distance
- Type and relevance of measurement tool(s) utilized
- Direct versus indirect impact
- Project outcomes versus outputs
- Distinction between outcomes per project phase versus the overall results
- Historical impact versus current impact versus projected impact
Outcomes: Benefits or changes for individuals or populations during or after participating in program activities. They are influenced by program's outputs. Outcomes may relate to behavior, skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, conditions, status, or other attributes. They are what participants know, think, or can do; or how they behave; or what their condition is, that is different following the program.
Outputs: The direct product of program activities and usually are measured in terms of volume of work accomplished - for example, the number of classes taught, counseling sessions conducted, educational materials distributed, and participants served.
Individual Team Evaluation Sheet
Level of Impact
Poor (equivalent to low impact): Project(s) activities satisfactorily completed, but had little effect on changing or improving lives
Average (equivalent to medium impact): Project(s) gave criterion/issue public attention, gained support and participation of key stakeholders, endorsements/testimonials set forth
Good (equivalent to high impact): Project(s) advocated the passage of significant, sustainable change in target audience, attention/support around project clearly advanced, key stakeholders strongly influenced
Outstanding (equivalent to exceptional impact): Project(s) clearly provided evidence of systematic/habitual, long-term change that has significantly improved lives of target audience members, has proven sustainable for multiple years, and has further solidified commitments from key stakeholders
Note: Each level is contingent upon meeting requirements described in prior level