In previous posts, we’ve discussed the importance of titleholders following through with their side of the contract. Directors, now it’s time for us to chat.
How are your titleholders supposed to know what you expect of them?
If you don’t have a contract for your titleholders to sign, you need one. If you do have one, did you disclose it and the terms contained within to your contestants before they signed up to compete and you took their entry fee? Or did you wait until after you crowned them and then surprise them with a restricted non-compete contract?
Straight talk: if you are going to require your titleholders to sign any kind of contract once they capture a title, you must make that information available before taking any kind of money. To do otherwise is just plain shady and bad business practice.
Transparency is key!
I’ve heard many times that being that transparent up front will “cost [me] entries” because “people won’t commit” to a pageant if they know up front they might have to choose to give up a previous title or refrain from competing until they’ve satisfied the terms of their current reign.
Let me tell you what will cost you more entries: contestants or their guardians letting their pageant friends/family know how shady you were after the fact. They won’t say it out loud publically, but pageant people do talk amongst themselves. And no amount of contractual obligation not to “speak ill” of your program is going to stop them. If people feel they’ve been deceived, they WILL spread the word to protect their fellow competitors.
You’ll get more (eventual) entries by being upfront and honest about EVERY aspect of the competition including entry fees, sponsor fees, scholarship fees, opening number outfit fees, ad page fees, tickets for parents of minor competitors, etc and what your titleholders are expected to do when crowned.
If you need assistance drafting a titleholder expectations document, a social media policy, and/or a rough outline for a titleholder contract, feel free to contact us. Then once we’ve worked together to get your documents solidified, take them to an attorney who specializes in contract law for your state and have them reviewed.