1.     Eligibility. Subject to the additional restrictions below, the 2017 Men of Mankato Calendar Contest is open to residents of the Greater Mankato Area.

2. Contest Nomination Period: Contest nomination period begins on Thursday, October 5th, 2017 and ends on Sunday, October 8th, 2017.

3. How to Submit a Nomination. Beginning on Thursday, October 5th, 2017 and ending on Sunday, October 8th, 2017, enter by submitting a completed Nomination Form to the Free Press at 418 South Second Street, Mankato, MN, 56002. No nomination fee required. Please keep photos tasteful for public viewing. Photo should be 6” wide or larger and digital photos should be in JPG format and 300 dpi. First and last name and contact email info of person submitting nomination and the first and last name of the nominee must be included in nomination form. By submitting this information, the photo and entry form serves as a release for The Free Press to use the information and photo in The Free Press print products and on its website. Photos become property of The Free Press and will not be returned unless requested and a S.A.S.E. provided. Professional photographs must be accompanied by a release of permission by the photograph.

4. Online Entry: All online nominations may be submitted through the Free Press Media Facebook Page or emailed to Jordan at freepressjg@gmail.com.

5. Mail or In Person Entry: Complete the nomination form found in editions of The Free Press and available at The Free Press office located at 418 South Second St. Mankato, MN 56001. The nomination form with the photo can be mailed to The Free Press, "Men of Mankato", P.O. Box 3287, Mankato, MN 56002. Nominations can be dropped off at The Free Press office, 418 South Second St., Mankato, MN. In person entries and mailed entries must be received by Sunday, October 8^th, 2017.

Entries with incomplete or incorrect information will not be accepted. The Free Press will not be responsible for incomplete, lost, late, postage due, misdirected or illegible entries, or for failure to receive entries due to transmission failures or technical failures of any kind, including, without limitation, malfunctioning of any network, hardware or software, whether originating with sender or The Free Press.

Photos will be published online during the voting period of Tuesday, October 10th, 2017 and Sunday, October 22nd, 2017.

6. Voting Procedures and Rules. The voting period will begin Tuesday, October 10^th, 2017 and conclude Sunday, October 22^nd, 2017. Votes may be made in person, mailed or submitted online. Mailed votes and in person votes must be received on or before Friday, October 20^th, 2017. Online votes must be received by Sunday, October 22, 2017. Voting totals will be posted online daily.

Voting is open to the general public. Online voting is limited to persons 18 years of age or older. Vote for your favorite photo by submitting a voting ballot along with a 25¢ per vote fee to The Free Press. Each 25¢ donation will count as one vote. There is no limit on donation amounts. Employees of The Free Press and CNHI media and each of their respective affiliated companies, and advertising and promotional agencies, and the immediate family members of, and any persons domiciled with, any such employees, are not eligible to receive an employee discount on the cost per vote. Your computer must accept cookies, or any successor or similar technology, which may be used for the purpose of entry tracking. Ad blocking software on your computer needs to be disabled so that it doesn’t interfere with processing your entry. A 20 vote minimum is necessary for online voting.  

All money collected through voting will go directly to BENCHS, as well as a portion of all proceeds from the calendar.

All Voting fees are non-cancelable and non-refundable.

The Free Press will not be responsible for incomplete, lost, late, postage-due, misdirected or illegible entries (either photos or ballots) or for failure to receive nominations due to transmission failures or technical failures of any kind, including, without limitation, malfunctioning of any network, hardware or software, whether originating with sender or The Free Press. Online votes may be submitted using a valid credit card including, MasterCard, Visa, and Discover. (Min. $5.00 online charge.) Only valid, authorized credit card transactions will be considered as a legitimate vote. All authorized credit card transactions are non-cancelable and non-refundable. If your credit card is declined for any reason, no vote will be submitted on your behalf. In the event of a dispute, all online entries will be deemed to have been submitted by the owner of the ISP account from which they were sent. For these purposes, an ISP account holder shall mean the natural person assigned to such ISP account by the Internet access provider, online service provider or other organization responsible for assigning ISP addresses for the domain associated with such ISP account. All entries become property of The Free Press and none will be returned.

Any questions regarding the number of entries submitted or the owner of an ISP account shall be determined by The Free Press in its sole discretion, and The Free Press reserves the right to disqualify any entries by persons determined to be tampering with or abusing any aspect of the contest

7. Winner Determination: Winners will be determined by total number of votes received. In the event of a tie, The Free Press will randomly pick the winner from the tied entries. Winners will be selected on Monday, October 23^rd, 2017. The top 12 winning votes will be features in a Free Press exclusive calendar that will be available early December 2017.

8. Winner Obligations. Winners will work with both The Free Press as well as BENCHS to coordinate and complete a calendar product, exclusive of The Free Press, to be printed and purchased by the public in December. Winners will be asked to participate in a Calendar Launch event hosted by The Free Press, BENCHS and Pub 500.

9. Winner Notifications and Acceptance: All winners specifically grant the right to The Free Press to publish their photo in the The Free Press exclusive calendar product. Winners will be notified on or about Monday, October 23^rd, 2017, at the telephone number or email/Facebook provided on the winner’s entry form. The Free Press will call during regular business hours. Failure to reach winner by phone may result in disqualification of winner, forfeiture of his or her interest in the calendar, and selection of a substitute winner from among all remaining eligible entries.

10. Participation: By participating, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of The Free Press. The Free Press reserves the right to disqualify persons found tampering with or otherwise abusing any aspect of this contest as solely determined by The Free Press. In the event the contest is compromised by a virus, non-authorized human intervention, tampering or other causes beyond the reasonable control of The Free Press which corrupts or impairs the administration, security, fairness or proper operation of the contest, The Free Press reserves the right in its sole discretion to suspend, modify or terminate the 2017 Men of Mankato. Should the contest be terminated prior to the stated expiration date, The Free Press reserves the right to award prizes based on the entries received before the termination date.

11. Construction. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of these rules shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision. In the event that any such provision is determined to be invalid or otherwise unenforceable, these rules shall be construed in accordance with their terms as if the invalid or unenforceable provision was not contained therein.

All on line payments will go through our Administrator "Advanced Pre Press
Technology Inc., Burbank, CA.  Any charges incurred will show up as Advanced
Pre Press Technology, Inc., Burbank, CA on your statement.

The 2017 Men of Mankato Contest is sponsored by The Free Press.  The decisions of The Free Press regarding the selection of winners and all other aspects of the contest shall be final and binding in all respects. The Free Press will not be responsible for typographical, printing or other inadvertent errors in these Official Rules or in other materials relating to the contest. For a copy of these Official Rules, visit our website www.mankatofreepress.com or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to “Winner’s List/Official Rules” (as applicable), 2017 Men of Mankato Calendar Contest, c/o The Free Press, 418 South Second St. Mankato, MN 56001. If you have any questions regarding this contest, please call Jordan at 507-344-6337 or e-mail freepressjg@gmail.com.