Monday, November 04, 2013

Win a trip to the Texas Heritage Trails Region of your choice!

Our partners at the Texas Historical Commission are launching a social media contest, and the winner will receive a trip to the Texas Heritage Trail region of their choice!

Click HERE to read all about it on the THC's Facebook page!

The Texas Historical Commission (THC) has been preserving the real places that tell the real stories of Texas for nearly 60 years, and will celebrate its official 60th anniversary on November 17. In conjunction with the anniversary and the agency’s many accomplishments over the years, the THC will focus on its award-winning Texas Heritage Trails Program and accompanying website, TexasTimeTravel.com. A sweepstakes promotion will begin on October 17 in which people can celebrate the anniversary by entering a drawing to win a “behind the scenes with the THC” heritage tourism trip, guided by knowledgeable THC staff and destination partners. The winner, to be randomly selected after the close of the sweepstakes on November 17, will receive a guided, four-day, expense-paid trip for two in the Texas Heritage Trail Region of their choice. The itinerary, to be developed by the THC, will showcase programs and sites such as historic Main Street districts, restored county courthouses, military sites, and more throughout the region. To participate, visit the THC’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TexasHistoricalCommission beginning October 17, click the "sweepstakes" tab, and follow the instructions to complete the entry form. All travel must be completed in April 2014. Visit texastimetravel.com to start planning your own trip, and learn more about the heritage travel regions of Texas and all they have to offer. For more information, contact the THC’s Public Information and Education Department at 512.463.6255. - See more at: http://www.thc.state.tx.us/news-events/press-releases/celebrate-60-years-texas-historical-commission-and-win-heritage-tourism#sthash.1mfmWPes.dpuf
The THC's website says this:

"The Texas Historical Commission (THC) has been preserving the real places that tell the real stories of Texas for nearly 60 years, and will celebrate its official 60th anniversary on November 17. In conjunction with the anniversary and the agency’s many accomplishments over the years, the THC will focus on its award-winning Texas Heritage Trails Program and accompanying website, TexasTimeTravel.com.

A sweepstakes promotion will begin on October 17 in which people can celebrate the anniversary by entering a drawing to win a “behind the scenes with the THC” heritage tourism trip, guided by knowledgeable THC staff and destination partners. The winner, to be randomly selected after the close of the sweepstakes on November 17, will receive a guided, four-day, expense-paid trip for two in the Texas Heritage Trail Region of their choice. The itinerary, to be developed by the THC, will showcase programs and sites such as historic Main Street districts, restored county courthouses, military sites, and more throughout the region.

To participate, visit the THC’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TexasHistoricalCommission beginning October 17, click the "sweepstakes" tab, and follow the instructions to complete the entry form. All travel must be completed in April 2014. Visit texastimetravel.com to start planning your own trip, and learn more about the heritage travel regions of Texas and all they have to offer. For more information, contact the THC’s Public Information and Education Department at 512.463.6255."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems unfair and perhaps even unethical that the prize offered by the Texas Historical Commission - a public entity - requires winners to belong to an outside for-profit private sector entity with restricted membership (FaceBook)which requires members to give up a great deal of their personal privacy for the financial benefit of FaceBook's owners.

Not that there's anything wrong with others volunteering to comply with FB's terms & restrictions in exchange for membership if they so desire, but it's troublesome that THC has made FB membership compulsory to participate in their sweepstakes & offers no other way for non-members of this private for-profit entity a chance to vie for its prize.

Sweepstakes run by commercial concerns usually offer several ways to enter (snail mail, online) in order to ensure fairness, and not to restrict chances to specific persons or groups of persons.

Rob Hodges said...

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for your interest in the Texas Historical Commission’s (THC) Texas Time Travel Sweepstakes. We understand your concern and would like to explain our reasoning for setting up the sweepstakes the way we did.

Facebook has been used by numerous government agencies for contests, giveaways, and other promotions. About six months ago, the THC participated in a Facebook-only sweepstakes headed by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Tourism, which also included our state agency tourism partners Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Commission on the Arts, and Texas Department of Agriculture. In that case as in this, legal counsel from the Office of the Attorney General approved the Official Rules of the sweepstakes.

The THC chose to offer the Texas Time Travel Sweepstakes on Facebook using the industry-standard application Woobox, which has been used successfully by many of our partners. The application works with Facebook, through the Facebook authorization dialog, to ensure that entrants are real people (and not bots) who meet the eligibility requirements (18 and up, and in the U.S.). We chose to set up the sweepstakes with this authentication in order to be as fair as possible and make it much more difficult to cheat—this way there can only be one entry per eligible person, and the winner will be randomly generated by a third-party application.

Personal data collected by the THC through the sweepstakes (name and email address only) is collected only to notify the winner—unless an entrant opts to receive news or updates from us, which can be opted out of at any time. Data will not be shared or sold to anyone, in accordance with the THC’s privacy policy.

We are sorry you are disappointed with the terms of this sweepstakes, which is the first the THC has sponsored on its own. Thank you for your feedback. We will consider it and any lessons learned if we do another one in the future. If you would like to discuss this matter further, please email socialmedia@thc.state.tx.us.

Most sincerely,
Rob Hodges