USING THE PRESIDENT'S CHALLENGE PROGRAM:
Why use the program?
The President’s Challenge is the recognition and awards program of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. The program offers two physical activity award programs, the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award and the Presidential Champions program. Both programs can be completed using the President’s Challenge web-based physical activity tracker at www.presidentschallenge.org. Using this website, you can form groups and have a group administrator track your group’s participation. This can help you initiate a friendly workplace competition. Employees stay motivated because they can record and track their own participation. You can also recognize employees when they complete the program.
What else is great about the website?
It’s free.
It’s adaptable to fit your company’s needs. You can create as many groups as you need (e.g., one for the Marketing Department, Human Resources, and Maintenance or you may want to create teams by office floors or office locations).
Employees can enroll anonymously (e.g., using a random set of letters or numbers) or using a common identifier (e.g., office phone number or employee identification number). Using a common identifier will allow you to easily recognize employees who complete the program requirements and earn an award. This is an easy way to tie participation in the Challenge to health plan discounts, incentive payouts or other recognition program.
Program length is flexible. If you need the program to take place in a shorter time frame, you can direct all employees to sign up for the six-week Presidential Active Lifestyle Award program. If you have a highly active population and you want to give your employees a longer and a tougher challenge, you can direct them to register for the Presidential Champions program. This is a points-based award that allows participants an unlimited amount of time to complete each award level (Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum).
You can limit the activities that count. When you establish your group on the website, you can select from a list of over 100 activities that you want to count towards your challenge. For instance, if you want to issue pedometers to participants, you can allow only pedometer step entries to count towards that participant’s award. If your company wants to promote recreational activities, such as fishing, mountain biking, or canoeing, you can create a sport- or activity-specific challenge. Participants will still be able to log other activities (maybe they are a member of multiple President’s Challenge groups), but for your program, you get the option of designating the activities.
Feedback is immediate. You can check on your participation numbers any time of the day by logging in using your Group Administration username and password. In addition to identifying how many people have registered in your group, you can see who has logged activity that day. This allows you the option of giving regular feedback and support to your participants.
Logs are not deleted unless the participant chooses to do so. This means you can launch a program on an annual basis without requiring participants to re-register each year. (They just need to know their username and password.)
Anyone can participate in the program (ages 6 and up). You may want to encourage family members and retirees to participate.
You can easily purchase awards for either the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award or Presidential Champions program from a secure website, over the phone, or via fax. The award options have a nominal per item fee and include lapel pins, certificates, and medallions (Presidential Champions program only).
Free Web support is available by email or a toll-free phone number Monday-Friday 8a.m.-5p.m. Eastern Standard Time. President’s Challenge staff can answer any questions you may have about the website or awards programs.
Getting Started – Here’s how to set up your group
1. Visit www.presidentschallenge.org.
2. Click on Group Admin.
3. Select any program details for which you would like more information.
4. Click on Register a Group! A group account must be established so that others can join your group.
5. Complete the registration pages. The step-by-step process will guide you through setting up your group account.
6. Look for an email confirmation that your group has been created. This email includes registration instructions you can cut and paste into an email to send to your group participants. Start marketing your program early. You don’t want the registration instructions to be the first time the participants hear about your program.
7. Create your own log on the website. This way you will know what your participants must do to register. Each person, including the group administrator, must establish an individual account in order to become part of the group. The process to create an individual log begins at www.presidentschallenge.org by clicking on the appropriate age group (most likely Adults or Seniors) and then clicking on “Sign me up” or by going directly to the registration page.
8. Maintain communication with participants. Plan events to help them stay motivated.
9. Consider becoming a President’s Challenge Advocate. If you are utilizing the President’s Challenge program, we’d like to highlight your initiative on the President’s Challenge website. Send an email to Christine Spain at the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. In your email, please identify the following:
1.) Company name,
2.) Number of employees invited to participate in the program,
3.) Contact person for the program, and
4.) Program launch and end dates.
10. Recognize your group members for their achievements once your program is completed. Make sure to visit the President’s Challenge Order Center online to see how you can reward your group members for a job well done!
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