OFFICIAL RULES
2025 SERVICE MEMBERS OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY MILITARY TIMES
NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE DOES NOT INCREASE THE CHANCES OF WINNING.
1. Eligibility: Service Members of the Year (the “Contest”) is open only to people nominating (the “Nominators”) and those being nominated (the “Nominees”) who are 18 years old at the time of entry. The Contest is further only open to Nominators and Nominees who are legal residents of the 50 United States who are U.S. citizens. Nominees must be active military or a member of one of the military reserves. Employees of Military Times Foundation, Sightline Media Group LLC (the “Contest Organizer”), Military Times, their respective affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies, suppliers and their immediate family members and/or those living in the same household of each are not eligible to be a Nominee. Editorial staff members of Sightline Media Group LLC are allowed to participate as a Nominator. The Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Void where prohibited.
2. Agreement to Rules: By being a Nominator, you agree to be fully unconditionally bound by these rules, and you represent and warrant that you and your Nominee meet the eligibility requirements set forth herein. In addition, you agree to accept the decisions of Sponsor, as final and binding.
3. Contest Period: Nominations will be accepted starting April 23, 2024 and ending December 1, 2024. All online nominations must be received by December 1, 2024 at 11:59PM EST. The Contest Organizer reserves the right to extend the Contest Period.
4. How to Enter: The Contest must be entered either by submitting a Nominee through the online entry form at www.servicemembersoftheyear.org/nominate or a nomination may be submitted by the Military Times staff. The entry must fulfill all Contest requirements, as specified, to be eligible for selection. Nominations that are not complete or do not adhere to the rules or specifications may be disqualified at the sole discretion of the Contest Organizer. Nominators must fill in all information requested. If you use fraudulent methods to enter or otherwise attempt to circumvent the rules your submission may be removed from eligibility at the Sponsor’s sole discretion.
5. Recognition: Five nominees will be selected (the “winners”). Winners will be featured by Military Times as service members of the year via online, video and print profiles and recognized at a high-profile award ceremony to be attended by military leadership, veteran community and industry leaders.
6. Winner selection and notification: Winners of the Contest will be selected based upon any or all of the following criteria, and is determined in Sponsor’s sole discretion:
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- Service members whose recent personal experience and achievements embodies the spirit of professional excellence, personal sacrifice and resilience that make the military great.
- Service members whose recent actions in their military career have gone above and beyond the call of duty.
- Service members whose recent personal experience highlights the changing needs and institutional agility that are essential to modern military readiness.
- Service members with significant off-duty community service work that highlights the non-institutional aspects of commitment to public service.
Winners will be selected by a committee comprised of Military Times Foundation board members, Military Times editorial staff, and other committee members at Sponsor’s discretion.
Winners will be notified via email to the email address that was submitted by the Nominator. Winners will be notified on or about January 15, 2025. Sponsor shall have no liability for a winner’s failure to receive notices due to winners’ spam, junk e-mail or other security settings or for winners’ provision of incorrect or otherwise non-functioning contact information. If the selected winner cannot be contacted, is ineligible, fails to claim the award and prize within 72 hours from the time award notification was sent, or fails to timely return communications or a completed and executed declaration and releases as required, the award and prize may be forfeited and an alternate winner selected.
The receipt by winner of the recognition offered in this Contest is conditioned upon compliance with any and all federal and state laws and regulations. ANY VIOLATION OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES BY ANY WINNER (AT SPONSOR’S SOLE DISCRETION) WILL RESULT IN SUCH WINNER’S DISQUALIFICATION AS WINNER OF THE CONTEST AND ALL PRIVILEGES AS WINNER WILL BE IMMEDIATELY TERMINATED.
7. Rights Granted by you: By entering this contest you understand that Sponsor, anyone acting on behalf of Sponsor, or its respective licensees, successors and assigns will have the right, where permitted by law, without any further notice, review or consent to print, publish, broadcast, distribute, and use, worldwide in any media now known or hereafter in perpetuity and throughout the world, your entry, including, without limitation, the Nominator or Nominee’s information, the Winners’ name, portrait, picture, voice, likeness, image or statements about the contest, and biographical information as news, publicity or information and for trade, advertising, public relations and promotional purposes without any further compensation.
8. Terms: Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the contest should (in its sole discretion) a virus, bugs, non-authorized human intervention, fraud or other causes beyond its control corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness or proper conduct of the contest. In such case, sponsor may select the recipients from all eligible nominations received prior to and/or after (if appropriate) the action taken by sponsor. Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to disqualify any individual who tampers or attempts to tamper with the entry process or the operation of the contest or website or violates these Terms & Conditions.
Sponsor has the right, in its sole discretion, to maintain the integrity of the contest, to void votes for any reason, including, but not limited to; multiple nominations from the same user from different IP addresses; multiple nominations from the same computer in excess of that allowed by contest rules; or the use of bots, macros or scripts or other technical means for entering. Any attempt by an entrant to deliberately damage any web site or undermine the legitimate operation of the contest may be a violation of criminal and civil laws and should such an attempt be made, sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law.
By entering the contest you agree to receive email newsletters periodically from sponsor. You can opt-out of receiving this communication at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the newsletter.
9. Limitation of Liability: By entering you agree to release and hold harmless sponsor and its subsidiaries, affiliates, advertising and promotion agencies, partners, representatives, agents, successors, assigns, employees, officers and directors from any liability, illness, injury, death, loss, litigation, claim or damage that may occur, directly or indirectly, whether caused by negligence or not, from (i) such entrant’s participation in the Contest and/or his/her acceptance, possession, use, or misuse of any prize or any portion thereof, (ii) technical failures of any kind, including but not limited to the malfunctioning of any computer, cable, network, hardware or software; (iii) the unavailability or inaccessibility of any transmissions or telephone or Internet service; (iv) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the nomination process or the promotion; (v) electronic or human error which may occur in the administration of the promotion or the processing of nominations.
10. Disputes: THIS CONTEST IS GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND DELAWARE, WITHOUT RESPECT TO CONFLICT OF LAW DOCTRINES. As a condition of participating in this Contest, participant agrees that any and all disputes which cannot be resolved between the parties, and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Contest, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, exclusively before a court located in Delaware having jurisdiction. Further, in any such dispute, under no circumstances will participant be permitted to obtain awards for, and hereby waives all rights to claim punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, other than participant’s actual out-of-pocket expenses (i.e. costs associated with entering this Contest), and participant further waives all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.
11. Privacy Policy: Information submitted with a nomination is subject to the Privacy Policy stated on the official Service Members of the Year website. To read the Privacy Policy, click here.
12. Winners List: To obtain a copy of the winner’s name or a copy of these Official Rules, For a list of winners (available after March 1, 2025) or a copy of these Official Rules, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to “Winners List/Official Rules” (as applicable), Service Members of the Year, Military Times Foundation, 901 North Glebe Road 5th Floor, Arlington, VA 22203. If you have any questions regarding this Contest, please contact Stephanie Gildea at sgildea@mco.com.
13. Sponsor: The Sponsor of the Contest is Military Times Foundation, 901 North Glebe Road 5th Floor, 5th floor, Arlington, 22203, United States of America.