Hot off the Press

Round 3 is here—with Rounds 4, 5, and 6 close behind!

Things are abuzz at Official Headquarters. We have four fantastic rounds scheduled, and we can't wait to see how you'll be promoting your passions. You can find the dates for all of the upcoming excitement on our Calendar.

There's also a rules change (aka the "fine print") that affects our candidates: As each new round begins, your application is still in the running, but your vote tally gets reset to zero. We know this means a lot more campaigning, but we're sure that because you truly love what you do, you'll keep at it, and you'll once again capture the votes you need to help take your application to the top!

Round 2 Officials are here!

One good turn deserves another. And another. And another… Our second-round winners are online, and we’re practically jumping for joy (hmmm... Official Joy Jumper?). Out of all the amazing applicants we reviewed, these are the people who rocked the vote and caught the eye of our Review Board.

Get to know ALL of our Officials through their profiles and blogs. And if you have high hopes of joining them, you can still shoot for Round 3. We’ll be opening up OfficialSponsor.com for third-round applications soon—stay tuned as we work out dates and deadlines.

Great news! Rounds one and two have gone so well that we’re going for the Official three-peat. We'll soon be choosing a third round of Officials and sponsoring their passions. If you haven't yet applied, here's your chance to get the word out on what you love to do. And if you're already a candidate, keep campaigning for votes and working to make your application shine!

Check out the profiles and blogs of our current Officials for ideas on giving your passion peak pizzazz.

Round 2 Officials are on the books!

Breathe in, breathe out... The Review Board is still decompressing from our whirlwind two-day judging session, but we're really excited to have selected the next round of Officials. Now we're figuring out how to sponsor our new Officials, and then we'll start contacting them with the great news.

There were so many awesome applications—you're all doing a super job of telling everyone about your passions. Keep up the good work! And if you're not a candidate, check out the Sponsor of You program—all you have to do is share your own passion, and we might sponsor you to follow it!

Watch for us to announce our Round 2 Officials on May 14. Come meet them, read their stories, and explore their applications—you might get some ideas on how to make your own application stand out a little more.

WE DID IT! We've chosen our Round 2 Officials!

Wow, what a crazy couple of days. We are spent, but when all of you have put so much time and effort—so much of yourselves and your passions—into these applications, it's our pleasure to review each and every one of them. We want to sponsor the most deserving candidates, and we feel great about where we ended up.

We'll pause to take a breath, and then we'll start contacting the newest Officials—that's OUR reward. The reactions we get from the winners are priceless, and are a big reminder of what this whole program is about.

Now mark down this date: May 14. That's when you can come back to meet the Round 2 Officials! And don't forget that there will be a Round 3 of sponsorships. So if your application didn't make it through, you're still eligible. And if you haven't yet applied, now is the perfect time to get started.

And the Review Board rolls on...

The judging process is exhausting, but we're enjoying a good, happy tired—the kind you get when you have so many inspiring applications that you struggle to set just the best of them apart from the rest.

You've all put so much effort into presenting your passions that it's going to take another day to digest, discuss, and debate all of your great entries. But the Board will stay holed up in this conference room until the dust settles and we have the next round of Officials.

So stay tuned—we could be checking out your application right now! And come back tomorrow for more updates. Meanwhile, it's time to put on another pot of coffee, and recharge the Review Board for another stint in "selection central."

Today's the BIG DAY. We're picking Round 2 Officials!

The Review Board is currently pouring through every application we've received. We're locked in a conference room chock full of computers, and we're not coming out again until we've selected the next Officials.

This is the best part of the program for us. We're learning so much about your different passions. We love the energy you've put into your stories. You all deserve credit and support. But keep in mind, in this next round we can only sponsor up to the best 50 applications we've received. Good luck!

There will be another round of sponsorship. You can still apply. We are in the process of setting the next deadlines. Now? it's back to the applications. Your Review Board has a job to do.

Okay, we know you expected to start exploring blogs from our Officials on April 1. And it's driving us crazy that we aren't quite ready yet, but we're only pushing back the start date one week to April 8. Since this is the first round, the whole thing is new not just to you, but to us as well. The Officials are super-stoked, and we're uber-excited, so hang tight and keep checking the Officials blog—we promise the wait is worth it!

Until the blogging begins, spend some time getting to know our Officials.