Thank you to all who responded to this question. Here are the answers I received. Whyever not. ----------------------- Yes, we allow children of staff to claim prizes. ----------------------- We let the children of staff claim prizes, including grand prizes. Myself as the director, did not let my kids enter for the grand prizes. It would look odd if they would happen to win. ----------------------- we absolutely would. My staff and their families are patrons too, and they check out a lot of books that makes up a nice chunk of circ stats. I see no reason to exclude them as long as the public gets the same fair chance at prizes. ----------------------- Of course! They are participating. ----------------------- Of the 6 libraries I've worked at, only one allowed children of staff to win prize drawings, but all of the libraries allowed them to take finisher giveaways, like a book for completing the reading look. Much like family of radio station employees are not allowed to win raffles or contests but could take home swag from an event. ----------------------- I've served as director at 2 libraries in the past 20 years, and at both we have allowed children of staff and board to participate. We also allow staff and board to participate in adult reading challenges. Everyone who participates and completes are eligible for prizes equally. ----------------------- Of course. Why would we penalize them for being a staff member's child? ----------------------- Absolutely, we do. A lot of us have kids that participate in reading initiatives such as the Summer Reading Program. Our children get the same prizes as any other children that have completed the program. ----------------------- The kids get the weekly or level prizes. They do not get entered into the grand prize drawings. We think it would look bad to the public if a staff member’s child won a grand prize; the same goes for the adult. ----------------------- Yes, although typically if there's a prize drawing in which a staff member's child or grandchild is participating, we try to get a non-staff member to draw the name (not even a different staff member, just someone else present who we trust and who didn't have a hand in putting the drawing together). If there's a judging panel for an event or prize, the children can still participate, but the staff member cannot sit on the panel. ----------------------- Is it a perfect solution in terms of optics? No, but it also didn't seem right to refuse entry to a child just because a family member works there. And then where do you draw the line? What if it's a grandparent who works there, or a sibling? What about the children of library board members, or Friends of the Library board members, etc. These are the questions I asked myself when I was dealing with the uncomfortable decision of whether or not to exclude members of our service area from prize drawings based on their relationship to staff or board members. ----------------------- We consider staff and their families patrons, too. So we always encourage them to participate in our programs and earn prizes. ----------------------- Yes, we do. This is their library. ----------------------- I’m currently the only staff member with children participating in library programs. But I do allow them to get the goodie bags, etc., that anyone’s kids would qualify for. I don’t enter them into drawings for grand prizes. ----------------------- We allow the children of staff to win small prize drawings but not our large SRP grand prize drawings. They also can get the finisher prizes that everyone gets. ----------------------- We do! However, I have asked that my children NEVER win any large prizes. I think it would look really bad to have the director's child win a big prize... I don't make that decision for my staff. However, I was working at a library where ALOT of us all had kids about the same age. So we just went in on a staff kid big prize and had a drawing amongst ourselves. Staff paid for this, so we didn't use library funds. It only happened once, the next year everyone was content with the small prizes. :) It isn't as much fun to buy the prize... ----------------------- I have always let the staff''s children claim the weekly prizes everyone receives but the "grand prize" they were not eligible for. I felt that it looks unprofessional for a staff member's relative to win the big prizes. Besides our staff receives a lot of freebies regular patrons do not. Such as free copies, faxes and fines waived. -- Kristina Reynolds