Miss Camelia City 2009 Program Book

One of the most important tools of the Beauty Pageant Director is the Pageant’s Program Book.
You will sell this book the day of the pageant to the audience.

This paying audience will mainly consist of family and friends of the contestants.
You will also give away some to judges and entertainers to add value to their experience in participating in the pageant.

I use a program called Publisher that comes with Microsoft Office. There are other programs out there that you may already be familiar with that do the same thing. Basically the software program allows you to compose pages with pictures and text.

I’ll be using the program book from my newest pageant, Miss Camelia City, as an example of the format.

1  Cover       Use a colorful background that reflects the tone or theme of the pageant, and put a   picture of a contestants that reflects average contestant.

2  The Director’s Message      Make a personal thank you to all the contestants, staff members, sponsors, judges, entertainers, and the audience for participating. Give the history of the pageant as well as your own bio.

3  Schedule of Events        List the times for each entry of the days events.

4  Advertising               Could be your photographer and or video service.

5   Staff                Show pictures of all the behind the scenes people.

6  Contestants Gallery        This is where I put kids division photos.

7  Advertising                  Put three to five pages of various advertising.

8  Judges                        Pictures and bio.

9  Advertising

10  Contestant Gallery      Teen, Miss, and Mrs Divisions.

11  Advertising                 Remember this is an important part of funding your pageant.  Many of the contestants will be featured in ads bought by their family and friends. Some ads will be for businesses sold by the contestants.

12  Special Awards           Honor some one in the community or in your pageant family.

13  Advertisements          Don’t forget to promote your own business and any other pageants you are directing in the future.

14  Back Cover                  Usually a premium advertising space.

I put the finished product on a memory stick and take the files to a local printer like Office Depot that can produce the number I need for the pageant.  My pageants are usually on Sundays and I like to receive the books by the Saturday before.  If I bring my printer the files by Thursday they will be ready for Saturday. Check in advance with your printer to see what his schedule will allow.

Here is the link for my Miss Camelia City 2009 program book to use as an example.

“How many judges should I use for my Pageant?” is a very good question. I get this question a lot and that is probably because there is a good reason to use a different combination depending on your Beauty Pageant.

First thing to remember is that the smallest judging panel you can use is three. You should always have an odd number to eliminate the possibility of ties and favoritism.

For children pageants three is enough. Pageants that use an interview  category will need five judges. You also need five judges if there are evening gown and swim wear rounds in your Beauty Pageant. These rounds can benefit from the extra opinions because the judges have more complicated decisions to make.

There really is no need for more than five judges. The big pageants may introduce ten judges at the beginning of the event but they use five judges for the Teen Competition and a different five judges for the Miss Competition.

I once used a sixth judge at a pageant because an extra judge showed up and wanted to be involved. This judge was called a Specialty Judge and they decided on specialty awards like Overall Most Beautiful, Overall Fashion, Photogenic, Portfolio, Best Eyes, Best Smile, etc. These categories are for the children divisions.

In the older divisions a Specialty Judge selects Photogenic Awards (these are selected from photos presented by contestants upon registration), Portfolio Awards, Best Gown and Best Swimsuit. These awards are selected, not scored. It has no bearing on the outcome of the pageant winners.

However the Miss Plus America has Photogenic competitions that do score the photos, and these score are added to the contestants grand totals. Glitz pageants also score these category and awards. A lot of time these scores can determine the final winners. So use your discretion.

For the adult divisions another  extra judge is called an Honorary Judge. They score the contestants just like the other judges but their scores are  only used in breaking a tie. This person could be a celebrity, an important figure or community member.

The more judges you use the longer it takes to tally the score. So if you’re pageant is blessed with say 60 kids then a three judge panel makes a lot more sense.

Check out this video about How many Judges should I use in my Pageant:

Yours in Pageantry

Shelly