ATH Prizes
1. LSSC Prizes
As a bone fide LSSC club, the Armchair Treasure Hunt club is able to offer prizes sponsored by the LSSC. These take the form of vouchers, since LSSC are not allowed to offer cash prizes. The Setter can decide whether they wish to offer winners a choice of voucher, or simply purchase all voucher prizes for the same establishment. In previous years, prizes have been awarded in the form of vouchers for John Lewis, M&S, HMV, Borders and other major retail chains. As far as I am aware, there would be no issue in offering prizes in the form of online retail vouchers to spend at sites such as Amazon. But, if you are considering this, double-check with the LSSC before purchasing.
As the Setter, you can decide exactly what value prize is offered for each category of winner. Consult results tables from previous Hunts for guidance. You are also at liberty to award one (or perhaps two) special Setter's prizes for endeavours beyond the call of duty.
As a standard though, you must award prizes for First Team to the Treasure, Best Overall Solution, and Best Solution from an ATH Virgin. Usually, prizes are also awarded to the second and third teams in each of the two former categories. The order in which teams reach the Treasure Box is obviously determined by the ticket number they have retrieved, whilst the best solutions are calculated via the points totals obtained after marking team submissions.
There are a number of rules to be adhered to when awarding prizes:
- Only Logica teams are permitted to win prizes. A Logica team is defined as having a captain who currently works for Logica.
- An ATH Virgin is a (Logica) team none of whose members have entered the Logica Armchair Treasure Hunt before.
- No team should be awarded more than one prize.
2. Requesting LSSC Subsidy
It is worth noting that the ATH is an LSSC club in its own right, but does not meet the usual criteria of a standard LSSC club. There is just one event a year, and participants do not pay any kind of entrance fee. A mechanism has been established whereby the ATH is deemed a regular event funded from the LSSC Miscellaneous budget, without the need to present its case in person every year before the LSSC committee. However, it should not be assumed that this situation will continue indefinitely, especially given the myriad of corporate changes that are currently afoot.
The budget requested for Hunts has been around £650 in recent years, which predominantly covers the cost of the voucher prizes. A small cost should now also be included for getting the ATH Trophy engraved with the winning team's name. The subsidy can be used to cover minor setting costs; examples in the past have included a water-proof bag in which to bury the treasure box. The budget might also include a small contribution towards food at the Prize Giving e.g. a selection of sandwiches. LSSC subsidy should not be used to pay for drinks at the prize-giving. Nor can it be used to pay for any ATH production tools. If you unsure what is valid, consult the LSSC.
In order to obtain sponsorship from LSSC in the form of a subsidy, a number of steps must be taken in respect of requesting funds:
- Determine the amount of funding you wish to request
- Around the end of October or start of November, contact the LSSC representatives to request a budget for the forthcoming ATH. Use this LSSC e-mail request template if it helps - it has been used in recent years. Send the request by e-mail to the main LSSC contact () and the LSSC Treasurer ( at the time of writing); consult this list of current LSSC Committee Members.
- One pre-requisite of being granted an LSSC subsidy is that the event is adequately publicised.
Assuming your request is sucessful, the policy is to make all the purchases necessary as per your request, paying for items yourself and keeping the receipts. You should then request reimbursement from the LSSC by filling in a CD Form.
3. The Pablo Memorial ATH Trophy
A Logica Armchair Treasure Hunt Trophy was created during the 2007 Hunt for presentation to the first team to reach the Treasure Box each year. One of the main purposes of the Trophy was to remember Pablo, who sadly passed away in October 2007 after a long battle with cancer, but not before he had set one last ATH!
The trophy itself is made up of two treasure boxes, one of which fits inside the other, with the whole mounted on a wooden plaque that includes an engraved Roll of Honour detailing all past winners. Pablo named his publishing empire 'Matryoshka' in reference to the Russian dolls, the inference being that there is something hidden inside. The plaque is entitled:
LOGICA ARMCHAIR TREASURE HUNT
ROLL OF HONOUR
In Memory of Pablo
Consequently it is incumbent on each year's setter to ensure that the Trophy is retrieved from the previous winner around November time, and the name of the new winner is engraved ready for the annual Prize Giving post-Hunt ceremony.
The original trophy was engraved at All Awards & Signs Ltd on Great Portland Street, near Oxford Circus in central London. The attachment and engraving of the plaque was quite a delicate operation, and an offer was received from the establishment for favourable rates to undertake future year's engraving of new winners. Please contact , who has the details.