Regulations

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Citizen Act - Société Générale

Only the rules in their French and original version can be considered as the original. The English version of these rules is a courtesy translation and can by no means render the game organiser liable in the event of misinterpretation or translation errors.

Article 1: ORGANISATION

 a) The organiser

Société Générale, SA, a public limited company with a capital of 970,099,988.75 Euro, of which the registered office is located 29 boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris, registered with the trade & companies register of Paris under number 552 120 222, is organising a competition game, free to enter and with no purchase necessary, called “CITIZEN ACT”, accessible exclusively via the Website www.citizenact.com, from 03/10/2011 to 27/04/2012.

b) Purpose of the game

The purpose of this game is to organise an interactive human encounter enabling students from engineering, business study courses in higher education establisments and universities throughout the world to engage with the Société Générale in its thought processes in relation to problems facing society and the environment.

Article 2: TAKING PART IN THE CITIZEN ACT GAME

It is free to enter, no purchase is necessary. It is open exclusively to any student registered at a business school, school of engineering or university, worldwide, with the exception of personnel of the Société Générale (except for apprentices, interns and International Voluntary Enterprise workers], their spouses and families: direct ascendants and descendants or other relatives whether or not living under the same roof.

Any student having already taken part in a previous version of CITIZEN ACT is not authorised to register a second time. Any registration completed by a student having already taken part in CITIZEN ACT will be null and void of effect. “Participation” is understood as being the selection of a project at the Opening Meeting.

Participating in this game implies acceptance of these rules without reservation.

Article 3: TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF ENTRY

Société Générale is proposing that students form a three-person team to work on issues of Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSR) encountered by the bank and to imagine a more socially responsible bank. There are 4 phases to this competition:

a) Phase One: Team formation and registering to take part

To take part, students should log onto www.citizenact.com and register in teams of 3 from the same school or university and enrolled in higher education, between September 3rd  2011 and December 5th  2011 by 19:00 (7 p.m.) (GMT).
Registration is in two stages: a team registration form to be completed and the answers to an on-line assessment module comprising a Multiple Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) and a short case study.
The team form can be created and completed at any time between October 3rd  2011 and December 5th 2011 by 19:00 (7 p.m.) (GMT).
Access to the assessment module (MCQ + short case study) will be open between November 7th  and December 5th  2011.
It is not possible to access the assessment module without having first created a team form.

To be able to create the team form, students must fill in a form in which the following obligatory information has to be entered: title, last name, first name, gender, country of origin, language spoken, date of birth, postal address, e-mail address, school/university, year of study and their specialities. Participants are informed and hereby accept that the details entered in the entry form constitute valid proof of their identity.
Students must register under the first and last names shown on their passport or identity card and choose a team name.

The name chosen for the team during registration must not be a person’s surname unless it is the surname of a member of the team, nor should the name be subject to any third-party rights. It must not be offensive, injurious or in any manner whatsoever constitute an infringement or breach or violation of any rights of any third party or harm another or be used for this purpose or in breach of public policy. Société Générale reserves the right to ask the participant to change the name of the project promptly if it falls or might fall into any of the aforesaid cases and to block access to the game temporarily or permanently if the team does not modify its name.

Any participation made in breach of these rules invalidates the said participation.

Société Générale reserves the right to verify the truthfulness of the particulars given by the team on registration and at any time during the period of the game and to ask each participant for a copy of his/her passport, identity card and/or student card.

Participants may be members of one team only. A team is understood absolutely to be a partnership between 3 students enrolled in the same university, business school or school of engineering. If the number of participants in a team were under below three during the game, the team will be disqualified. Nevertheless, Société Générale reserves the right at its discretion not to disqualify a team if one of its members has a reason which Société Générale considers legitimate for leaving the team (subject to presentation of supporting evidence in writing to citizen.act@socgen.com, and if the other two members of the team continue the game).

If a participant registers several times (same last name, same first name, same date of birth) in the same team or in different teams, the registration for this team or these teams will be treated as null and without consequence.

The team form must include the following information: an online CV for each team member, a photo of each member, 3 qualifying adjectives representing the complementarity of the members, a short text introducing the team (max. number of characters). They will also have the option of uploading a PowerPoint presentation or video clip presenting the team.

From October 3rd  2011 to December 5th  2011 by 19:00 (7 p.m.) (GMT), teams must promote their team form in order to generate some “buzz”. The terms, conditions and procedures for animating the team form are defined in a charter available to students on the CITIZEN ACT Website www.citizenact.com A buzzmeter will be present on the team form enabling students to get their project known on the social networks. The “buzz” made on the Internet will be taken into account when scoring the project.

The MCQ assessment module will be accessible on the platform www.citizenact.com from November 7th  2011. Students will have up to 19:00 (7 p.m.) (GMT) on December 5th  2011 to complete this. It will be made up of timed multiple choice questions. The questions will be divided into 5 categories.
The response to the questionnaire has to be given as a team and not by individual students. There will be one single questionnaire validated per team.
The team begins the questionnaire by choosing a category then by choosing to launch the first question in that category.
Any question started will be counted as for at the end of the countdown timer. If the team has not responded to the question in time, the response will be counted as false.
At the end of each question, it is possible to move on to the following question or to save and quit the questionnaire. It is not possible to modify a question that has already been validated or timed out.
The team can resume the questionnaire whenever it wants, by going back to where it left off or by starting another category.

The short case study is composed of content and appendices and closed questions and one open question. These elements will be available for download on the platform www.citizenact.com from November 7th  2011. Teams will have up to 19:00 (7 p.m.) (GMT) on December 5th 2011 to submit their response.
The answer to the short case must be made in .ppt or .pdf format (4 slides max). Only .ppt or .pdf presentations sent via the site will be accepted, all other forms of registration will be excluded and eliminated.  

To validate their registration, teams must absolutely complete the registration form, complete their team form, respond to the assessment module and send their answers to the short case on the Website www.citizenact.com.

b) Phase Two: Selection of 45 teams to take part in CITIZEN ACT

1. Selection

The 45 first teams will be selected from those having duly registered for participation to take part in the Opening Meeting on 14 February 2012 in Paris.
A score will be assigned to each team at the end of the recruitment period.
The buzzmeter and assessment module will generate a score calculated automatically.
The short case will be marked anonymously by a panel made up of staff members and experts from Société Générale.

The weighting for each criterion is as follows:
Buzzometer counts for 10% of the score
Short case counts for 60% of the score
MCQ counts for 30% of the score

2. Results

The selected teams will be informed individually by e-mail sent to the address given on the entry form on December 22th  2011. The list of teams selected will be published on the Website www.citizenact.com on Monday January 2nd  2012.

3. Presentation of Citizen Act at the Opening Meeting in Paris

At the same time as the results are announced, the teams selected will receive an invitation to attend the presentation and launch of the game, entitled “Citizen Act Opening Meeting”, to be held in Paris on February 13th and 14th, 2012.

Société Générale will pay for the costs of conveyance by public transport in accordance with the conditions defined at article 6 - Acceptance of travel and accommodation costs in Paris.

The teams selected must confirm their attendance at the “Citizen Act Opening Meeting” in Paris to take part in the remainder of the competition before January 2nd  2012 or it will be disqualified. If a team were to decline the invitation to Paris to take part in the “Citizen Act Opening Meeting” or if one of the team members was unable to take part in this meeting, the team must e-mail grounds and supporting evidence to the following address:  citizen.act@socgen.com.

The thematic which students will be invited to work on, will be revealed at the Opening Meeting in Paris.

b) Phase Three: Work on the Case

Students will have 1 month to work on the CSR topic revealed at the Opening Meeting, i.e., up to 19:00 (7 p.m.) (GMT), Thursday March 15th  2012.  
Each team will be allocated a coach, an associate of the Société Générale, to help it work on the project.

The answer to the case must absolutely be delivered to Société Générale on the www.citizenact.com platform by Thursday March 15th  2011 at 19:00 (7 p.m.) (GMT). The report must be submitted in 10 pages max in .pdf or .ppt format. No file will be accepted after that date or in any other format.

The jury consisting of staff from Société Générale will meet in the week beginning March 15th  2012 to decide the 10 finalist teams. The 10 teams selected to go through to the CITIZEN ACT Final Contest will be announced on March 26th  2012.

d) Round Four: Final Contest (Finale)

On April 26th and 27th  2012, the 10 finalist teams will be invited to present their project, in person, to a panel at Société Générale in Paris. At the end of their presentations, the jury, made up of CSR experts and Société Générale personnel, will meet to decide on the 3 winning teams.

A 4th team will also be designed on that date. This 4th team will be elected by Société Générale staff members. In effect, the 10 finalist projects will be the subject of an internal competition, a month before the Final Contest.

Société Générale will pay for the costs of conveyance by public transport in accordance with the conditions defined at article 6 - Acceptance of travel and accommodation costs in Paris.

Article 4: PRIZES

The three wining teams selected by the jury will win one of the 3 following prizes:

3rd Prize: a trip worth 3,000 Euros

2nd Prize: a trip worth 5,000 Euros

1st Prize: a trip worth 7,000 Euros

Each student in the winning team decided by the Société Générale staff members will win a notebook worth €300.

The Société Générale Staff Prize may be awarded to a team having already been awarded a prize.
In this case, the team will carry off both prizes.

The value of the prizes is determined at the time of drafting these rules and is not subject to any dispute regarding their value. All costs incurred subsequent to the game to attend the trip, specifically travel costs (from winner’s home to airport), meals and drinks except for breakfast, personal expenditure and cancellation insurance and accommodation, are entirely at the winner’s charge.

Article 5: PRIZE AWARDING

On the day of the Citizen Act Final Contest, the jury will choose the 3 winning teams and will rank them in accordance with the following assessment criteria: the most innovative project, the most in line with the thematic and arousing the greatest interest within Société Générale, and the ability of the team to rise the interest and participation of other students at the school.

The list and ranking of the 3 or 4 winning teams will be published on the Website www.citizenact.com at the end of the Final Contest. The same team may be selected by the jury and carry off the Société Générale Staff Prize.

The selected teams will be alerted individually by Société Générale by e-mail sent to the address given on the information form, with effect from May 28th 2012. The date of departure, unique to the students in the same winning team, must be determined within a period of no more than 4 months after the date of the competition final, the trip being able to take place up to January 2013.

Société Générale cannot be held responsible for sending letters (postal or electronic) or the prize to an incorrect address through the negligence of the participant.

If a winner cannot be contacted on completion of the results or in the event a winner refuses the prize, the prize will not be put back into the game.

Winners agree to accept the prizes as offered with no exchange possible, particularly against cash, other goods or services of any nature whatsoever, and no transfer of the benefit to a third party. Similarly, these prizes may not be subject to any request to be offset, in particular against money that might be owing to the Société Générale.

In the case of an event outside its control, and particularly connected to its suppliers/partners or unforeseen circumstances, Société Générale reserves the right to replace the prizes announced with prizes of equivalent value. Winners will be kept informed of any changes.

The winners will be invited to attend the prize awards in Paris at the expense of Société Générale in accordance with article 6 - Acceptance of travel and accommodation costs in Paris.

Article 6: ACCEPTANCE OF TRAVEL AND ACCOMOADTION COSTS IN PARIS.

Costs will be refunded in the conditions described below:

1 - Société Générale will pay for the costs of public transport, back and fourth, between the school or university and Paris, and will send participants selected in phase Two of the game, the travel tickets to attend the “Citizen Act Opening Meeting” planned for February 13th  and 14th  2012 and the Final Contest on April 26th and 27th  2012.

2 - Société Générale agrees to provide travel tickets on public transport (bus or RATP or SNCF train) between the places of arrival and the venue of the CITIZEN ACT events, for participants selected to attend the “Citizen Act Opening Meeting” planned for 14 February 2012 and the finale and the prize awards on 27 April 2012.

Société Générale will not pay for the cost of any other expenses outside of these travel costs. Any additional costs incurred will be at the charge of the student in question.

Article 7: COMPETITION RULES

A copy of these rules is lodged with Maître Loisillier, Bailiff at Châtenay Malabry. The rules are also available on the Website www.citizenact.com.

Société Générale reserves the right to extend, curtail, modify or cancel the game at any time, and especially in case of force majeure, with no claim for compensation from any participant. The modified rules will be published, as the case may be, on the aforesaid Website.

Article 8: PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA

Participation in this game is optional. Personal data collected as part of this contest is intended, as well as those to be collected or produced subsequently, to the Human Resources department of Société Générale.

They will be used for the purposes of managing the game and recruitment campaigns and will not be any use for marketing purposes.

Participants allow Societe Generale to be used as advertising or public relations contact information (name, surname) as well as photos and videos taken in the context of the game and on which they are, without receiving any salary, right or any benefit other than the allocation of their prize.

Participants allow Societe Generale and its partners to transfer out of the European Union and management needs of the game, their personal data, via a checkbox on this form. Participants are informed that such transfers consists in the distribution of teams forms on the site www.citizenact.com and on social networks such as this is described in these Rules.

Société Générale has made the necessary formalities with the Commission Nationale Informatique et Libertés for the management of the computer files generated by participants in the competition, this according to law No. 78-17 of January 6th , 1978.

Participants have a right of access to personal data, as well as to correct or remove inaccurate or outdated data. They may, subject to demonstrate a legitimate reason, object to the personal data in the context of this game are the subject of treatment. Their rights to access, rectification and opposition may be exercised by writing to the following address: Société Générale DRHG / MPC / REC Espace 21 / 3 75886 Paris Cedex CITIZEN ACT 18.

Article 9: MEDIA RELATIONS

Students and / or teams are not allowed to contact the media directly or indirectly and / or meet with journalists, unless they have obtained authorization of Société Générale. Any team and / or student who will contact the media without the authorization of Société Générale will be automatically disqualified

Article 10: INTELLECTUAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

The reproduction, representation or operation of any or all of the components of the game are strictly prohibited.

All brands or products names are trademarks or product names trademarks of their respective owners.

Article 11: LIABILITIES

Participation in the game over the Internet implies knowledge and acceptance of the features and limits of the Internet, in particular insofar as concerns the absence of protection of certain data against possible misuse, piracy and the risk of infection by any viruses that might be circulating on the network, technical performance, response times for consulting, searching or transferring information, risks of interruption and, more generally, the risks inherent in any Internet connection and transmission.

Without this list being limitative, Société Générale declines all responsibility in the event of improper use or incident linked to the use of the computer, access to the Internet, malfunction of competition servers, the telephone line or any other technical connection preventing the game from proceeding normally.

More generally, the liability of Société Générale will not be incurred for reasons of force majeure or other circumstances outside its control.

Société Générale shall not be held liable for delays in conveyance, loss, theft, damage to mail, lack of legibility of stamps due to the postal services. Neither shall it be liable or open to any recourse in the event of occurrence of events presenting the characteristic of force majeure (strikes, adverse weather conditions...) that might deprive participants totally or partially from taking part in the game and/or the winner(s) from all or part of the benefit of their prize(s).

Société Générale may in no case be held liable for incidents that might take place in use of the prizes by the beneficiaries or their guests once the winners have taken possession thereof.

Similarly, Société Générale may in no case be held liable for the loss or theft of beneficiaries’ airline tickets or travel vouchers once the winners have taken possession thereof. Any additional cost necessary to taking possession of the travel tickets (outside of refund of the cost of transport to attend the prize awards) is at the sole charge of the participants selected without the latter being entitled to claim any compensation from Société Générale.

Société Générale in all cases reserves the possibility of modifying any date/or time announced, with effect from such information being announced on-line on the Website www.citizenact.com. Any riders that might be published during the competition by announcement on-line on the said Website shall be treated as appendices to these rules.

Article 12: DISPUTES AND LIABILITY

These Rules are governed by French law.

Société Générale reserves the right of final decision not subject to appeal in the event of any difficulty that might arise as to the interpretation or application of these rules, it being understood that no dispute shall be allowed in particular over the terms and conditions of the game, the results, the winnings or their acceptance, after december 5th 2011. Except in the case of manifest error, it is agreed that information resulting from the gaming systems of Société Générale have probative force in any dispute pertaining to connections and the digital processing of said competition information.

Any complaint must be sent in writing before december 5th 2011 to: Société Générale RSRH/CPP/REC Espace 21/3 CITIZEN ACT 75886 Paris Cedex 18. No claim will be accepted once this date is passed. Participating in this game implies acceptance of these rules without reservation.

Download the rules pdf