CoCoRaHS March Madness 2015 Begins! Please recruit someone in your state!

"CoCoRaHS March Madness", is our friendly annual recruiting competition between all of our CoCoRaHS states to see how many new volunteer observers we can recruit during the month of March.

We have a simple challenge to everyone out there during March: "Would you please take a moment to recommend the program to at least one friend or relative and encourage them to sign up to be a volunteer observer?" That's it just one (OK, two or three if you are really ambitious). If just half of our 20,000 current volunteers gave this a shot, we could really see the density of our coverage improve. Let the madness begin!

To help you with recruiting a downloadable CoCoRaHS Brochure is available by clicking here: CoCoRaHS Brochure

We will post an ongoing tally of results by state once a week (most likely on Fridays) on our “Message of the Day” with the final results posted on April 1st. The winning states will get to hold onto and display one of the two "CoCoRaHS Cup" trophies until next March.

Like last year, states will be competing for two national trophies. The first will be awarded in the "Traditional Count" category. This is pretty straight forward. The state with the most new volunteers recruited in March 2015 wins. The second category will be "Population Weighted" . . . the state that recruits the greatest number of new observers per one million of it's total population wins. This second category is a little trickier. For each new volunteer who signs-up, the state will be given a percentage of "one point" based on the state's total population (potential volunteer pool). This will give those states with sparser populations an equal chance. States with smaller populations will receive a larger point value for a new volunteer compared to those with larger populations (For each new volunteer Wyoming will receive 1.77 points based on their population of 563,626 residents, whereas California who will receive 0.03 points with their population of 37,253,956 residents). These point values are based on "new stations per million residents" which is derived from the 2010 estimated population information (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population). Please see: "Population based scoring" for a breakdown of each states point value per new volunteer.

Keep track of and learn about the tournament on our CoCoRaHS March Madness page: COCO MARCH MADNESS HEADQUARTERS

Good luck to your state! Don't forget to tell someone about CoCoRaHS, especially this month!

2015 CoCoRaHS Rain Gauge Calendars now on sale for $7.50! Please order one today

Our popular 2015 CoCoRaHS Rain Gauge calendars are now on sale at the discounted price of $7.50 plus shipping (a portion of each purchase goes toward the CoCoRaHS Network)! Each calendar features over fifty photos by fellow precipitation observers displaying their gauges in a variety of settings. It truly is a work of art that you won’t find anywhere else. Click here for a closer look: VIEW THE CALENDAR

Just click on the banner at the top of the page or click ORDER A CALENDAR to place your order today.