Each entry should be accompanied by a request for a specific Identifier along with two alternate choices should the first choice be unavailable or improperly constructed.

The Rules of Mnemonic Identifier formation:

• Once a team claims a Mnemonic Identifier it is theirs to reclaim in subsequent year's contests. If they request an alternative Identifier in a later contest their old identifier will be "retired" for five contests before being reassigned; they may reclaim its use any time during that retirement period. To see what Mnemonic Identifiers have already been allocated [Click Here]

• The characters used in the formation of the Identifier should be appropriate for the Team Name of the group requesting the Identifier. In the event of duplicate requests for the same identifier, the team with the most appropriate match between Team Name and Identifier will be awarded the requested Identifier (that's why we call it Mnemonic).

• Identifiers must consist of two, three or four characters from the approved "pool" of characters.

• The "pool" of permitted characters includes:
  • The standard Roman Alphabet characters:
    A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
    (All letters will only be upper case unless the use of lower case is integral to the formation of the Identifier)

  • The Arabic numerals:
    0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

  • The following punctuation marks:
    "!" (exclamation point), "¡" (inverted exclamation point), "@" ('at' symbol), "#" (pound sign),
    "$" (dollar sign), "¢" (cent sign), "&" (ampersand), "*" (asterisk), "-" (hyphen), "_" (underscore),
    "+" (plus sign), "=" (equal sign), "~" (tilde), "?" (question mark), "/" (forward slash), "\" (backslash),
    "|" (vertical bar), ":" (colon), ";" (semi-colon), "×" (multiply sign) and "÷" (division sign)

• Characters may appear as superscripts and subscripts to other characters.

• The first character of an Identifier must be a letter or a numeral.

• Boldfaced, italicized, alternate color, extra-large or small font size and/or blinking Identifiers are not permitted.

Ultimately, all Mnemonic Identifiers are like telephone numbers ... you don't own them, somebody else does (respectively, us and the phone company). Decisions of the Audit Committee with respect to Mnemonic Identifier formation and acceptibility are final.

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file last updated 11/18/2008