The Utah Investigative Journalism Project is excited to announce a very special project we have in the works, a resource guide especially for journalists we’re calling The Utah Reporters’ Almanac. It’s going to be full of useful tips and articles on everything from searching databases to understanding recent laws affecting transparency and open access. We’ll also discuss filing public records requests, or GRAMAs (Government Records Access and Management Act requests).

As part of that we’re going to have a contest for the best GRAMA request filed in 2021! The contest is open to all Utahns, not just journalists. If you filed a GRAMA request or multiple requests on one topic you can enter the contest. There’s no entry fee, and you might just win $100!

The rules are simple, you just need to send an email to info@utahinvestigative.org with the subject “GRAMA Contest.” If you’re a journalist, you just need to offer a brief explanation as to how the GRAMA helped you with your reporting. If you’re not a reporter just offer a brief explanation as to how the GRAMA helped with your research, whether it was for your business/nonprofit/ or just for your own curiosity.

You can include a copy of the GRAMA you filed, or if you like to keep those cards close to your vest, no worries, we can respect the tradecraft, just a good description of your GRAMA will suffice. Besides the $100 prize you and your GRAMA will also be featured in the Utah Reporters’ Almanac, set to be published this spring.

The contest is open now and the deadline to enter is midnight February 27, 2022. E-mail those entries now to info@utahinvestigative.org!