Are you up for a challenge????  Each year, CyberTOPS members participate in an annual "Challenge" in addition to shorter challenges. It's MUSIC time on cyberTOPS!  Start date is Monday, December 31, 2007, and runs through to Saturday, January 3, 2009. You will be composing music, adding to your treble clef, note by note.  Once you have earned 700 points, you will have completed your treble clef, filling in the notes Middle C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.  You will then start composing some bass music, adding 7 notes to your bass clef.  After completing each clef, you will receive a charm (a different charm for each clef).

The TOPS Rules: Each TOPS reporting will get 20 points for a pound lost (5 points for each quarter pound) and 3 points for a "turtle" (stay the same).  If you end the month with a net loss or turtle *and* you weighed in at least twice, you will earn an additional 25 points.  If you end the month with a net gain, the equivalent points will be deducted.  For each 100 points, a music note will be added to the music clef.  When 7 notes are filled in (C,D,E,F,G,A,B) on the treble clef, you will earn a charm and will then begin to fill in the bass clef to earn a second (different) charm.

If a TOPS backslides below the points required for a note you've already earned, you will have until the end of the month to make it up or it will be removed from your composition until you have attained that point level again.

If a TOPS goes into the negative points, they will have to lose that amount of weight to start writing music again, but will still earn any bonus points awarded for net loss months, etc.  Previously there were penalty points, but those will not be charged this year because I am not crediting any gain points back like I did last year.

An additional 25 bonus points will be awarded for having a turtle or net loss during holiday months (Easter, July, September, Thanksgiving, December) as long as you weighed in at least twice in that month (meaning you could earn a total of 50 bonus points for those months if you have a net loss or turtle!).  Thanksgiving will be awarded at the end of November for everyone even though Canadians celebrate in October as the majority of members are from the USA.

One of our members, John B., runs a weekly exercise challenge. Members report how many minutes or miles of exercise they did each week and John issues a weekly report. To be included, just use the words "exercise" or "walking" in the subject of your cyberTOPS message.

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Need some chapter contest ideas? Here are some:

The Afghan Contest: (submitted by Deb J.)
Here is how it goes  each member pays a dollar to enter the contest ( or you can set the price higher or lower)  and for this dollar they get to pick out the color of yarn  they want . I bought some nice yarn at wal-mart and each member choose her/his color.  For each 1 pound lost  you get a row  and at the end of the year the one with the most colors of his or her yarn  wins the afghan.  Other girl in our group is making one and I am making one so there is 2 different afghans going. We started this contest last week, I got a notebook and taped thier yarn  colors to the persons name and each week record thier loss.  No row for a gain or a turtle. The women love it.  I started a afghan years ago for a twin bed so going to just add some fresh rows now to it . I have alot of off yarn balls so thought I would just add a color here and there to add length to it.  We have a small group.  One of the man in our chapter hasn't been coming and I saw him today and asked him to come back and win a afghan for his wife or daughter  he said he would be there next week. Alot of competition and spark has been in our chapter for 2 weeks now.  hugs to all, deb:)