Northshore Family Favorites is a reader-voted awards program presented by Northshore Parent. Parents and other readers nominate and vote for businesses that serve families in St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes.
These rules explain who may participate, how nominations and voting work, how results are determined and how Northshore Parent uses and keeps program information. Please read them before submitting a nomination, voting, requesting business access or claiming an award asset.
Questions or privacy requests may be sent to support@northshoreparent.com.
1. Important dates for the 2027 program
- Nominations open September 1, 2026 at 12 noon Central Time.
- Nominations close September 18, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Central Time.
- Voting opens September 26, 2026 at 12 a.m. Central Time.
- Voting closes October 17, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Central Time.
- Winners are scheduled to be announced January 4, 2027 at 10 a.m. Central Time.
Northshore Parent may update a future program date when operations require it. If a date changes, the updated date will be posted on the awards website. A date change does not publish results or change a certified result by itself.
2. Business eligibility
A business may be eligible when it:
- has a physical location in St. Tammany, Tangipahoa or Washington Parish; or
- regularly provides products or services directly to residents of at least one of those parishes.
Mobile, home-based and online businesses may qualify. A business must be genuinely operating and accepting customers when nominations close. A normally operating seasonal business may qualify. The business must also genuinely provide the product or service represented by its category.
A nomination does not establish eligibility. Northshore Parent may verify a business using reasonable public or administrative information.
Within one geographic ballot, a business brand appears once per category even if it has more than one location. The same business may appear in separate parish ballots when it operates or directly serves those areas. A Northshore-wide category uses one consolidated business entry.
A business that permanently closes before results are certified is not eligible to win. If ownership changes but the business continues under substantially the same public identity, Northshore Parent may keep it in the program. A genuinely different operation may be treated as a separate business.
3. Nominations
Anyone may submit a nomination. Self-nominations are allowed.
The nomination form asks for the submitter’s name and email address once. Each nomination item names one business in one category. A submission may include several nomination items, including more than one business in the same category.
The required nomination information is:
- submitter name;
- submitter email address;
- category;
- business name; and
- city or community.
The form may also request optional business details, including a website, phone number, email address, street address, nomination reason or additional information. The nomination form does not ask for information about children.
Nomination email verification is not required. A receipt may be sent after a submission, but the nomination does not depend on the submitter clicking an email link.
Repeated nominations for the same business are preserved as nomination support. They are consolidated under one nominee and do not become votes.
4. Nomination review and categories
Northshore Parent reviews nomination items before they appear on a ballot. During review, an authorized administrator may:
- correct spelling or basic business details;
- consolidate duplicate businesses;
- move a nomination to an appropriate approved category; or
- mark a business or nomination ineligible.
The original submission is preserved when an administrative correction is made.
Eligible approved nominees advance by default. If a category becomes too large for a usable ballot, Northshore Parent may use a manual category-level shortlist. There is no automatic nomination cutoff.
Nomination counts may help inform a manual shortlist, but they do not automatically determine who advances.
Northshore Parent may add, rename, combine, deactivate or remove categories while nominations are open. Existing submissions and review history remain preserved. Material rule changes will be posted with their effective date.
5. Voting
Any person with a valid email address may vote. Voters do not have to live in the eligible parishes, and no separate website account is required.
A voter verifies control of an email address through a single-use link. Verification creates a secure voting session. The same verified session may be used throughout the voting period. A new device, an expired or cleared session, or signing out requires a new verification link.
Each verified voter may cast one vote per category per Central Time calendar day. Voters may skip categories. A skipped category may be completed later that day while voting remains open.
Before votes are submitted, the voter can review and change pending selections. Once a category vote is confirmed, it is final for that voter and category for that day. The voter may return on the next Central Time day and vote again.
Voting totals remain private until Northshore Parent authorizes publication.
6. Fair participation and prohibited conduct
Businesses may promote the program, share nomination or voting links and ask customers or supporters to participate.
The following conduct is prohibited:
- bots, scripts or other automated nominations or votes;
- fake, stolen, shared or misleading identities;
- one person controlling multiple email identities to evade voting limits;
- purchased votes or paid vote farms;
- money, discounts, gifts or another benefit offered specifically in exchange for a nomination or vote;
- technical tampering or attempts to bypass program controls; and
- participation-related harassment, threats or coercion.
Northshore Parent may review unusual activity and may exclude affected nominations or votes or disqualify a business when there is reasonable suspicion of business ineligibility, a duplicate or false business identity, a material violation of these rules or voting manipulation. Shared household, school or workplace internet access does not automatically establish manipulation.
Administrative actions are recorded, and original program records remain preserved. There is no public appeal process. Northshore Parent may make an audited administrative correction or recount before certification when needed.
7. Results and certification
Results are calculated from valid votes after approved exclusions and corrections. If businesses are tied, Northshore Parent uses this order:
- valid vote total;
- number of unique verified voters; and
- nomination count.
If a tie remains, the category has co-winners.
An eligible business may win more than one category. Each category is counted and certified independently.
Results require human review and certification. They remain private until Northshore Parent separately authorizes publication. If a category has no certified winner, it will not appear in the public results. Its underlying records remain preserved.
A Northshore Family Favorite is a reader-voted recognition. It does not by itself represent an editorial endorsement by Northshore Parent. Advertising, sponsorship and purchases do not affect eligibility, nominations, shortlisting, voting, rank, certification or winner status.
8. Information we collect
Depending on how someone participates, Northshore Parent may collect:
- a submitter’s name and email address;
- submitted business and nomination information;
- a voter’s email address, ballot selections and votes;
- verification, session and access information needed to operate the program;
- limited technical and security information used to prevent abuse and review suspicious activity;
- the rules version in effect when someone participates and any optional marketing preference;
- business contact and authorization information;
- portal, entitlement and asset-download activity;
- purchase, refund, fulfillment and related reference information when products are offered;
- communications, delivery status, support requests and administrative actions; and
- certification, result and program-history records.
Northshore Parent does not publish voter or submitter identity as part of the results. Participant identity, individual ballots, individual votes, private review information and security details are not included in public results or public business listings.
9. How we use information
Northshore Parent uses program information to:
- receive, review and count nominations;
- verify voters and operate daily voting;
- prevent abuse and review program integrity;
- communicate about a submission, vote, business request, recognition, product or support issue;
- determine, certify and publish approved results;
- authorize business access and deliver award assets;
- operate optional product ordering and fulfillment;
- answer participant requests and correct official records;
- maintain required audit, operational and historical records; and
- prepare approved business and recognition information for related Northshore Parent publications or directories without including voter or submitter data.
10. Required messages and optional marketing
Northshore Parent may send transactional messages needed to operate the program. These may include nomination receipts, voter-verification links, ballot confirmations, business invitations, portal links, winner notices, asset-delivery notices and support messages.
Transactional messages are part of the requested program activity. They are separate from marketing.
The choice labeled Yes, keep me updated via email is optional and separately controlled. A participant may clear that choice before submitting and may later unsubscribe from marketing messages. Submitting a nomination, voting or becoming a business contact does not by itself create marketing consent.
Marketing messages are sent only according to the recorded optional choice and applicable unsubscribe or suppression status. Voting never creates or implies marketing consent.
11. When information is shared
Personal information is limited to authorized Northshore Parent personnel and service providers that need it to operate, secure or support the program. Northshore Parent may also disclose information when required by law or when reasonably necessary to address a security incident, dispute, correction or fulfillment issue.
Approved nominee and winner information may be made public. Public information may include the business name, location, website or other approved business details, award year, category and recognition status.
Northshore Parent does not sell nominations or votes. A commercial relationship with Northshore Parent does not change a business’s standing in the program.
12. Retention, preservation and corrections
Program and participant records are kept as part of the operational and historical record. They are not routinely deleted or anonymized, and they do not have an automatic expiration date.
Business contact, access, purchase, fulfillment and asset-access records may remain active across award seasons.
Northshore Parent may place records on hold because of a dispute, security incident, legal request, correction or unresolved fulfillment issue. A hold may delay affected archival, closeout or administrative activity.
An official correction adds a new administrative record rather than silently replacing the original evidence. Certified results are not changed by an ordinary rules update. A later correction to a certified result requires a separately authorized, versioned process.
13. Access and correction requests
A participant may request access to or correction of personal information by emailing support@northshoreparent.com.
Northshore Parent will reasonably verify the requester before disclosing or changing private information. A request does not guarantee that an operational, historical, audit or legally required record will be deleted. Northshore Parent does not provide a self-service account or deletion portal for this program.
14. Business access and award assets
Business access may be granted to:
- an existing approved business contact;
- a person using an email address that matches the business’s domain; or
- a person whose authority is independently verified by Northshore Parent.
The standard nominee package includes a square PNG nominee badge, a transparent PNG nominee badge and a one-page usage guide.
The standard winner package includes a square PNG winner badge, a transparent PNG winner badge, a print-ready PDF winner badge and a usage guide.
An authorized business may use unmodified award assets on its website, social media, email, storefront and advertising for the identified year and category. Assets may not be resold or transferred. A business may not remove the year or category, alter the recognition claim or use an asset to create a false endorsement. Northshore Parent retains copyright in the award assets.
Northshore Parent may revoke asset access because of an authorization mistake, misuse, superseded recognition or a security incident. Revoking access does not silently change a certified result.
15. Free and optional paid products
The standard recognition package is available at no charge. Optional paid digital or physical products may also be offered. The exact contents, price, delivery timing, shipping terms and fulfillment details will be shown before an order is placed.
A free claim does not require a payment method. If a paid order is refunded, canceled, fails or is charged back, access to the related paid item may end. Standard free recognition remains available unless access is separately revoked under these terms.
A purchase does not affect eligibility, nominations, shortlisting, voting, results or winner status.
16. Changes to these rules
Northshore Parent may revise these rules when program operations require it. The current version and effective date will appear on this page. Material changes will be displayed publicly with their effective date.
A rules revision does not change a certified result except through the separately authorized correction and versioning process described above.
17. Contact
Questions, privacy requests, correction requests and support requests may be sent to support@northshoreparent.com.
Rules version: 1.0
Effective date: August 22, 2026