Quick Start Guide

Quick Start Guide

This guide walks you through setting up your first science fair on Faire Portal, from creating your organization all the way to having judges ready to score. Follow these steps in order and you’ll be up and running in about 15 minutes.

Overview

Here’s what you’ll set up:

1. Create your organization — your fair’s home base
2. Set up categories — organize projects by subject area
3. Create a rubric — define how judges will score
4. Build your forms — collect registrations and applications
5. Add students — import or invite participants
6. Invite judges — share the application link

Each step builds on the previous one, so we recommend going in order.

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Step 1: Create Your Organization

Before anything else, you need an organization. This is where all your fair’s data lives — judges, forms, students, and scores.

What you’ll need

• A Faire Portal account (sign up at faireportal.com)
• An authorization code (format: FAIRE-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX)

How to do it

1. Log in and go to the Create Your Fair page
2. Enter your authorization code — it validates in real time
3. Name your fair (e.g., “Orange County Science Fair”)
4. Choose a subdomain — this becomes yourname.faireportal.com
5. Click Create Fair

You’ll land on your new dashboard. The setup checklist on the overview page will guide you through the remaining steps.

Tip: Your subdomain can’t be changed after creation, so choose carefully. Keep it short and lowercase.

For full details, see Creating Your Organization.

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Step 2: Set Up Categories

Categories organize your fair into subject areas. Judges are assigned to categories, and entries are sorted into them.

How to do it

1. Click Categories in the left sidebar
2. Click New Category in the top right
3. Fill in the form:
   • Category Name — e.g., “Biology”, “Engineering”, “Chemistry”
   • Code — a short abbreviation (e.g., “BIO”, “ENG”)
   • Color — pick from the presets or enter a custom hex code
   • Description — a brief explanation of what belongs in this category
4. Click Create
5. Repeat for each subject area in your fair

What you’ll see

After creating categories, you’ll see:

• Overview cards at the top showing your categories with judge counts
• A management table below with all categories, codes, descriptions, and action buttons

Tip: You can always edit or delete categories later from the table’s action buttons.

For full details, see Setting Up Categories.

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Step 3: Create a Rubric

Rubrics define the scoring criteria judges use to evaluate projects. You need at least one rubric before judges can start scoring.

Option A: Create from scratch

1. Click Rubrics in the left sidebar
2. Click Create Rubric in the top right
3. Fill in the basics:
   • Name — e.g., “General Science Fair Rubric”
   • Category — assign it to a category (optional)
   • Division — Junior, Senior, or Both
   • Active — toggle on to make it available for scoring
4. Add criteria:
   • Click Add Criterion
   • Enter a Criterion Name (e.g., “Scientific Method”)
   • Add a Description of what judges should look for
   • Define Scoring Levels — for each level, set a label (e.g., “Excellent”, “Good”, “Needs Improvement”), description, and point value
   • Add more levels with the Add Level button
5. Repeat for each criterion
6. Click Save

Option B: Use a community template

Don’t want to start from scratch? Browse rubrics shared by other fairs:

1. Click Rubrics in the sidebar
2. Click the Community Templates tab
3. Browse the available templates — each shows criteria count, total points, and usage count
4. Click Use Template on one you like
5. The template is imported into your rubrics — customize it as needed

Stats to watch

The rubrics page shows three stat cards:

• Total Rubrics — how many you’ve created
• Active Rubrics — how many are available for scoring
• Scores Submitted — total scores across all rubrics

For full details, see Creating Rubrics.

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Step 4: Build Your Forms

Forms collect information from participants — registration, applications, surveys, and more.

System forms vs. custom forms

Faire Portal automatically creates system forms for common tasks like judge applications and student registrations. You can customize these but they’re always available.

For anything else, create a custom form:

1. Click Forms in the sidebar
2. Click New Form in the top right
3. The form builder opens — add fields by dragging or clicking:
   • Text inputs, dropdowns, checkboxes, date pickers
   • File upload fields for documents or images
   • Conditional logic to show/hide fields based on answers
   • Multi-page layouts for longer forms
4. Set the form status to Published when it’s ready to accept responses

Quick stats

The forms page shows four stat cards at the top:

• Total Forms — all forms (system + custom)
• Total Responses — submissions across all forms
• Published — forms currently accepting responses
• Drafts — forms still being edited

Tip: Click “Community Templates” to browse pre-built forms from other fairs.

For full details, see Building a Form.

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Step 5: Add Students

Import your student roster or add participants individually.

Option A: Import from spreadsheet

Best for adding many students at once:

1. Click Students in the sidebar, then Add Students
2. Make sure the Import tab is selected
3. Upload a CSV or Excel file with student information
4. Map columns — match your spreadsheet headers to Faire Portal fields (email, first name, last name)
5. Review — verify the data looks correct and optionally assign a form
6. Click Send Invitations — students receive an email with login instructions

Option B: Add manually

Best for a few students:

1. Click Students > Add Students
2. Click the Manual tab
3. Enter each student’s email, first name, and last name
4. Click Add to List to stage them (or Invite Directly for one at a time)
5. When ready, click Send Invitations

For full details, see Adding Students.

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Step 6: Invite Judges

Judges apply through a link you share. Their applications land in your queue for review.

How to do it

1. Click Judges in the sidebar
2. Click Copy Application Link in the top right — the link is copied to your clipboard
3. Share the link via email, your website, or social media
4. As judges apply, their applications appear in the Applications tab
5. Review and approve or reject applications from there

Navigating the judges page

The judges page has five tabs:

• Judges — your approved judges with stats (total, categories, uncategorized)
• Applications — incoming applications awaiting review
• Reviewed — past decisions (approved and rejected)
• Past Data — import legacy judge data
• Export — download judge information

For full details, see Adding Judges.

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What’s Next?

You’ve got the basics set up. Here are some things to explore:

• Assigning Rubrics — connect rubrics to categories so judges know what to score
• Setting Up Divisions — split your fair into Junior/Senior divisions
• Workflows — automate judge assignments, notifications, and more
• Organization Settings — customize your fair’s branding and preferences
• Custom Roles — fine-tune permissions for your team

Navigation tip

Click the Faire Portal logo in the top-left corner of your dashboard to return to the organization picker, where you can switch between fairs or create a new one.

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Need Help?

• Browse these docs using the sidebar or search
• Use the AI chat assistant (bottom right of the docs site) to ask questions
• Contact support through your organization’s settings page