2023 Fitbit® Activity Challenge

April 10^th – May 22^nd

Put some spring in your step!

We are excited to announce the upcoming team-based Fitbit® Activity Challenge for Spring 2023!  The Fitbit® Activity Challenge is designed to help you and your coworkers come together and get active this Spring.

All Activity Counts

Similar to last year, this year’s Challenge will count all types of activity, not just steps, including activities such as biking, swimming, dancing, stretching, weightlifting, gardening, and more.  The Challenge platform will still quantify activity based on step count, however we’ll provide an activity-to-step converter so you may convert all other types of activity into steps.

 Be Kind to Yourself

While the focus of this Challenge is physical activity, we encourage you to use this Challenge to connect with your colleagues, focus on self-care, and have fun! Our number one goal is to encourage every participant to do the best that they can. At the end of the day, remember to be kind to yourself if you don’t meet the physical activity goals you set out to meet and support your team members to do the same. We’re all in this together and we’re all in this to have a great time!

 The Only Failure is Not Trying

The Spring 2023 The Fitbit® Activity Challenge will celebrate all participants of the Challenge, not just our top performing teams. While the Challenge platform will still track top performance, Challenge prizes will not be provided based on performance, but rather on randomly selected participants. Give it your best shot, have a good time, and support your team. You’re all winners in our eyes!

This year’s challenge takes place from April 10^th to May 22 ^nd.

To participate, team leaders must submit team rosters to bewell@bu.edu by March 17^th.

The process to participate:

• Create a team with 5-20 BU employees and designate a team leader.
• Team leaders must email bewell@bu.edu by March 17 ^th and include the team name, team campus (MD or CR) and an excel roster including the First Name, Last name, BUID and BU email address of all team members*
• Team leaders receive confirmation regarding Fitbit® availability, create the team through the BCBS ahealthyme® website and pick up Fitbit® devices on behalf of their team
• Team participants accept the team invitation on BCBS ahealthyme® and start getting active!

*Complete instructions for team leaders may be found here.

In order to participate, employees must have been hired and entered into SAP by March 1st, 2023.

Instructions:

In order to participate, there are quite a few steps involved such as setting up your Fitbit® and ahealthyme® accounts, joining your team and syncing steps and activity.  We’ve created these guides to help get you up and active for the challenge.  Please read them carefully.

Team Leader Instructions

Participant Instructions

The Only Failure is Not Trying  – You’re All Winners

As mentioned above,  we’d like to celebrate all participants of the Challenge, not just our top performing teams.  While the Challenge platform will still track top performance, Challenge prizes will not be provided based on performance, but rather on a randomly selected team and 5 randomly selected participants.

Team Prize –Team celebration lunch by Catering on the Charles or Chequers Cafe

Individual Prize – $50 gift card to the BU bookstore

Other Details:

• We encourage employees of all fitness levels, goals, and abilities to participate. If you require accommodations or direction pertaining to your particular situation, please reach out to bewell@bu.edu.
• For those of you converting other types of activity into steps, link to this activity-to-step converter  to use during the Challenge.
• The challenge is administered through the BCBS ahealthyme® website. If you aren’t a member of one of the Boston University Health Plans and haven’t already registered for this site, you may register using your Name and Date of Birth. Please note, the registration page will also ask for your height and weight. While this value cannot be bypassed, you can simply enter 1 for both values in order to bypass this information.
• If you have any issues registering or logging in to the BCBS ahealthyme® website, please contact the ahealthyme® support line at 888-617-0696, M-F, 8A-6P.
• In order to be eligible to participate, you must be a regular, compensated employee of the University, and you must be employed in SAP starting no later than March 1, 2023. If you are hired into SAP after March 1, 2023, we look forward to including you in the Challenge next year.
• Student, volunteer, non-compensated, and temporary employees hired through Terrier Temps are not eligible to participate in this Challenge.
• We have a limited supply of Fitbit® devices for distribution for this Challenge. Fitbit® devices will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis based in the order we receive team rosters.  If you received a Fitbit® device during a previous Challenge, we ask that you continue to use that device.  And remember, the device is yours to keep!
• If you already have a Fitbit® device, you may use it to participate. Devices by other brands do not sync with the BCBS website at this time, however, you may manually enter your steps from another device into the BCBS website.
• First time Fitbit® users must register devices with Fitbit® before syncing devices with ahealthyme®. Complete instructions may be found in the Participant Instructions.
• If the team leader does not pick up the devices by April 14^th, they will be forfeited by the team and used for the challenge the following year. Team Leader Instructions can be found here.
• We are not responsible for any lost or malfunctioning devices. If you are having an issue with your device, you should engage Fitbit® directly.  Please contact the Fitbit® Support Team at 877-623-4997 or explore the other support options here.