Mark Your Calendars ...
Deadline for awards submissions is July 4th, 2006!

By Marci Brisbourne
Director Member Services
   

As each and everyone of us works with care and passion in the service of those in need, Mary Kutarna, Gary Nakamura, Val Rankin, Sandy Tufts and yours truly have been working overtime to have a revamped scoring process in place for recognizing all of these significant contributions in the name of Progress for this, yes, this award year.

What has been happening to get us to this point?

Upon assuming the role of Director of Member Services, I contacted many of the clubs that had not been participating in the awards program to see “why” and “what” was needed to warrant club participation. The answers were many from, “It’s too much work” -to- ” We aren’t going to win anyway”…

The 8 Minimum Standards were incorporated into the component criteria of the awards. A review was completed as to the original concept of the existing package to come up with points of information for consideration in scoring given that a new “point/ number” system would not be included in the package for 04-05.

An informative discussion took place at the awards workshop held at Western Region Convention last spring in Lethbridge. The message from the membership was loud and clear that an objective “point/number” system for both creating and judging the submissions was needed.

Sixteen clubs submit for National awards by the deadline. This was a staggering increase from the year prior and again, a thank you to those clubs who took the time to recognize the accomplishments of their members in a submission. An interactive awards workshop was held at the National Convention in Saskatoon last September. All feedback from the membership was taken for consideration in moving forward with a committee to look at the awards package. A summary of the information compiled at Convention was sent out to all clubs in October. Some points for committee consideration were: the need for a point system that gives tangible targets for creating a submission and subjectivity in judging and a data input template for collection of information into the submission. Several members over the past year have suggested a broader definition of the Mentorship component and Award to allow for cross club recognition.

The “winning” submissions were posted on MCS and all submitting clubs received a summary of their scoring results.

From an invitation to all membership, Mary, Gary, Val and Sandy jump on board the “scoring committee” and we begin meeting. In fact, our slightly groggy team met over breakfast on the Sunday morning of convention to set out a course of action…

Action #1-A survey of the panel of judges from the 04-05- award year was completed - “What is needed to assist in scoring?”

The committee meets and meets again…

As a committee, we recognize that the awards package should always be moving forward, progressing to meet the current needs of our organization. For example, last year, the Membership Award was not awarded, as there were no clubs meeting the criteria. It is now time to look at those criteria.

During the process of creating a “point for criteria accomplished” scoring system, the committee has come up with a package that focuses on the 8 Minimum Standards- a means to acknowledge those clubs that meet the standards established for being a successful Progress Club, a package that provides an open scoring system with targets for submitting and marking, one that works to a “level playing field”- considerations for market size and regional uniqueness, a focus on member involvement as an active, engaged membership breeds strong clubs and organization and a focus on mentorship so that we continue to have strong membership at the Club, Regional and National levels and a means for succession planning at the board levels in the organization.

The key message is that all clubs, whether participating in the awards program or not –and you should take the time to reward your members with award recognition- will be stronger by striving to achieve the award standards by, but it is my intention and that of my fellow committee members to have the package in place for this year.

The deadline for award submissions has been set for July 4th, 2006.

In the meantime keep up the wonderful work that is worthy of award recognition in all corners of our country and watch for further communication on the package coming out to you very, very soon.

A sincere thanks to my committee and fellow Board members for their effort and input on this undertaking and to all members. So yes, the days are quickly flying for their passion for Progress:

“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” -- Theodore Roosevelt

Yours for Progress,
Marci Brisbourne
dbrisbourne@accesscomm.ca