Awards Committee

The Awards Committee for the PAM Division Award and PAM Achievement Award is appointed by the Chair. The committee shall comprise three members, one from each of the subject areas of the PAM Division; at least two of the three shall be experienced PAM members, and the chair of the committee should have been a member of the committee the previous year. The PAM International Membership Award is not handled by the Awards Committee, but instead by the PAM Executive Board in consultation with the International Relations Committee Chair. The following guidelines apply to the PAM Division and PAM Achievement Awards.

Duties and Guidelines

• The Committee Chair should solicit nominations at the annual business meeting, in the November PAM Bulletin, and by e-mail to PAMnet. The members of the committee should solicit nominations from their colleagues. This may need to be done several times. Set a March 1 deadline. The committee should make decisions about awards to be made as soon as possible thereafter.
• The Committee Chair notifies the winner(s) in advance--by telephone is nice, as well as by formal letter. The PAM Chair can follow up with a congratulatory phone call or a letter too, if this seems appropriate. If the award winner (or employer) is not familiar with PAM and the criteria for the award, the letter could include a list of previous winners. News about the award winner(s) should not be shared, except among those directly involved, until the awards are presented at the Annual Business Meeting.
• The Committee Chair shall be responsible for the acquisition or production of suitable (framed, calligraphied, paper) award certificates and for their presentation at the Annual Business Meeting. A copy of the text of the citation should be given to the Secretary to be included in the business meeting minutes. In the years that an award is not given, specific mention of it should be made at the business meeting, outlining the criteria and perhaps mentioning former recipients as examples.
• The PAM Chair and the Awards Committee Chair shall take the award winner(s) and one guest each to dinner at the time of the presentation. (Note that both Division and Achievement award winners can be dined at the same time.) These costs are covered by PAM; the Committee Chair should check with the Executive Board to determine an appropriate level of expense and should make every effort to stick to this budget. The Committee Chair may invite other Board or Awards Committee members, whose dinners shall be fully or partially covered as the budget allows. Other PAM members are welcome to attend at their own expense. If the Committee Chair cannot pay for the Division's share of the dinner for later reimbursement, he/she should arrange for the PAM Chair to pay, or ask the Treasurer for an advance well ahead of the conference.
• The dinner and the award certificate(s) are normally the only expenses associated with the award. Travel funding to the conference is usually not offered; the award winner(s) therefore may not be able to be present at the annual business meeting. In special circumstances, the Executive Board may approve additional expenditures, such as partial travel funding.
• The Committee Chair should arrange a one-day registration (usually complimentary) for those winners who are not SLA members but who will attend the awards presentation and should facilitate their conference experience as appropriate.
• Publicity: the committee shall provide to the PAM Chair a notice for submission to SLA's Information Outlook regarding the award(s) and recipient(s), and shall send similar notices to the PAM Bulletin Editor and to the webmaster.
• At the conclusion of the awards process, the Committee Chair transfers (e.g., files of past candidates for awards) to the new Awards Committee Chair.
• SLA awards: The committee shall also encourage nominations of PAM members for SLA awards (e.g., SLA Hall of Fame) by reminding members about these awards through a list posted on PAMnet or in the PAM Bulletin. The committee itself shall also identify qualified PAM members as appropriate and take the initiative in nominating them, in consultation with the Board. The call for nominations is usually sent in the fall to the PAM Chair, who will forward it to the Awards Committee. The deadline for these awards is normally in December.

PAM Practices Manual Editor: Kristine Fowler, fowler@math.umn.edu

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Page created: October 1990
Last updated: July 26, 2004