Awards Coordination Committee

Activities

The committee’s responsibilities include ensuring that:

• All award nominations and applications are handled with equity, and that the broadest possible range of viewpoints are represented during the award selection process.
• Best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion are incorporated into the award selection process. To achieve this, all award selection committees should receive detailed guidance on their roles and responsibilities via an SOP outline that includes:
  • Suggested criteria for ranking, such as the impact the award will have on the recipient’s career, access to institutional resources, etc.
  • Proactive recruitment of candidates to ensure a diverse and highly qualified pool from which to choose.
  • Requirement for an early call to orient committee members prior to the consideration of candidates.
  • Direction to award committees to consider the human aspect of candidates, not just their research.
  • Development of a rubric for evaluating applications in a consistent manner.
• The best possible matching between awards and award candidates. This will be accomplished by moving applicants from one award pool to another (with the candidate’s consent) if it is deemed that they are better suited for consideration of another award, and/or based on whether there are too many or too few candidates for particular awards.

Additional committee responsibilities include:

• Periodic review of the Society’s overall honorific awards portfolio to ensure compliance with best practices and in meeting the needs of the membership.
• Periodic review of the Society’s annual meeting travel grants to ensure appropriate transparency, consistency and equity of candidate eligibility and application requirements.