Why do we give awards? Certainly, we aim at communicating gratitude and recognition for the recipients. But awards are also for the rest of us: We are honoring ideals as well as individuals. Understanding that ideals are perfect and largely unattainable, we find meaning not so much in their achievement but in the effort made in attempting to reach them. The Young Professionals Coordinating Committee (YPCC) established an Awards subcommittee to identify ways of honoring and recognizing Young Professional (YP) committees for their achievements.
This year we have expanded the awards. We are recognizing innovation, ability, effort, and excellence in three Outstanding Section YP Committee Award categories:
- Overall Excellence
- Most Improved
- Most Innovative
In addition to the expanded awards categories, there was a huge increase in the number of applications submitted this year.
Selection for the award is based on membership growth, new or unique initiatives, programs that develop YP technical competencies, involvement in international and inter-section activities, overcoming challenges, student chapter collaboration, and social responsibility.
The Overall Excellence Award is given to the YP committee that achieves excellence in all criteria. The Most Improved Award goes to the YP committee that best overcame challenges, while growing membership and increasing activities. The Most Innovative Award is for the YP committee that developed the most noteworthy new or unique activities.
Each year, the information gathered from all applications is analyzed, filtered, and summarized in the YP Committee Best Practices document, which can be downloaded from the YP Network (www.spe.org/go/ypn). Also, see The Way Ahead’s Vol. 8, Issue 1, 2012 SPE 101 article for some highlights from the applications.
Around the globe, YPs are devoting time, effort, and energy to contribute to SPE’s mission and values. The YPCC Awards Subcommittee is working hard to find new and creative ways to single out YPs for special recognition. We challenge you to help us improve our ways of recognizing your work by emailing your ideas to yp@spe.org. We rely on your energy and input to improve our programs!