Last month at the AMS Annual Meeting in Long Beach, a number of outstanding individuals from our community were honored for their contributions either by being elected to AMS Fellow or by receiving one of the many awards presented by the Society. There always seems to be general agreement that those chosen for the various awards are deserving, but I often hear someone say, "I wonder why 'so-and-so' has never been elected to Fellow," or some similar comment. This seems a good opportunity to remind everyone of how the awards process works in the Society and to issue a "call to arms" to members to nominate their deserving colleagues.
I think most of the membership knows that election to Fellow and all the awards and lectureships awarded by the Society are conferred on the recipients by your elected Council. Some seem unaware, however, that the process starts at a very grass-roots level-by an AMS member taking the lead in creating a nomination package for a deserving individual and securing supporting documentation that is submitted to the AMS. Thus, in many cases, the reason why "so-and-so" has never received an award is because "so-and-so" was never nominated for one.
The nomination process does require a bit of effort. No matter how great the contributions made by an individual in some area, the Society is diverse enough that those working in other areas may not be familiar with those contributions and in some cases may not even be familiar with the name of the individual. Thus, the nomination package must be complete enough that all members of the various volunteer committees reviewing it-including those on the Council-will see the merit of the nomination in comparison to the nominations of other individuals. Thankfully, each year a number of AMS members are willing to invest the time and effort required to nominate a colleague for election to Fellow or for one of the Society's awards.
The first step in the process is obtaining the appropriate nomination form that is used to coordinate the package. These are easily found on the AMS Web site (www.ametsoc.org/AMS) by choosing "Awards-Nomination Forms" on the pull-down "Navigate through our site" menu at the left of the AMS Home Page. From here you can print out forms for Fellow or award nominations, as well as see descriptions of all the AMS awards. As outlined in the associated text on the Web site, the award should be accompanied by up to three supporting letters that supplement the original nomination. It is recommended that the text of the original nomination be supplied to those who will write supporting letters so that each can highlight additional strengths or accomplishments of the nominated individual to make the package as strong as possible. All nomination packages must be complete and submitted prior to I May.
Many of the award nominations are reviewed by one or more AMS committees. For example, the Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Advance of Applied Meteorology has its nominations reviewed by the Board on Private Sector Meteorology with input from the Applied Climatology STAC Committee. Other awards are handled by a volunteer committee constituted specifically for the award process, such as the Atmospheric Research Award Committee, which makes recommendations on the Rossby Medal and other atmospheric awards. AMS Fellow nominations are reviewed by the Fellows Committee, which is chaired each year by the second past-president of the AMS.
The recommendations coming from these various committees are all forwarded to the Awards Oversight Committee (AOC), which is chaired by the first past-president and made up of the chairs of the awards committees and the commissioners. The AOC reviews all recommendations from the various committees to ensure consistency and balance before passing the recommendations to the Council for vote at its fall meeting. (The AOC is also responsible for continual review of the awards policies and procedures to keep them current.) A nomination that is unsuccessful is held over for consideration in the following year, but after three years becomes inactive.
The process of taking a nomination submitted prior to I May to presentation of the award at the Annual Meeting eight or nine months later may seem long and bureaucratic-and to some extent it is-but it is a process governed by volunteers from start to finish and one that leads to the best of those nominated being recognized for their contributions. The process depends on good nominations, however, and while many members take on this unselfish task each year there is always the risk that very deserving individuals are being overlooked simply because they have not been nominated. I hope that all of us will do our best to see that those in our community who deserve recognition, receive it.
[Author Affiliation]
KEITH L. SEITTER
DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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