Doug, Contest awards and plaques are an issue that moved up the priority list a couple of weeks ago. I will ask Harold to provide a briefing paper when he returns from vacation. At the policy level, by allowing the number of entry categories in contests to proliferate we are now in the position of owing participants literally thousands of certificates each year, with the costs escalating even faster as postage rates increase. I think we are reaching the point where we will need to follow the lead of other contest sponsors and give participants the opportunity to download their certificates from the website. If they want them on paper we can offer the opportunity to pay for them. 73, Dave K1ZZ ________________________________________ From: arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org [arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] on behalf of Rehman, Doug, K4AC Sent: Friday, January 03, 2014 8:17 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:22212] Contest Awards Processing Status I received a very disgruntled email from a member that is still waiting on their 2012 ten meter contest award. In the process of doing some quick research, I came across this thread of very unhappy people currently waiting for their 2012 Sweepstakes plaques: http://www.arrl.org/forum/topics/view/939 When I checked the plaques and certificates page (http://www.arrl.org/plaques-and-certificates), it shows as last being updated on 5/13/2013. Presuming that this is a lack of paid staff issue, is there some step(s) we could take to turn the plaque and certificate generation/mailing over to a volunteer group? Once the log processing has been completed for a contest and the results prepared for publication, it would seem that the task of plaques and certificates would be straightforward—albeit time consuming. Thanks & 73, Doug Doug Rehman, K4AC Director Southeastern Division ARRL National Association of the Amateur Radio