Carla has asked that I share some information and clarify some procedures about Awards. There are some awards that requires the ARRL Board of Directors to vote to confer it upon the recipient. These include Awards such as the McGann, Knight, and Technical Service awards recently voted by the Board. In those kinds of cases, after the meeting, it is generally appropriate for the recipient's director to contact the recipient to notify them of their selection and congratulate them. This gives the director the chance to "break the news" before the recipient finds out through the minutes or news stories when they are released. This applies to most of the awards found in Chapter 12 of the Director's Workbook. When something like The President's Award is voted, it would be appropriate for the President and the Director of the recipient to coordinate the notification of the recipient. Because some of the awards coming with plaques, certificates and/or monetary prizes, it is appropriate to coordinate with the HQ staff person responsible for fulfillment of a particular honor. This is different from the Centurion Award, which is not a Board voted award. Centurion is not a typographical error. When the award was established it was named the Centurion award. When a director believes they haves a constituent who qualifies for the Award, the director first verifies the age of the recipient and notifies HQ of that information. HQ then verifies the membership requirement and prepares the award. The nominating director coordinates with HQ on shipping of the award for presentation, etc. The intent of the motion was for HQ to automatically prepare the award when an eligible candidate was identified by their respective director. The Centurion Award does not require a Board motion or vote. At the request of several directors, Carla and I will be working on a process for recognition motions - long time clubs, etc - to be handled in a more expeditious manner. In order to do this, however, it will mean that directors submit these type motions about a month in advance of the meeting, so they can be distributed into a consent-agenda type motion. I envision this being along the lines of a single motions made that the honorary motions from this consent agenda item are approved with a direction to include each in the minutes. The details of this can be worked out before January if that is the desire of the Board. But again, the key is advance preparation by the directors - you are all familiar with the problems that sometime arise from trying to craft motions "in the fly" on Saturday of a meeting. If you have any questions about who at HQ handles any specific award, you many contact Carla, who will help get you pointed in the right direction. And if you have any questions on process, feel free to contact me. Have a great weekend... Dan Henderson, N1ND Assistant Secretary - American Radio Relay League, Inc. Regulatory Information Manager ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio (r) 860-594-0236 dhenderson@arrl.org<mailto:dhenderson@arrl.org>