Awards Committee

Sept 7 2021

Approved by SCAS Board of Directors, Dec 9, 2021

Name: Awards and Recognitions Committee

Purpose: To establish clear guidelines on identity, scope, communication, evaluation, and timelines of SCAS awards.

Objective: To recommend to SCAS:

1. Identification and description of SCAS awards

2. Eligibility and nomination guidelines

3. Develop best practices for award selection committees to incorporate principles of inclusive excellence

4. Communication strategies and annual timelines for nominations and decisions

5. Committee and sub-committee structure for the evaluation process

Budget: Annual budget should cover the travel costs for awardees to the annual meetings. This may involve partnerships with external sponsors to cover such funds (e.g., as is done currently with Canada Science Publishers).

Background:

This committee will determine the number, scope, and parameters for awards offered by SCAS. These should include, but are not limited to the existing awards offered through SCL (Rigler, Peters) and CCFFR (Stevenson). The committee will determine whether additional awards should be created (e.g., Schindler), and whether travel awards (i.e., the Clemens-Rigler) should be included under the mandate of this committee. Issues to address include establishing consistent timing for calls and deadlines, clear criteria for award nomination and selection, eligibility and availability of awards for both limnology and fisheries members, and value of each award.

Frequency of Meetings:

Meetings will be held 3X per year:

1) Winter meeting to evaluate Awards for the upcoming year:

- Set timelines

- Solicit committee members as needed

- Evaluate new award possibilities

2) Spring meeting for sub-committees:

- review nomination and evaluation guidelines

3) Summer meeting for sub-committees

- discuss nominations and determine awardees

Duties of Members:

The Awards committee should consist of the positions as outlined below. Each position will be held for a period of 2 years, with staggered starts to ensure continuity over years.

a) One Awards Committee Chair who will be responsible for soliciting sub-committee volunteer members, communicating calls for award nominations, and overseeing the suite of awards with an EDI and Inclusive Excellence lens. Evaluate suggestions for the creation of new awards.

b) One Sub-Committee Chair for each award: Peters, Rigler, and Stevenson. These Chairs will be responsible for coordinating the Committee Members to ensure the nominations are evaluated in a timely fashion. With the Committee Chair, evaluate suggestions for the creation of new awards.

Note: Currently, the Stevenson award is administered by CJFAS, therefore discussions will need to be held to determine whether this should be taken over by SCAS. Similarly, we can discuss the Larkin award from CARS.

c) Three Committee Members per award (Peters, Rigler and Stevenson) who will be responsible for evaluating nominations and providing rankings and rationale for selections.

Planned Deliverables:

1) Timelines for award nomination, decision, and communication

2) For each award, a document with the name, description, eligibility, and nomination process

3) Names of Committee Chair and Sub-Chairs

Deliverables and the Target dates:

The above information will be available on the SCAS website by Jan 30 2022.