By David Teisler, CAE
How do we recognize accomplishment?
- The President can give you the Medal of Freedom.
- Your boss can give you a raise.
- Jack Potter might issue a stamp in your name. (Ideally, you need to be either be dead or a cartoon character, but let's not quibble.)
- Michael Bloomberg could put your name on a street, or if you're really worthy, on an avenue.
- You make it to the final episode of a reality show and get a hug from Paula Abdul (wait, she's no longer there!) or a pretty equivalent.
- Your colleagues stand up and cheer when NYSAE's Awards Committee says that of all our peers, you, more than anyone, are New York's most distinguished chair or best performing executive.
Personally, I shudder to think of sharing envelope space with Homer Simpson, and applying for an NYSAE Award is actually pretty easy, certainly easier than surviving the spider pit in Lost or the blisters from Dancing with the Stars. And best yet, you don't have to give up your raise in order to be recognized by your peers…so I suggest NYSAE recognition is the route to go.
"How?" you ask. Just click on the nomination form available on NYSAE's website (www.nysaenet.org/displayemailforms.cfm?emailformnbr=41645). You can nominate yourself or any of your colleagues who seem deserving of one of our six awards: Outstanding Association Executive Award; Outstanding Associate Member Award; Outstanding Committee Chair Award; Distinguished Service Award; Social Responsibility Award; and New Star Award. We also present a seventh award, the Cyber Space Award. That award is outside the nominations process; all regular members whose associations have websites are automatically reviewed and considered.
The criteria and eligibility for each of these six awards are highlighted on the website, each with its own URL. Join some pretty illustrious company by nominating yourself (it's OK, you don't get to be CEO by being a reclusive wall flower) or a colleague.
As a member of the Awards Committee for almost a decade now, I can tell you that this is one of NYSAE's most underutilized services, and it's a shame. We've made New York City host to some of the greatest associations and nonprofits in the world. We should be shouting this from rooftops or the intersection of Judy Sanford Guise Avenue and Dena Kerren Street.
David Teisler, CAE, chair of NYSAE's Awards Committee, is director of communications for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, 305 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001-6008; 212-647-1890 212-647-1890 ; teisler@abct.org.