Distinguished Awards Committee
Purpose
The Distinguished Awards Committee has the responsibility of selecting the thesis/dissertation and the paper other than a thesis/dissertation from among those submitted annually for recognition at the Annual Meeting as the winners of the Herbert Handley Thesis/Dissertation Award and the Outstanding Paper Award, respectively.
Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of the committee to choose a research paper and a thesis/dissertation worthy of recognition by the Association. The selection process is of major importance because the selection of a strong research paper will enhance the image of the entire Association, while the selection of a poor one may have the opposite effect. Furthermore, a biased selection procedure can alienate members of the Association as well as result in the selection of an inferior paper. The paper selected as winner for the Outstanding Paper Award becomes the representative of MSERA at the forthcoming AERA Annual Meeting and is presented under the sponsorship of the Special Interest Group for State and Regional Research Associations.
The chair of the committee is responsible for publicizing the competitions and inviting submissions, the review of submissions and selection of winners, purchasing the plaques and obtaining checks for the cash awards ($250 each) that are presented to the winners by the President at the MSERA Annual Meeting, and supplying the information (as requested and when available) that places the winner of the Outstanding Paper Award on the AERA program for the SIG for State and Regional Research Associations.
Committee Selection
The Vice President/President-Elect is the chair of this committee. The committee is composed of two members from each state to avoid having submissions reviewed by individuals from the state of the submitter who might be familiar with the research and the researcher.
Paper Selection Process
The selection procedure consists of three steps - submission, initial review, and final selection.
The Call for Submissions for the two awards is disseminated through the Researcher to all members of MSERA. This is done at the same time that the Call for Papers is published (February issue of the Researcher). The chair of the Award Committee submits the call to the Researcher editor. Completed papers are to be sent to the Chair by June 15 or whatever date in early June that is determined.
The chair of the Awards Committee will acknowledge receipt of the submissions. It is the responsibility of the chair of the Awards Committee to verify that the first author of each paper submitted is an active member of MSERA at the time the full paper is submitted for judging by checking with membership records of the Secretary-'Treasurer.
The chair sends a 1ist of all papers submitted for awards to the Program Chair with a request that they be scheduled on Friday morning to provide members with an opportunity to attend the presentations of winning papers after they are announced at the Business Meeting on Thursday evening.
Submissions are evaluated by members of the committee (from states other than that of the submitting author). The papers with the top rankings are evaluated on a comparative basis. The two winners, one for each award, are determined.
The chair of the Committee procures the awards (a plaque and a check for the first author of each submission). The chair of the Committee also prepares a certificate for the major professor under whose direction the winning dissertation was prepared. At the discretion of the chair, the winner may be given the option of having plaques prepared for co-authors up to four. The chair of the Committee prepares a report of the activities of the committee and presents the report at the fall Business Meeting of the Board.
The chair of the Committee announces the winners at the Business Session of the Annual Meeting.