NOMINATIONS HAVE CLOSED FOR 2010

Gold and Silver Medal Nominations for 2010

Gold Medals are awarded for distinguished performance characterized by extraordinary, notable or prestigious contributions that impact the mission of the Department and/or an operating unit and which reflect favorably on the Department. Silver Medals are awarded for exceptional performance characterized by noteworthy or superlative contributions that have a direct and lasting impact within the Department.

There are many deserving employees in the International Trade Administration (ITA), and it is extremely important to take the time to recognize them.

Please note that the following Departmental policies should continue to guide the nomination process:

To warrant a Gold or Silver Medal a contribution must focus on qualitative and quantitative performance measures cited in the Department's Strategic Plan.

Nominations must be identified in one of the following categories: (1) Leadership, (2) Personal and Professional Excellence, (3) Scientific/Engineering Achievement, (4) Organizational Development, (5) Customer Service, (6) Administrative/Technical Support, or (7) Heroism. For further details refer to Attachment A.

Nominations must reflect the broad spectrum of employees. All employees are to be given equal consideration based on their contributions for any of the seven categories. Neither an individual's occupation nor grade is to be used to screen out potential nominees in this process. The Department has indicated that nominations that do not reflect this broad spectrum will be returned for reconsideration.

Nominations received by the Department will undergo clearance by the Office of Inspector General, General Counsel, Security, Human Resources, and Civil Rights in order to ensure that no adverse information would preclude medal recognition. These offices will advise the Departmental Incentive Awards Board in determining that each nominee has demonstrated qualities of strength, leadership, integrity, industry, and personal conduct of a level that would merit Gold or Silver recognition.

- Groups are limited to 10 members. Nominations with more than 10 group members must be submitted as an organizational award;
- Joint organizational awards are limited to 3 organizational units;
- An individual may only be nominated once either as an individual or as a member of a group;
- Only Commerce employees may be nominated (contractors, private citizens, and employees of other federal agencies are not eligible);
- The leader of a group cannot be singled out for an individual nomination while the remainder of the group is submitted as a group nomination;
and
- Only an employee with a level 3 or higher (or equivalent) rating is eligible to be nominated

In preparing your nomination narratives, please put the emphasis on the significance of the individual/group/organizational accomplishment. The intent is to provide an overview of the importance of the contribution. The response should focus on the value of the accomplishment in concrete, results-oriented terms.

Note: Only those accomplishments which were completed by the submission date (contact your Unit Awards Committee Chairperson for the date, see bottom of this page for Chairperson list) may be submitted as a nomination.  Some projects or programs are long-term and require more time to achieve results. For example, a project might have started one year and a half ago and just recently realized results. Now that the project has been completed and results achieved, a nomination can be submitted.

Nominations are to be prepared by the immediate supervisor using the attached criteria and categories (Attachment A) and template (Attachment B). All nominations must adhere to the citation requirements (Attachment C). The supervisor and the Deputy Assistant Secretary should then submit the completed template as an e-mail attachment to the Unit Award Committee Chairperson (see bottom of this page for Chairperson list) by each unit's internal deadline. Contact your Unit Award Committe Chairperson for details.

Questions should be directed to your Award Committe Chairperson. Please note, because of the short turnaround time on getting the nominations to the Department of Commerce Awards Committee, no extensions will be granted.

Attachments:
A: Categories of Awards and Recognition
B: Honor Award Submission Format
C: Citation Requirements

Steps in the process:

• Nominations are submitted to Unit Awards Committee Chair as announced in the nomination ITA Announcement;
• Unit Awards Committee forwards recommendations to the appropriate business unit Assistant Secretary for approval;
• Each Unit Award Chairperson electronically forwards nominations endorsed by their Assistant Secretary (or Acting) to Tina Agoo at Christine.Agoo@trade.gov;
• The ITA Medal Awards Committee votes on nominations and forwards recommendations to the Under Secretary for concurrence;
• Nominations endorsed by the Under Secretary are entered by the Office of Strategic Resources into the Honor Awards Nomination System for Departmental Awards Board consideration. Once in the system, the Department receives ITA's endorsed nominations. Please note that any of ITA's endorsed nominations by the Under Secretary to the Department that do not win a Gold or Silver Medal will automatically receive an ITA Bronze Medal for Distinguished Performance.
• Winners of the Gold and Silver Medals will be announced as soon as the Department notifies ITA.

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UNIT AWARDS COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS

 

 

Chairperson/Business Unit	Extension	Room#
Sylvia Prosak - MAS	1976	3215
Keith Roth - MAC	5012	2320
Lesley Elouaradia - US	3917	3842
Ruben Pedroza - Admin	3072	2006
John Larsen - CS	5455	C100
Steve Presing - IA	1672	2845

 

Awards Coordinator:	Tina Agoo	x4856	Room 2006

 

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For more information you can contact Tina Agoo by emailing at christine.agoo@mail.doc.gov or calling 202-482-4856.