IABC calls for Expressions of Interest to coordinate 2007 Silver Leaf Awards
(posted April 3, 2007)
IABC Canada East and West Regional boards are seeking Expressions of Interest from professional member project managers or association managers or IABC chapters or the like to supply organizational, project management and administrative services to the 2007 national Silver Leaf Awards program. Deadline is Tuesday, April 10 at 4:30pm EST. Submissions should not exceed two pages.
Background:
The Silver Leaf Awards is Canada’s premiere professional awards program celebrating excellence in business communications. Since 1979, IABC has hosted the annual awards program to offer an opportunity for over 5,000 Canadians (members and non-members) working in all communication disciplines to receive industry recognition for outstanding work. In addition to earning professional recognition, participants receive valuable feedback on their submissions from a panel of experienced judges.
Three issues to consider:
- Traditionally organization of the awards has been managed by a chapter in either region. While chapter have done a good job, complications continue to arise each year in terms of hand off between chapters, tracking of historical documents/data and volunteer management capacity.
- Looking to the IABC International Gold Quill Awards, a highly successful and profitable program for the association, one of the keys to its success is the support it has from a dedicated paid staff person. There is still significant opportunity for volunteer member involvement, in particular on the judging side, but the bulk of the organization/coordination is handled by staff.
- Increasingly, Canadian chapters are participating in either more judging opportunities and/or they continue to judge the same number of programs they’ve always judged but are increasingly busy with other programming to the point where chapters are burning out.
Based on these factors, a new model to manage the Silver Leaf Awards has been adopted. It will see the two regions jointly hire a coordinator to manage the awards for a year-long contract with the possibility of a two-year extension.
Coordinator’s role:
The responsibilities of the coordinator would include, but are not limited to:
- Reporting to and liaising with the regions’ board members responsible for national programs
- With direction from the regions, but on their own initiation, managing the process of running the awards, including establishing timelines, tracking achievements and evaluating results
- Creating marketing materials; promoting the program
- Managing awards submission, registration and payments
- Implementing major sponsorships secured by the regions
- Soliciting minor sponsorships, as required
- In partnership with the region, creating and managing a budget
- Soliciting chapter champions to coordinate chapter judging
- Managing awards delivery, judging and return at both the first-tier and Blue Ribbon panel levels
- Communicating with chapters and individuals about results
- Coordinating the ordering and deliver of awards
- Liaising with regional conference chairs re: award winner recognition
The regions’ roles:
Collectively, for the regions’ part, they will:
- Manage the overall program
- Liaise on the program’s behalf with other regional/national programs that impact Silver Leaf Awards, such as the Master Communicator Awards and the regional conferences (now replacing Canada Conference)
- Liaise with chapters to promote the implementation of an awards judging training program
- Pay the hired coordinator 1/3 of the program’s profits at the end of the program. The remaining profit is split between the two regions.
How to respond:
If you’re interested, please provide the following information within a two-page Expression of Interest in Word or PDF to Suzanna Cohen, Regional Awards Chair, Canada East Region, by Tuesday, April 10 at 4:30pm EST at: scohen@gthba.ca Call 416-391-3450 for more information.
- Name of organization
- Main contact and contact info
- Your company’s and/or its principals’ IABC affiliation and/or history
- List of IABC awards programs entered and/or judged by the proposed coordinator
- IABC accreditation designation
- Examples of two similar programs you’ve coordinated and/or managed including number of participants, scope of the programs (national, local, international), timeframes and the teams you worked with and/or for
- Formal evaluation and/or testimonials you’ve received from clients for whom you’ve done similar work
- How you’d approach this work re: financial management, working relationships and your value proposition
- What you/your organization would bring to the table that others couldn’t
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