Background: The MidAmerica GIS Consortium, Ltd. (MAGIC) is a nonprofit educational organization established to foster the applications of geographic information systems (GIS) and related spatial technologies in the mid-continent region.
In 1998 the MidAmerica GIS Consortium initiated a series of awards to recognize and honor public agencies, firms, organizations and individuals that have made especially noteworthy contributions to advancing the state-of-the-art and application of geographic information technologies in MidAmerica. These biennial awards are presented at each MidAmerica GIS Symposium. Awards may be presented in any of the following categories:
Lifetime & Special Achievement Awards
These awards were originally intended as recognition for the founders of the MAGIC Consortium. They continue as a means of recognizing exceptional MAGIC members / organizations who’ve contributed to the MAGIC experience for extended periods consistently above and beyond the contributions of their peers. Lifetime and Special Achievement awards are infrequently awarded.
Symposium Awards
Best Poster
Best Student Poster
These awards are conferred at the end of each biennial symposium to recognize outstanding contributions to the content of that symposium. They are based on the voting results of the attendees at the symposium.
Consortium Awards
GIS Coordination
GIS Service
GIS Innovation
These awards will be presented during the initial plenary session. Awards may be conferred in any or all categories during a biennium. In unusual circumstances, the MAGIC Awards Committee may recommend that more than one award be presented in a category.
MAGIC Awards Subcommittee
The awards subcommittee consists of a chair named by the Symposium Chair to coordinate the MAGIC awards. It is the final responsibility of the chair that the appropriate awards are ordered, paid for and presented at the symposium and that information on awardees is archived. The chair will form a committee of volunteers from amongst the member states. The committee’s business will primarily be conducted via email. That business will consist of award coordination (web nomination forms), aggregation of nominations for each member state’s review, award design selection / pricing and recommending changes to these procedures to the Steering Committee. Selection or voting for nominees will not occur on this subcommittee" unless they are MAGIC Steering committee members (who may be called on to make a final decision after two rounds of voting by the states – see "Consortium Awards – voting for nominees" below).
Process for MAGIC Awards Decisions
Nominations for MAGIC awards will be made and evaluated using the following processes:
Lifetime & Special Achievement Awards
Lifetime & Special Achievement awards may be presented at any given symposium to especially deserving individuals or organizations as determined by the MAGIC Steering Committee and coordinated by the MAGIC Awards Sub-committee. Nominations must be made by Steering Committee members via email to the Consortium Chair or the Awards Sub-committee Chair NLT COB, August 1st of the year prior to the spring symposium. Upon the closing of nominations in this category the MAGIC Steering Committee (with the exception of potential awardees) will be advised via email of those so nominated and provided a ballot that – when returned – will indicate their support/non-support for specific candidates to receive the award. A successful candidate must receive a super majority affirmation by MAGIC steering committee members. The Awards sub-committee chair will aggregate the ballots and report back to the Steering Committee on the names of those to be award recipients in this category.
Symposium Awards
All individuals or groups who provide a poster for the symposium are considered nominees for one or the other of these awards. Voting ballots are provided to each attendee with the registration materials at the symposium, and ballot boxes are placed at strategic locations (e.g. in the poster gallery and at the registration desk) throughout the entire symposium. Voting reminders are announced several times during the course of the symposium. The MAGIC awards subcommittee is responsible for tallying the votes immediately before the final symposium assembly, and the winner in each category is announced following the final symposium meal. Note: A poster may be registered in one or the other of the categories – but not both!
Best Poster
The Symposium’s "Best Poster" award is presented to the individual or group whose poster from the symposium poster exhibition receiving the most votes by symposium attendees.
Best Student Poster
The Symposium’s "Best Student Poster" award is presented to the student or group of students whose poster from the symposium poster exhibition receiving the most votes by symposium attendees. Student/students – currently registered as such – must submit their posters in this category in order to be considered for this award.
Consortium Awards
Nominees for these awards may be individuals, groups or entities. Using the online nomination form, nominators should clearly outline the nature of the contribution being honored. The awards are voted on by the state caucuses (see below), and presented on the first day of the symposium.
GIS Coordination Nominees have demonstrated outstanding contributions to GIS Coordination benefiting their community in the MidAmerica region during the past two years. Contributions may have been through leadership, technical innovation or regional consensus building.
GIS Service Nominees have demonstrated outstanding contributions to GIS Service benefiting their community in the MidAmerica region during the past two years. Contributions may have been through education, outreach, training, applications, projects or by successfully accomplishing grants that benefit their communities.
GIS Innovation Nominees have demonstrated an outstanding innovation using GIS technologies in the MidAmerica region during the past two years. Contributions may have been through applications or projects that reflect creative utilization of GIS.
Consortium Awards – Nominations
Nominations will be made via the MAGIC web site;
http://www.magicgis.org/symposiums/2010/awards.cfm
In unusual circumstances nominations may also be made by email to awards sub-committee members as long as all other nomination requirements are met (see Additional procedures – #4 below).
Nominations will be tracked via a web database and packaged for review and voting by the awards sub-committee and distributed to each member state (see below).
Examples of nominees include:
? Local, State, Regional, Tribal, or National GIS coordinating bodies
? Agency and inter-agency coordinating groups
? Clearinghouses
? E-Gov websites utilizing GIS
? Any GIS organization providing excellent customer service
? K-12 Schools
? Colleges and Universities
? Continuing Education
? Private education organizations
? In-house education efforts
? Individuals performing GIS tasks projects having a significant impact to MAGIC regional populations.
Project Teams performing GIS tasks projects having a significant impact to MAGIC regional populations.
Consortium Awards – voting for nominees
After nominations are closed the awards sub-committee will package the nominations with a ballot form to each MAGIC member state. Note: organizations/persons honored with a Consortium award become ineligible for subsequent awards (in any category) until passage of a period of 6 years. Therefore, all nominations are reviewed for eligibility before they are included in the voting packages. Also, any given individual or organization can only be nominated in one award category. If an individual or organization is nominated in more than one category, it is the responsibility of the Awards committee to review the multiple nominations and only include the most appropriate one in the nomination packages.
The packages will be delivered electronically to each member state’s director or primary POC. Upon delivery each state director or primary POC will determine how their state will caucus to vote for each award category. This process must be completed by February 15 of the Symposium year. Results will be forwarded to awards sub-committee chair. The awards subcommittee will determine if a run-off is required and redistribute only those nominations requiring run-off votes to the state POCs.
If – after a second round of voting – an award or awards are still not determined the subcommittee will pass the appropriate nomination materials to the MAGIC Executive committee who will make any final decisions.
Results will be reported to the Consortium, Symposium and Awards chairs and awards ordered accordingly.
Additional procedures
1. Awards are conferred at the biennial MidAmerica GIS Symposium; honorees are presented with an engraved award and are recognized in published materials (e.g., symposium program), on the MAGIC WWW site and at a plenary event during the symposia.
2. A call-for-nominations for consortium awards will be issued no later than December 1st of the year prior to each symposium; nominations must be received no later than COB -January 1st. Nominations will be made via the Consortium’s web site which will be opened the same day the call for nominations is made.
3. Nominations for Consortium awards are explicitly solicited from state GIS organizations affiliated with MAGIC, past honorees and other MAGIC-affiliated organizations (e.g., corporate members); individuals may also submit nominations.
4. Nominations must include the following: – name, address, phone, fax and e-mail addresses of nominee (must include information for both the organization/firm nominated and an individual contact person) name, address, phone, fax and e-mail addresses of nominating individual or group, a WWW address for the nominee’s home page if available, a description of the nominee’s record of achievements, accomplishments, contributions or other qualifications for the award (not to exceed three pages) and the category of award (e.g., Coordination, Innovation, Service etc.).
5. Nominations received will be aggregated and packaged by the MAGIC Awards Sub-committee appointed by the MAGIC Executive Committee for each symposium; final decisions for Consortium awards will be approved by the Executive Committee no later than March 1 of each year in which a symposium is held.