Purpose of the Awards Program:  The Outstanding Conservation District Professional and Outstanding Conservation District Board Member awards are presented annually to recognize professionalism and dedication in the people behind the nation’s conservation district programs.  The program began in 1998.

 

Eligibility:  All District Employee Professional nominees must have been employed for three (3) years by their District at the time the nomination is filed with the appropriate state and/or regional organizations.  All District Board Member nominees must have four (4) years of board service at the time the nomination is filed with the appropriate state and/or regional organizations. Applications that have been submitted in the past, and were not winners, may be resubmitted.

 

Current NCDEA Board members or candidates for the NCDEA Board of Directors are not eligible to be nominated for the Outstanding District Professional Award until at least one year after they have left the Board of Directors or are no longer a candidate for the NCDEA Board of Directors.

 

Nomination Process:  Nominations may be submitted by conservation district employees, conservation district employee associations, conservation district boards, state conservation agencies, NRCS, NACD, and other associated conservation professionals.  Through its conservation district employee association, each state (or province) is eligible to submit one entry to its respective NCDEA region for each of the two awards: an employee and a board member.  If a state does not have an employee association, interested persons should contact their regional NCDEA representative for submission instructions.  Each region is eligible to submit one entry to the NCDEA Awards Program Chair for each of the two awards.  All material submitted becomes property of NCDEA. Decisions of evaluating committees are final and not subject to appeal.  Past national winners are ineligible.

 

Nomination Deadlines:  Submit all nominations to the respective state employees association by the date determined by each State Association.  If your state does not have an employees association, submit directly to the regional board member. All states must submit nominations to the regional level by October 1, 2024.  All regions must submit nominations to the national level by November 15, 2024. These regional nominations should be sent to the NCDEA Executive Director at 1679 S. Dupont Highway, Dover, DE 19901; or by email to executivedirector@ncdea.org.  National winners will be notified by December 1, 2023.

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Note to Nominator:  These awards are judged solely on the basis of the written information provided.   Nominations need to be written clearly, and with specificity.  NCDEA urges the nominator to go over the nomination form after it is written and check for accuracy, adding any items or thoughts he or she wishes to include in their nomination. 

 

All questions should be answered in a bulleted format.   A narrative should be included at the bottom of the application to go into more detail about the nominee’s qualifications.

Narratives should be doubled spaced and no more than two pages.

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Presentation of the National Awards:  The national award winners will each receive a plaque.  A news release will be sent to the winner’s local paper and a letter to the winners board announcing their achievement.  The national award(s) will be presented at the NACD Annual Meeting at a time to be determined and made aware to the awardee each year.  Winners will be encouraged to attend, but are NOT required to be present to accept their awards.

 

The award recipient’s name will be kept confidential until time to announce the awards during the NCDEA annual business meeting held during the NACD Annual Conference if at all feasible.

 

Other:  The Evaluating Committee and NCDEA reserve the right not to award a winner if they feel the criteria has not been met by the nominations provided.

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Awards Program Contact People are the regional board members whose contact information is on the NCDEA website under “Regions” https://ncdea.us/regions

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NCDEA encourages all states to participate in this awards program