What is the Community Achievement Award (CAA)?
The STC Community Achievement Award exists to recognize our communities for providing outstanding member services, modeling success, fostering innovation, encouraging collaboration, and ultimately serving the members of STC. This award honors STC communities that have achieved success by offering their members the best possible STC experience.
There are four levels of recognition: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. An award of Bronze means that a community is running properly and providing programs and services that further the mission of the Society. Silver, Gold, and Platinum awards are given to communities that go above and beyond the minimum requirements. Awards are based on a point system that is defined in the Guidelines document found at www.stc.org/community-achievement-awards/.
The CAAs will be presented at the 2017 STC Summit in National Harbor, MD, just minutes outside of Washington, DC.
Who Should Apply for the Award?
All STC communities (Chapters, SIGs, and Student Chapters) should apply for this award! There is a single application that has been created to accommodate the different community types.
Earning a CAA means that you have a successful community. You can post the award banner on your website, brochure, or other communications. It gives your community credibility, and people are more likely to join your community if you have a good track record.
Why Should You Apply?
Take advice from community leaders who have applied for CAA and used it for community planning:
“Completing the CAA for our community is important for the following reasons:
- It helps us keep track of our accomplishments
- It also helps us identify opportunities for improvement
- Most of all, completing the CAA helps us formally recognize all our volunteers who work hard to make our community successful.”
—Jamye Sagan, Past Co-Manager, IDL SIG
“NEO STC has earned a Community Achievement Award from the Society for over ten years for its outstanding service to members.
These distinctions:
- Are impressive to spotlight on our NEO chapter website, include in marketing and promotional materials, and use for volunteer recruitment
- Can attract nonmembers to check out chapter programs, and make them into potential future members
- Give the NEO chapter members a level of pride about their chapter. No matter what your level of participation is in the chapter, each NEO member plays a role in making these achievements come to fruition. “
—Janean Voss, Past President, Northeast Ohio Chapter
Tips for Applying
Plan Ahead: While it’s too late to begin planning for the 2016 year, use the award criteria as a success plan to run your community in 2017. Assign a community member to keep track of accomplishments, and have council/board members report to that individual when they have accomplished something. An immediate past president/manager is often a good choice for keeping track of accomplishments.
Take credit where credit is due: Thoroughly read through the application and guidelines and make sure to take credit for all of the accomplishments of your community. If you are in doubt about an activity, feel free to reach out to the CAA chair with your questions.
Use Innovative Activities: If your community is doing activities you believe should count on your application, include a description of those items in the Innovation section of the application.
What’s New This Year?
The application and guidelines documents have been completely revised and simplified.*
*Note: After the initial presentation of the new application at the 2015 Summit, the committee made significant changes in response to community leaders’ concerns. If you have not seen the latest version, please take a look.
There is now a single, shorter application regardless of community type (some minor alterations are made to point values for individual line items based on community type).
The number of activities has been pared down to the core amount that the board feels is necessary for running a successful community.
Communities receive awards on points earned, and the award levels are spelled out clearly on the application. There are no individual award sections (besides required activities) to complete. Communities are judged on standard criteria and, as always, communities are not in competition with each other.
There is a new bonus section where communities can earn extra points in addition to the base points for going “above and beyond.”
Get More Information
The CAA Application and the CAA Guidelines for 2015 Activities can be found on the STC website at www.stc.org/community-achievement-awards/.
Questions?
Contact the Community Achievement Awards evaluation committee (CAAEC) chair, MaryKay Grueneberg, at: marykay.stc@gmail.com.
