| At its meeting in March 1997, General Council asked that supplementary guidelines be developed to assist nominators and members of the National Awards Committee in making and assessing nominations. In reviewing the existing paperwork provided to nominators I have concluded that some refinements should be made which will assist in the preparation of nominations. The revised forms will be presented at the meeting.
In considering the development of supplementary guidelines a number of issues arise. While it is possible to provide more detail for both nominators and assessors which relate to the special characteristics of the candidates, such detail can also be limiting. For example, do we expect that all of the potentially successful candidates would be well-known to the Australian community (ie 'public figures')? How can we define outstanding achievement in a meaningful way?
It is proposed that the documentation should stress a number of matters which may assist in the preparation of nominations without being too prescriptive. These are:
- Highlighting the achievements of past awardees;
- Providing a format for the identification and analysis of specific outstanding service and achievements;
- Requiring written referee reports to accompany nomination (while there are pros and cons to this suggestion they can be debated at the meeting).
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