NACAA Communication Award Program Rules Clarification

The Communications Award program committee would like to clarify a few rules for each member to consider prior to submitting award applications/abstracts this year.

 

Our rules in the County Agent Magazine say, "Entries must have been used by the member between March 15, 2013 and March 15, 2014." This rule is straightforward for most of the categories. 

It is important to note that we want to know when the piece was USED FIRST WITH AN AUDIENCE, not necessarily when it  was WRITTEN or PUBLISHED.  Therefore the published date is not necessarily within the time frame of March 15, 2013 to March 15, 2014.  Often times it is impossible to write, publish, and  introduce a piece to an audience plus determine impact in a 12 month period.   We ask people in the abstract how it was used, what the impact was, etc. That speaks to the USE of the piece not the PUBLICATION of the piece. 

 

What does this mean?

If the publication date falls outside the program year dates in the County Agent, but the piece was first used in programming within the program year, please provide an explanation addressing this in your abstract.  If it is not addressed in the abstract, the judge(s ) might not give you the benefit of doubt when he/she sees the publication date on the item. 

 

Additionally, the score sheets have changed this year to reflect the importance of the abstract.  Please follow the rules and the sample format for all NACAA abstracts on page 13 of the County Agent magazine.  It is imperative that your abstract is done this way. The score sheets are available on the NACAA website for your convenience.

 

Extension editors and/or other paraprofessional Extension Communication specialists are not eligible.  Communications Committee State, Regional and National Chairs are not eligible to participate in this program unless they are one member of a team entry with another person as the primary entrant.    (We receive this question quite frequently)

 

Class 2 Published Photo, Class 5 personal column and Class 7 - Individual newsletter,  are open to individual entries only.  All other classes are open to entries from one or more NACAA members.

 

As always, the Communications Committee members are  willing to answer any questions you have.  Please don't hesitate to give us a call or an email with your particular situation. 

 

It is our pleasure to showcase the talents of our colleagues from across the country through this prestigious competition.  You all do good work and we want to show it off!

 

 

 

 

Sherri Sanders
County Extension Agent - Agriculture
White County
Office: 501-268-5394
Cell: 501-230-9972