Open Letter from the National Awards Committee

The National Awards Committee would like to take time to provide the members of Kin Canada some background on the recent changes to the Awards Program.

The changes that were presented at National Convention were not made at the spur of the moment nor without careful thought and consideration. The National Awards Committee began looking at “overhauling” the entire awards program two and a half years ago. We began our research by gathering information on how many submissions have been made to each award over the years. Unfortunately we found that the number of submissions have declined each year. Next we began looking at the quality of the submission. A very unfortunate reality is that almost half of all submissions submitted from the Districts were ineligible, as they didn’t make the mandatory requirements.  We also talked to Judges who have been gracious enough to give up time with family to judge the National Awards. They were very dismayed that they were spending countless hours to judge these awards just to find out that they were out of contention due to the mandatory requirements. Specifically the Bulletin award was singled out. The Public Relations award was also very frustrating, as it had just become a Scrapbook rather than being filled with public relations materials as mandated.  Two years ago the awards criteria was changed to include the fact that it is not to be a scrapbook, but this fell on deaf ears and did not improve the situation.

A thread was posted on Kin2Kin to get member consultation, unfortunately, this resulted in less than 20 responses. After the presentation at National Convention on the proposed changes, only one letter was received and three people meet with the National Awards Chair even though it was clearly stated that the two Awards Committee members present were there to listen, answer questions and address any concerns. With the lack of response, the Committee took this to mean that the membership just wasn’t that interested/concerned with the changes.  All comments/concerns that were received were passed onto the Committee for consideration, as is any feedback or concerns.  We felt that making changes to the Awards Program would be crucial for its survival.  The Committee is currently working on bringing the program into alignment with the Vision 2020 strategy map. We are working on a Communications Award to encompass all manners of Communications including Bulletin and PR.

As to why these changes were made without a vote by the membership, the reason is very simple. The Awards program is not in our General Operating By-Laws and as such a vote is not needed to make changes. As the program is part of the operational aspect of the Association it doesn’t need to go before the Board of Directors. It is instead placed before the Executive Director or his designate at National Headquarters.

We apologize to those members who feel that they were not advised of the changes before hand and ask that you send you comments, questions and concerns directly to the Committee by emailing to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . If we do not hear from the members directly we cannot address the issues.

Yours In Kin,

Penny Lees-Smith,

National Awards Committee Chair on behalf of the National Awards Committee

 Jan 1, 2010

 Announcement

 FLC 2010

It gives me great pleasure to announce the

Winning bid for Fall Leadership 2010

to the Kinette Club of St. Anthony’s NF.

Fellow Kin please book time off to come

Experience what will be an

FLC of a Lifetime.

Congratulations ladies.

Vice Governor Brenda and the Celebrating Heroes team