October 2007 Issue
Honouring APEGGA’s Best
A new Association manager weighs in on the great acheivements recognized each year at the Summit Awards — and calls on members to send in their nominations now
BY ALLAN BARTOLCIC
Manager, Member Affairs
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Being a new manager at APEGGA gives me an excuse to walk around its offices
in a state of awe. This is an interesting and dynamic organization, currently
with over 50,000 members to go along with a broad and far-reaching mandate. It’s
all very impressive.
Particularly extraordinary, from my uninitiated perspective, are the Summit Awards. Looking over lists of past and recent winners, I can’t help but notice the importance and prominence of APEGGA professionals and their projects.
It’s a good thing I’m impressed. The Honours and Awards Committee falls under my department, and this is the group of your peers that chooses, each year, which nominations rise to the top to be awarded APEGGA’s highest honours.
If you sense a pitch coming on, here it is.
We’ve extended the official deadline for nominations for the 2008 Summit Awards to Oct. 31. Such extensions are nothing unusual, I’m told, so I’m certain more nominations are on their way.
It’s obvious from the lists of winners that we always get great names and achievements to choose from. And it’s also obvious many of them come to our attention at the last minute.
Well, by my watch the last minute has arrived, so this is my personal appeal to encourage you to send in a nomination now.
Why are nominations important? The simple answer is this: because the awards themselves are important.
They’re important to your peers. They’re important in promoting professionalism and the top achievements professionalism generates. They’re important in giving all members an example of the greatness they can aspire to. And they’re important in raising the profile of the professions beyond the organization.
The Summit Awards Gala is held in conjunction with the APEGGA Annual Conference,
each April. Winners are recognized in front of 1,000 or more corporate, Association,
academic and other leaders.
A committee of managers, before I arrived on the scene, came up with initiatives
to generate nominations. In-house ads and PEGG stories running this
year are part of that strategy.
Some of The PEGG stories on the awards — this year and in past years — have been picked up by other publications, in Canada and abroad. That speaks to the importance of the people and projects who receive Summit Awards.
Two features on winners appear in this month’s PEGG on pages 14 and 15. And we’ve put links on the Summit Awards area of the website to earlier stories.
This is all about creating a higher profile for the work, professionalism and imagination of your careers. A desire to heighten that profile is nothing new. In fact back in 1991, APEGGA created the Summit Awards for exactly that reason.
The Association had an awards program before then, but that’s the year when the trademarked name came into effect. APEGGA gave the awards a new prominence and tied them to the gala events that continue today, alternating each year between the two major Alberta cities.
There’s already a bit of extra buzz for 2008. We’ve increased our promotion of the Summit Awards, in The PEGG and beyond. In addition, Council has approved the new Outstanding Mentor Award, which we hope increases the appeal of the awards to a larger member audience than ever.
Check out the More Info box with this story and prepare a nomination package now.
MORE INFORMATION
The Summit Series
Page 14 and 15
Call for Nominations
Page 13
Nomination Package
www.apegga.org