Just so you know we pay attention, three important concerns have popped up about the Schueler Compass Award, the award recently announced at the AdvoConnection conference. These concerns came in the form of replies to the survey we took after the conference was over. Since the surveys were completed anonymously, and since comments expressed by one person may represent the thoughts of many, we’ll address them here, publicly, on the blog.
Concern 1: Posted among the survey results about the conference in general was the following:
There was alot of conversation about the KS awards going to 2 members who will be on this board. Most individuals I spoke to felt that if these 2 women were chosen, then they should not have been on the board to choose the candidates.
My response to this question: I had hoped to be very clear during the conference announcement that the first three winners of the award were chosen only by Alexandra Schueler, Ken’s daughter, and me (Trisha Torrey). Our goal for the first winners was to find the people who, first, would illustrate the ideals the award stands for, and second, were good friends of Ken’s. Further, we needed to address the balance of clinical and non-clinical advocates. We hoped they would accept the award, and then agree to serve on the committee to choose subsequent winners.
And that’s exactly what happened. Further, none of the three of them knew they were receiving the award until the day of the conference. If you know any of them well, they were as surprised as anyone was!
Concern 2: From the same comment above, it continued:
It was not clear what the criteria was for the award & it seems to make sense to have the candidate also be someone who does a lot of volunteer advocacy… Just some thoughts, but I believe some ideas should go out to the Premium Members… Several experienced advocates seemed very disturbed by the way this award was handled…
The criteria are clearly spelled out on the website and on the application. Of course, at the conference, due to time constraints, we listed only the titles for each of the attributes.
As for whether volunteerism should be included as one of the important attributes: it’s good feedback and by all means, volunteerism can be considered in another year by the committee. For now, if you want to include volunteer advocacy on your application, then do so in either the Empowerment or Community Visibility descriptions.
Concern 3: Time. The original deadline for application for the Schueler Compass Award was December 1, giving advocates about one month to apply. Complaints were made that we aren’t allowing enough time, especially with looming holidays… and because we don’t want someone to miss applying due to time constraints, we are moving the deadline to January 15, 2012, providing an additional six weeks. You may nominate yourself (which is what we expect most of you will do) or you may nominate someone else. The dates for decision-making and subsequent public announcements have been moved forward to accommodate for the new application deadline, too.
I hope this clarifies these concerns. The award is meant to honor both the winners and Ken, too – but another important intent is to set a lofty bar for others to aspire to. Recognizing individuals for their achievement of these high ideals elevates the entire profession.
We hope you’ll make application soon to be considered for the Schueler Patient Advocacy Compass Award.
