Friend of IEEE Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) Awards
These awards are to specifically recognize support provided to IEEE and its members, in support of its goals, by firms, divisions of firms, or individuals. Nominators can submit individuals or organizations for a Friend Award at the supporting or sustaining level.
Individual award
The awards are given to those individuals who have provided recurrent or unusually intense help to a member volunteer of IEEE. Recipients of this award are not eligible for IEEE membership; typical recipients might be administrative assistants, fellow workers who are not engineers, local business people, etc.
Organizational award
This award is provided to those companies or divisions of a company that encourage volunteerism through their practices. In particular, the atmosphere created by the company should be to facilitate the IEEE volunteer to do his or her job. Support may include:
- Time off to travel to IEEE meetings
- Full or partial reimbursement of travel and/or per diem
- Offering company space to conduct IEEE meetings
- Encouraging and/or promoting membership in professional organizations
- Underwriting all or a portion of IEEE dues for its members
- Supporting the volunteer by permitting free or discounted use of company resources for such things as telephone, fax, email, or printing newsletters and/or other circulars
Supporting award
In general, the proposed recipient should have a long (minimum of one full year) history of providing support to the volunteer. Supporting Friend awards can be made for truly extraordinary examples of singular events—for example, assistance provided to host an IEEE conference or meeting.
Nominators must wait at least one year from receipt of the Supporting Friend award before they can resubmit the same recipient for another Friend award.
Sustaining award
Recipients of these awards:
- Must meet all of the conditions of the Supporting Friend award
- Must have demonstrated this support for a minimum period of three years
- Must have won a Supporting Friend award at least once during the period in question, usually three to five years
Sustaining Friend awards are not given for singular events; nominators must wait at least three years from receipt of the Sustaining Friend award before they can resubmit the same recipient for another Sustaining Friend of IEEE MGA award. However, recipients can be resubmitted for a Supporting award after one year.
Selection and award instrument
- Nominations may be submitted at any time during the year.
- The MGA Awards and Recognition Committee (ARC) will review nominations received during its two selection meetings in June and November.
- MGA ARC recommended recipients will be forwarded to the MGA Board, on behalf of the MGA Member and Engagement Life Cycle Committee amd the MGA ARC, for final approval.
- Nominators will be notified soon after approval.
- Recipients will receive a certificate or specially engraved plaque attesting to the support provided.
- MGA ARC can, at its discretion, downgrade a Sustaining Friend award to a Supporting Friend award if it feels that there is insufficient justification for the higher award; in these cases, the nominator will be contacted and told of the decision. If the nominator chooses, he/she may elect not to present the lesser award and can resubmit the nomination for the higher award with added justification.
Previous MGA award recipients
Nominators are encouraged to view previous recipients to see examples of what support has been awarded in the past.