By Jason Meeder, APCO Awards Committee
The APCO International Public Safety Communications Awards Program presents awards for seven different categories each year at the yearly conference. The website is now open for nominations for the following categories:
- Telecommunicator of the Year
- Line Supervisor of the Year
- Radio Frequency Technologist of the Year
- Communication Center Director of the Year
- Information Technologist of the Year
- Trainer of the Year
- Team of the Year
Each year APCO’s Awards Committee has the honor of recognizing the achievements of APCO members from across the country and the excellent work done each year by members of the public safety telecommunication sector. Over the past couple of years, however, the awards committee has noticed a decline in nominations in each of the above categories. Our goal this year is to increase the number of nominations and continue to be able to recognize the hardworking individuals in our industry.
Telecommunicators do not get a lot of recognition for the hard work we all do on a daily basis. We are not in the media 24/7 being praised for working hard to apprehend a suspect in a robbery or for our involvement in assisting a family member in administering CPR. However, all these things are a part of our everyday job and we should take the time to recognize our co-workers, friends and work-family members. Public safety telecommunicators work days, nights and weekends – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure the safety of their user agencies and the public. We give up time with family and friends during holidays and special events to ensure this work in completed in a professional manner. Please take some time to check out the APCO awards web pages (www.apcointl.org/awards) and consider submitting a nomination for a worthy co-worker that does an outstanding job every day.
Here are a couple of things to consider while filling out each section of the nomination. Remember that this is your chance to brag about your co-worker and express how much they put into the job. While the members of the committee that score the awards are part of the public safety communications world, not all agencies are the same nor do they all do the same exact work. While writing your nomination, write as if you are explaining to someone that does not work in the industry why this co-worker deserves the award. Be descriptive; we would not be on the committee if we did not want to hear others brag about their co-workers – more is always a good thing.
The year 2020 was a hard year for everyone in one way or another, and there are many people that went above and beyond to make their agencies successful. I can say from experience that being nominated and winning an award at the APCO International level is a great feeling. I was nominated and won Line Supervisor of the Year for 2020 and will be receiving my award in Texas in August 2021. None of us do our jobs for the recognition or because we want to be on the nightly news, but we should still go out of our way to highlight the hard workers in the industry and celebrate their accomplishments and contributions to the profession.
The members of the awards committee encourage everyone to take the time to review the award nominations process. Considering the people you work with on a daily basis, who do you feel sets the standard for your agency or handled a major event with professionalism and grace. Take the time to nominate them and get the recognition they deserve from others in the industry.
