SIGAda Awards Process

1. The SIGAda Secretary (as Webmaster) updates the SIGAda Awards web page with any new information necessary for the current year's upcoming SIGAda Conference.
2. Approximately 6 MONTHS before the upcoming SIGAda Conference -- make sure that at least 8 statuettes are in stock. If not, then place an order for another lot of 10 statuettes (approximately $2500 should be budgeted for this contingency). The point-of-contact is Hal Hart or the artist, Beth Maki (818-507-1743), for the specifics of stockpiling and reordering these statuettes. [As of summer 2003, we had about 10 in stock, in Hal's storage room; towards the end of the summer, I think he ordered some more.]
3. Approximately 12 WEEKS before the upcoming SIGAda Conference -- the SIGAda Chair sends an email message to SIGAda-Announce, Team-Ada, and comp.lang.ada, soliciting nominations (these nominations should be sent to SIGAda-Award@ACM.Org); the due date for these nominations is approximately 6 weeks later.
4. Approximately 8 WEEKS before the upcoming SIGAda Conference -- as a reminder, the SIGAda Chair sends another email message to SIGAda-Announce, Team-Ada, and comp.lang.ada, soliciting nominations (these nominations should be sent to SIGAda-Award@ACM.Org); the due date for these nominations is now approximately 2 weeks later.
5. Approximately 6 WEEKS before the upcoming SIGAda Conference -- the SIGAda Chair sends an email message to the voters (past winners of the individual categories) about the balloting process (the actual list of email addresses of past winners should be in the BCC: part of the email message) [perhaps include a template message for both categories?].
6. Approximately 6 WEEKS before the upcoming SIGAda Conference, immediately after the email message sent in the above process step (no later than the day after) -- the Awards Committee sends an email message to the voters with the names of the nominations for their particular categories so that they can vote (the actual list of email addresses of voters should be in the BCC: part of the email message).
7. Approximately 4 WEEKS before the upcoming SIGAda Conference -- the actual voting takes place. Only those who are past winners in each of the two categories can vote, but only for people *only* in the category in which they have been a winner; voters can vote for as many nominees in their own category as they desire.
8. Approximately 3 WEEKS before the upcoming SIGAda Conference -- the Awards Committee counts the votes using the 2/3 vote rule with no more than three winners in each category (unless there's a tie for third place): winners are *only* those nominees who have received a total number of votes greater than or equal to 2/3 of all votes cast, unless nobody obtains the necessary 2/3 count in which case only the single highest vote-getter receives an Award. This timing gives a relatively "safe" amount of time for the engraving of the plates to be placed on the statuettes (without any unnecessary rush). Note that a wooden base should be taken to the artist's when placing the engraving order to assure that the plaques fit properly (over the past several years, we have used at least three different heights and widths).
9. At the SIGAda Conference, the SIGAda Chair leads the presentation of the awards, usually with other members of the SIGAda Awards Committee.
10. Immediately after the SIGAda Conference -- the SIGAda Chair distributes individual announcements of winning and congratulations to each winner who did not attend the conference and its awards ceremony; the distribution is done either via email (if email address is known) or through normal mail. In this same mailing, the SIGAda Chair requests a Shipping Address from each winner so that the appropriate statuettes can be shipped to them.
11. Immediately after the SIGAda Conference -- the SIGAda Chair writes the annual letter bragging on winners, describing the accomplishments of each one, (and kicking off the following year's nominations) for Ada Letters.
12. Immediately after the SIGAda Conference -- the SIGAda Chair sends an email message to SIGAda-Announce and Team-Ada (perhaps comp.lang.ada), referencing the upcoming issue of Ada Letters for the descriptions of the accomplishments of each winner.
13. Immediately after the SIGAda Conference -- the SIGAda Secretary (as Webmaster) updates the SIGAda Awards web page with the new winners of the Awards (and possibly any new information necessary for next year's SIGAda Conference).
14. After the SIGAda Conference, when Shipping Addresses are received for those award winners who did not attend the conference, the Awards Holder will then mail the appropriate award statuettes to the appropriate winners.