2012 AAFCS Award, Grant, Fellowship & Scholarship Programs Message from the Awards and Recognition Committee Chair It’s hard to believe the AAFCS award, grant, fellowship, and scholarship program has come so far since the Board decided in late 2006 to approve a one-time project to study and streamline all processes of the program. At that time, applications and nominations were being collected by snail mail; now, most are online. This gives submitters more time to complete their work, creates an electronic “receipt” for each submission, requires less labor than processing paper, and provides jurors with instant access to their work.Additionally, the Finance Committee created an even-year/odd-year schedule, and staff designed a new “awards micro-website” (Recognition section of the AAFCS website) to provide current and future information based on this new schedule. The alternating year schedule allows the principal in each fund to grow and decreases administrative costs. Any member wishing to see what is being offered in the current program year or what will be offered in the following year can visit the Recognition section at any time. Two of the nicest features of the new award, grant, fellowship, and scholarship program are membership retention and conference participation. Anyone who wins a funded award, grant, fellowship, or scholarship receives one complimentary year of membership and up to $1,000 for registering for and traveling to the AAFCS Annual Conference. By giving away memberships and helping to pay conferences expenses, we have thanked many current members and have welcomed a number of accomplished new young members. Greater convenience, lower costs, added stability, extra benefits. . . plus more money given away: last year, the award, grant, fellowship, and scholarship program was able to award 94% of the money it offered—the highest in years, and up significantly from the low of 54% in 2006! What’s next? Your AAFCS Awards and Recognition Committee is currently working at updating the 2012 award, grant, fellowship, and scholarship documents and posting them here in the Recognition section. Please continue to explore the new Recognition section of the AAFCS website for more information, including guidelines and forms. Leigh Southward, Ph.D., CFCS, University of Arkansas, School of Human Environmental Sciences Questions? Take a look at our frequently asked questions page. Interested in serving as a juror? (click here to read Frequently Asked Question #41). Please note:
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