The Muriel M. Morse Achievement Award is presented to a member of our organization who exemplifies the positive attributes that made Muriel Morse a memorable individual.  Among her many leadership positions, Muriel was President of both Western Region and IPMA-HR.  She retired from the City of Los Angeles as the General Manager, Personnel Department and continued her career as an adjunct professor with the University of Southern California.  Muriel played an important role in the development of excellence in the City’s Personnel Department, but more so in the development of the Personnel Department staff.  She was both a role model and a mentor, and she relished both roles.  She was extremely committed to the profession, professional organizations and the values they bring to the workplace.  She encouraged her staff and students to participate and grow within these organizations.

The Agency Awards for Excellence are designed to recognize the overall quality, accomplishments, and contributions of an agency human resources program that exceeds the normal operation of a good government human resources program.  The awards will be based on program initiatives, accomplishments, and contributions within a three-year period immediately preceding the nomination.

The Outstanding Chapter Award was developed to recognize and honor a chapter that has made and sustained innovation and diversity in chapter programs, resourcefulness and support for the community in carrying out the goals of the IPMA-HR, or a chapter that has shown the most improvement or progress in one or more evaluation areas.

The Western Region Board accepts nominations for these awards for consideration of individuals and agencies that have exhibited the outstanding qualities that demonstrate the ideals of professionalism in human resources.  The awards are presented annually at the Western Region IPMA-HR Conference. 

EVALUATION GUIDELINES FOR THE AWARDS COMMITTEE 

The Awards Committee will use the following evaluation system.  A numerical value from one to five will be designated by each committee member, for each of the criterion areas which have been developed for evaluating candidates (one being the lowest or weakest area and five representing the nominee’s highest or strongest area).

The Muriel M. Morse Achievement Award Criteria

The nominee should be an IPMA-HR member either through an individual or agency membership.  The nomination letter should include the following at a minimum:

The Agency Awards for Excellence Criteria 

The Agency Awards will be based on program initiatives, accomplishments, and contributions within a three-year period immediately preceding the nomination.  A maximum of four awards may be given in one year.  The Western Region will recognize one agency award in each of the following categories, based on the number of employees covered by the agency’s human resources program: 

Agencies nominated must be an IPMA-HR Agency member at the time of submission.  All nominations must include the following elements:

Specific Nominating Criteria:

Program Characteristics - Describe the environment in which the human resources program operates.  Address specifically:

• Size (i.e., number of employees served);

• Types of employees (e.g., clerical, administrative, professional);

• Union relations;

• Budget and human resource constrictions;

• Relationship to Chief Executive Officer;

• Whether the program was for an operating division/department or central human resources agency.

Human Resources Program - In each of the major functional areas, describe the specific initiatives, accomplishments, and contributions and their results over the past three years. Specifically identify those accomplishments you consider innovative.  If the nomination is for a central human resources agency, describe how the accomplishments have benefited the agencies served.  If the nomination is for an operating agency, describe how the accomplishments have benefited the management and employees of the agency.   Please include empirical data that demonstrates the positive impact of the program.

All nominations should include the following identifying information:

• Name of agency

• Number of Employees: __ Full-Time, __ Part-Time

• Agency head and title

• Agency address

• Name, title, phone number, e-mail and address of person submitting the nomination

The Outstanding Chapter Award Criteria

The Outstanding Chapter Award will be based on honoring a chapter that has made and sustained innovation and diversity in chapter programs, resourcefulness and support for the community in carrying out the goals of the IPMA-HR, or a chapter that has shown the most improvement or progress in one or more evaluation areas. 

Nominations must reflect activities associated with the last full program year. (Note: for the 2012 award, the last full program year is 2010-2011.)

 
Nominations must be received electronically no later than March 1, 2012. All nominations will be considered as final entries and are limited in length to a maximum of five pages.

The nomination must be sent to:      Dee Emami, IPMA-CP

            Personnel Management Analyst

County of Ventura, #1970

800 South Victoria Avenue

Ventura, CA  93009

805-654-3600

dee.emami@ventura.org