Transcript Alaska Area Commissioned Officer Awards Program
Steps for Successful Commissioned Corps Awards Nominations
2015 Alaska Area Commissioned Corps Board 1
Goals & Objectives
GOAL: To improve the success & timeliness of officer recognition OBJECTIVES Review type of awards & associated criteria Focus on preparing successful nominations Gain better understanding of overall process to form realistic expectations 2
Awards…
Designed to provide formal recognition for outstanding accomplishments and performance to the mission of the PHS or other programs Officers DO NOT compete against each other There are no minimum or maximum number of nominations Open to all officers on active duty (Regular Corps and All Categories and Grades) 3
Why Are Awards Important?
Demonstrate advancement of the mission of PHS Officer career development & progression Promotion/Category benchmarks Officer morale Recruitment and retention 4
CC Awards Program (COAP)
CC Issuance updated Aug 2007
Replaced previous, dated 2000 Includes clarification & timelines Incorporates FMRB, Deployment Service Awards, Recruiter badge & ribbon Limitations: unit award & individual award cannot overlap unless notable difference effort from group.
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Purpose of COAP
Encourage maximum performance Formal recognition of outstanding accomplishments or achievements Improve esprit de corps among officers 6
COAP
Limited to scope of officer’s employment with the Corps Non-competitive No award progression or order Award assessed upon comparison of criteria 7
Award Types
Reference CCPM P67
Individual Honor Awards*
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) Outstanding Service Medal (OSM) Commendation Medal (CM) Achievement Medal (AM) PHS Citation (CIT)
*for which officers are nominated in decreasing order of level of impact
Unit Honor Awards
1.
2.
Outstanding Unit Citation (OUC) Unit Commendation (UC) • • Nomination should include non-CO & inter-agency team members Cover sheet, Part 1, Comment section: mention non-COs to be recognized through civilian awards
Service Awards
Crisis Response Foreign Duty Global Response Hazardous Duty Isolated Hardship Recruitment Service Response Service Special Assignment Require a statement from supervisor (or appropriate person) regarding completion of required criteria 11
Eligibility
Officer must be in compliance with professional licensure or certification Officer in “good standing” Most recent COER must be on file COERs on file for period covered Average rating of C or higher for most recent & those during period covered No suspensions or adverse actions 12
Nomination
“Each recommendation must be formally initiated within 13 months” after the end of time period covered Nominator may be fellow officer, co-worker, superior…but not self.
Follow the chain of command- supervisors should review award before it is submitted to awards board.
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Writing the Nomination
Write the nomination 1 st , then determine what level award is warranted Nominee should contribute to (or write) the narrative since they are most knowledgeable about accomplishments and impacts You are in charge of your own career Plan ahead. Recommendation: awards should be in officer’s file by October to meet following year’s promotion board 14
Writing the Nomination
Not to exceed 2 pages 1 inch margins Font size at least 12 Courier, Arial or Times New Roman Use rank abbreviated as LTJG, LT, LCDR or CAPT Do not use Dr., Ms., Mr., etc Spell out numbers (1-10) 15
Writing the Nomination
Avoid technical language. Should be easily understood & followed by those outside your profession, agency Avoid fluff. Let the facts speak for themselves.
Define abbreviations on 1 st use Avoid future tense (“will be”) in impact Avoid passive language (“has been”) 16
Writing the Nomination
“Cited for” Begin with 3-4 lines stating why the officer is being nominated This citation should match verbatim the “cited for” box on the cover sheet (18- character max) & narrative conclusion Do not, however, repeat the dates in the cited for on the cover sheet or conclusion Include appropriate “key words” for level of award (ie, OSM should focus on leadership) 17
Writing the Nomination
“Background” Short paragraph describing the conditions that existed prior to the accomplishment What is the officer’s regular duties? Why was it important to make a change?
Don’t make the situation improved appear dismal before intervention 18
Writing the Nomination
As a rough guideline, when selecting award include at least: 1 significant accomplishment for CIT 2 significant accomplishments for AM More worthy accomplishments for CM & above 19
Writing the Nomination
“Accomplishments” What exactly did the officer do? What was the officer’s role?
When? Dates should not be outside the time period covered What obstacles were overcome? How?
Describe how officer’s achievements were above & beyond expectations Be specific Be quantitative (include data, measurements, numbers) Use bullets to improve clarity 20
Writing the Nomination
“Impact” So what? Why is the public health better as a result of the officer’s accomplishments?
What were the results of the accomplishments?
Again, be as quantitative as possible Most common reason for awards being returned is lack of demonstrable impact 21
Writing the Nomination
“Conclusion” Brief summary emphasizing importance of work Should replicate the “Cited for” fields in the narrative introduction & cover sheet verbatim with the exception of dates.
Be brief…forget the fluff.
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Cover Sheet (PHS 6342)
Templates are an excellent tool for correct format http://www.anthc.org/cs/coawards/index.cfm
Part 1
Rank: this is a letter (Officer) not a number PHS Professional Category There are 11 categories Use one of the following: medical, dental, nurse, engineer, scientist, environmental health, veterinary, pharmacy, dietetics, therapy, health services 23
Cover Sheet (PHS 6342)
Current Organization for AK officers will be: USPHS/IHS/AANHS… Followed by the officer’s organization… Such as ANTHC or SCF (not ANMC) USPHS/IHS/AANHS/SCF… Followed by officer’s duty station location USPHS/IHS/AANHS/SCF/Anchorage, AK 24
Cover Sheet (PHS 6342)
Organization Position Title Billet title, for example Period Covered Month & Year (unless activity was very short, such as 1 week) Do not use “present” Cited for Not to exceed 180 characters (this includes spaces) Should match narrative introduction & conclusion verbatim 25
Cover Sheet (PHS 6342)
Nominator & Endorsements Nominator signature not needed until nomination approved by AK Awards Board Follow usual administrative line of approval 26
Cover Sheet (PHS 6342)
Comment Section Add explanation for any overlapping awards, recognition for civilians & interagency group participants (for unit awards) 27
Submitting Award Nomination
Submit award package which includes Coversheet (signature & date should be left blank when submitting) Completed checklist indicating that each step was given proper attention Narrative May be emailed to: [email protected]
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Improving Timeliness
Award nominations and cover sheets should be submitted electronically to: [email protected]
If completed documents are received by the 10 CCAB in same month th of the month, the award will be reviewed by AK 29
Improving Timeliness
AK CCAB historically has spent significant time revising nominations & cover sheets Formatting problems Difficult to understand or follow Lacking impact Poor responses from nominator for clarification, strengthening, formatting corrections, etc 30
Improving Timeliness
Alaska Area Commissioned Officer Awards Booklet Purpose: to improve the quality of award nominations submitted to the AK CCAB Improve timeliness of awards process to ensure officers are appropriately recognized in a timely manner Allow CCAB to work towards improving other processes such as tracking & education 31
Common reasons a nomination may be rejected
Officer’s role not clearly explained Weak impact statements (most common mistake) Nomination is too technical Quantitative information is omitted Award level not appropriate Overlap with previous award 32
Common reasons a nomination may be rejected:
Outside the 13 month period.
Failure to adhere to formatting requirements.
Awards not adhering to these guidelines and/or checklist will not be reviewed by the awards
board.
Incomplete nominations will not be reviewed.
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Processing
DSM, MSM, OUC and those with Valor OPDIV OCCO CCAB SG OCCO OSM, CM, UC OPDIV Awards Board OPDIV Approving Authority OCCO AM, PHS CIT OPDIV Approving Authority OCCO 34
Award Follow-Up
“I understand I was approved for an award but have not received it?” It may take 4-5 months for CIT, AM & UC Several months for CM & above Delayed by revisions & requests for additional information Email CCAB at: [email protected]
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Awards Time Frame
AK Awards Board review May need revision or additional information from nominator Awards returned to nominator/nominee for correction, clarification or rewrite must be resubmitted with 60 days.
After AK CCAB approval, nominator signature Endorsements (min of 3, including the Director AANHS) OCCO ensures documents related to approved awards are posted in officer’s OPF Hardware received by AK CCAB & forwarded 36
Authorization
Officer is authorized to wear the ribbon once the award is posted in your OPF 37
Questions?
Thank you for your time & interest Happy Nominating!
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References
PHS COAP, CC27.1.1, 8/06/07 CCPM P67, 6/98 Alaska Area Commissioned Officer Awards Booklet, 2007 “The Nuts & Bolts of PHS Awards”, R.Etzel
www.cdc.gov/occp/personnel/awards http://coa.spsp.net/webpage/uniforms/ribbon s.html
(for PHS Order of Precedence) http://www.usphs.gov/corpslinks/apaoc/docu ments/CommissionedOfficerAwardsProgram.p
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