Society Operating Guidelines

Section 10.2: Technical and Professional Recognition Committee Operating Procedures

I.  Roles and Accountability

The Technical and Professional Recognition Committee advances the occupational safety and health (OSH) profession through the recognition of model OSH professionals.

II. Committee Membership

• Committee members shall be appointed by the vice president, professional affairs, subject to the approval of the Board of Directors. The committee shall not exceed seven members.
• Not less than three committee members shall have received the Honor of Fellow.
• Committee members serve a three-year term and may not be reappointed. Appointments are structured to allow for staggered terms.
• The chair shall be designated by the vice president, professional affairs. The term of the chair is one year, renewable for a maximum of three consecutive years. An individual must be an ASSP Fellow to be eligible for the position of committee chair.

• Fellow, Safety Professional of the Year and Outstanding Safety Educator petitions from members of the Technical and Professional Recognition Committee will not be considered while they are members of the committee.

• The committee may offer to invite a participant from the Emerging Professionals Award program to serve in an ex-officio capacity for up to one year, as approved by the vice president, professional affairs.

III. Committee Operations

A. Meetings

• Method: The committee will primarily meet by teleconference/webinar. 
• Schedule: The schedule of meetings shall be drawn up by the committee chair and agreed to by the committee members. The committee shall meet at least once to complete the review petitions and propose award nominees to the Society Board of Directors.
  • A committee member with advance knowledge of their inability to attend the petition evaluation meeting will submit written evaluations of the petitions to the chair in time for use at the meeting. The chair will use this input to cast the absent member's vote to determine the final outcome of petition evaluations.
• Quorum:  A quorum exists when at least one-half of the members of the committee are present at a meeting, one of whom must be the committee chair. If a quorum is present, a majority vote of members present shall be decisive when a vote it taken.
• Committee Business: The committee may transact official business at meetings, conference calls and by electronic ballots.
• Minutes: Minutes will be prepared for each committee meeting.

B. Budgeting and Finance

The committee operates within the Society budget, including travel, meeting and staff support expenses. Committees are funded through specific budget actions of the Board of Directors.

Addendum I: Specific Committee Actions

The scope of the TPRC is to oversee administration for society-level awards, including the following awards on an annual basis: Honor of Fellow, Safety Professional of the Year, Outstanding Safety Educator, Emerging Professionals Award and other awards that may be added. The committee is responsible for the evaluation of all petitions for the Honor of Fellow and for recommending to the Board of Directors those professional members who qualify for that honor. The committee also evaluates all petitions of the candidates for the Society Safety Professional of the Year and Outstanding Safety Educator of the year and makes the final determination.

The committee chair reports to the vice president, professional affairs.

A petition for a Society-level award cannot be developed, sponsored or supported in writing by a TPRC member, member of the Board of Directors, vice president, professional affairs or ASSP staff. Current TPRC members, Board members, Society vice presidents, members of the Council of Professional Affairs may not be nominated for any of these awards. Petitioners may only apply for one award Society-level award category each year.

Actions of the TPRC are confidential. Only TPRC members and the staff liaison(s) can be present during the evaluation/discussion(s).

A. Fellows

The committee will evaluate all petitions for the Honor of Fellow and propose approval of the selected petition(s) to the board of directors. Furthermore, the committee chair will  respond to each petitioner regarding the committee's evaluation of their petition.

A majority of affirmative votes are needed for proposal of a petitioner/nominee for Fellow.

TPRC minutes shall include a record, by nominee name, of the approved petitions acted on by the committee and the number of petitions considered. The minutes shall not contain the actual vote totals on each Fellow petition. The number of votes for approval of each petition will be announced to the committee after the written, confidential vote is taken. In the case of a tie vote on any petition, the petition will be automatically reconsidered.

The senior vice president will present the committee’s proposal(s)  on nominees for Fellow to the Board of Directors.

The ASSP president will notify successful Fellow candidates of the board’s actions.

ASSP will notify unsuccessful Fellow nominees and their petition coordinators

B. Other Awards

The committee will evaluate all petitions for Safety Professional of the Year, Outstanding Safety Educator and Emerging Professionals awards and make a final determination.

The vice president, professional affairs, will notify the recipients of the Safety Professional of the Year, Outstanding Safety Educator and Emerging Professionals awards or may delegate this responsibility to the TPRC chair.

ASSP will send a letter from the TPRC chair to unsuccessful applicants for the Safety Professional of the Year, Outstanding Safety Educator and Emerging Professionals awards.

Addendum II: Development of a New Awards Program

The board, all Society units and individuals may desire to propose and implement specific awards. A detailed written proposal of the program should be submitted to the TPRC.

The TPRC shall recommend to the Board of Directors via the Council on Professional Affairs new award programs that it considers appropriate for ASSP to implement. If the council concurs, the proposal for the award will be presented to the Board of Directors for final determination.

To complete this task the committee will need the following information:

1. Purpose for the award: Society-level scope of the award.
2. Type of award: Include sponsorship, method of presentation, cash prize or plaques, etc.
3. Eligibility criteria: Specify who will be eligible and on what basis.
4. General rules: Specific guidelines for petitioners to use for entry into the program, including application forms, entry deadline and nomination procedures.
5. Judging criteria: Criteria on which candidates will be judged.
6. Method of judging: The method of judging and the judging body will be specified in the proposal.
7. Business plan that aligns the award to ASSP’s business planning process, including anticipated costs and benefits of the award.

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Approved By/Date: Board of Directors | 06/2020
Replaces Edition Dated: 12/2019
Next Revision Due: 06/2023