Frequently Asked Questions: Assistance for Nominators
Q: I don't see information about how to get a nomination packet. Is there a form somewhere? Or do I just write up a paragraph?
A: When you visit our homepage: http://recognition.arizona.edu/ you will see descriptions for each of the awards available and can follow a link to its particular criteria page. On each page you will see a link to Submit a Nomination which will take you to the online submission form. Please note that letters of support are required for each nomination so dont delay, as it may take you time to collect these letters from supporters and no incomplete or late submissions will be accepted. Submission deadline is January 25, 2021
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Q: I have gathered five letters for our candidate for the individual award. My question, does each person who wrote a letter of nomination have to submit information on the competition space or can I submit on behalf of them?
A: One person can submit everyone letters.
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Q: We want to nominate a team but wonder if it needs to be made up from one department or can employees from different departments working together be nominated. For example, includes UA employees from six different departments. Just not sure if by “team” all members have to be part of one unit/division.
A: Absolutely – a team can be cross-functional across multiple units.
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Q: Our clinical faculty has had to figure out a variety of innovative ways to train graduate student clinicians with little or no ability to work with patients. We would like to nominate them for a team award. Would they be eligible, or is that only for staff?
A: Faculty members can be part of a team primarily composed of staff and appointed personnel, though an all faculty staff would not be elligible.
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Q: We wanted a clarification on the 15 year employee requirement to nominate a corker for the Billy Joe Varney Award. Can they be any type of UA employee for 15 years? She has been a UA employee for at least 15 years but a minimal amount of that time includes being a Graduate Assistant. We don’t want to nominate her for this award if it’s not going to be considered.
A: The total amount of time as benefits eligible is the criteria, not the title under which they met the years required.
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Q: We have an amazing colleague we want to nominate for the Billy Joe Varney Award for Excellence who will not be with us when the next nominations happen.
A: Im sorry to hear about the situation and she sounds like an amazing person, but unfortunately we have had employees who retired just before being chosen before causing a similar situation and according to UA procedure our winners must be current benefits eligible at the time of the ceremony at the end of April or so. Unfortunately, it sounds like that would likely not be the case in regards to your candidate.
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Q: I’m reviewing the nomination requirements and on the Team award it says recommended at least 3 letters of recommendation and in the nomination requirements it says no more than 3. Please advise.
A: For the team submission one nomination letter and two supporting letters are required, a third supporting letter is optional.
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Q: We nominated someone for an award and were told that winners would be announced in March. With campus closed and schedules being up in the air, what does that mean for the announcements and the awards ceremony?
A: The ER Committee have been in discussion and will likely reschedule our event for a bit later in the year to allow winners to have the full experience of their announcement and the ceremony. Stay tuned for more information once things have returned to normal. Be safe and be well. Thank you for your patience!
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Q: I was asked if winners had been chosen already. We were told winners would be notified in March, but if our nominee didnt win, will we be notified?
A: Yes, all nominees and nominators will be notified and invited to the ceremony in April once all our winners have been announced by the surprise patrol.
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Q: I want to nominate my supervisor, can you send me the nomination forms?
A: Details of the awards and application requirements can be found here: http://recognition.arizona.edu
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Q: Im the admin asst for Dr Jones and he was asked to submit a letter of recommendation for an employee. Do I complete the steps on the UAz website to nominate her or where can I go to find her nomination to attach the letter?
A: You should send the letter to the person who requested it. That person will then submit it with the rest of the nominaton packet.
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Q: I am a little confused and I would like to double-check what is the maximum amount of letters of recommendation per nomination? Some places say 3 in others they say 5.
A: To submit an individual nomination you need a minimum of 3 letters and a maximum of five.
For the Billy Joe Varney, which has more stringent criteria, it calls for a minimum of 5, but no more than 7 letters.
Team awards call for a max of 3 letters and team nomination.
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Q: Team Award for Excellence: I would like to know if the Teams to be nominated can include more than one department/unit? That is, teams consisting of 2 or more members, and from two different units. I had the pleasure of working with two different units toward accomplishing a mutual goal.
A: Yes, teams may be made up of employees from more than one department
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Q: Are designated campus colleagues (post docs) eligible for the award of excellence?
A: Nominees should be included in the UCAP scope so if not listed in the UCAP spreadsheet, they are inelligible.
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Q: We want to nominate our associate director with continuing status for an award, but weren't sure if he was elligible?
A: Faculty are not eligible for these awards. If he is year to year rather than continuing he would likely be considered University Staff under UCAP.
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Q: We are nominating an employee for an award and asked someone from another department to write a nomination letter, but found they are also submitting a nomination for this person. Can an employee receive more than one nomination for an award?
A: Yes, separate nominations have been received for Individual and Billy Joe Varney in the past during the same year. Judges are assigned packets in different categories so its likely they would not be judged by the same persons.