{"id":213,"date":"2010-09-21T20:16:28","date_gmt":"2010-09-22T01:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/?p=213"},"modified":"2010-09-21T20:16:28","modified_gmt":"2010-09-22T01:16:28","slug":"award-overload","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikeraffety.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/21\/award-overload\/","title":{"rendered":"Award overload"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Ever been to a district conference where it seemed like everyone <\/strong>got an award?\u00a0 Some districts have what feels like hundreds of awards.\u00a0 At one district, I swear, they handed out an award for the conference education chair’s brother-in-law’s dog’s fleas.\u00a0 Well, almost.<\/p>\n

Awards are great things.\u00a0 It’s the primary form of recognizing and rewarding our members’ accomplishments.\u00a0 I wish we could give every CC recipient $1,000 like McGraw-Hill<\/a> does, but alas, it’s probably not in the district budget.\u00a0 Nonetheless, it’s critical that we do recognize our accomplishments.<\/p>\n

Have you ever sat through a Lt. Gov’r of Education droning through a list of 50-100 CC recipients at a district conference, or a list of all the members who sponsored a new member?\u00a0 Did this do anything to motivate them, or to motivate others to get that award?\u00a0 It doesn’t seem likely.<\/p>\n

Too many awards can dilute their value.\u00a0 Handing out awards with no explanation for the accomplishments that earned the award has little value.\u00a0 Reading lengthy lists of names as quickly as possible will bore the audience, and isn’t going to achieve anything useful.<\/p>\n

Here are some key tips:<\/p>\n