Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award Chair

The Chair of the Subcommittee for the Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award (Charter: https://camws.org/bolchazy-com-charter) oversees the evaluation of books nominated for this award. The eligibility requirements, deadlines, and criteria are found on the Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award webpage (https://camws.org/awards/bolchazy_book.php). The Chair is appointed by the President, typically for a three year term which can be renewed once.

The chair is also an ex-officio member of the CAMWS Steering Committee on Awards and Scholarship (Charter: https://camws.org/steer-com-charter).

Schedule of Duties for the CAMWS Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award Chair

Nominations are sent to the Chair, either by individuals or presses. Authors may self-nominate.
The Chair:

  1. Consults with the Secretary-Treasurer to check membership status of each nominee and confirms the eligibility of each nominated book;
  2. Corresponds promptly with nominators to confirm receipt of nominations and the eligibility status of nominees.
  3. Confirms the preferred mailing address of each committee member for receipt of the nominated books.

Sept. 1:
Nominations for the award close.
The Chair:

  1. Instructs nominees to have the publisher send one copy of the nominated book to each committee member, preferably by Sept. 1. Pdf versions are acceptable as temporary substitutes until a hard copy arrives. Two copies of each nominated book should also be sent to the CAMWS office.
  2. Monitors the books received (publishers have been known to bypass the eligibility review by sending books to the chair before they are asked to do so).

Second week of September
Contact with committee to begin the process.
The Chair:

  1. Sends a list of the eligible nominated books to committee members, together with criteria for ranking; sets a deadline in mid-January for numerical rankings plus a paragraph detailing strengths and weaknesses of the books. Numerical rankings are based on the number of nominations.  (For example, in one year there were six nominations so that books were ranked from 1 to 6.)
  2. Sends the eligible nominated books to the committee members.

Mid-January:
Members submit rankings and paragraphs for all books.
The Chair:

  1. Calculates the rankings,compiles a document with all the scores and shares this document with committee members
  2. Moderates an email discussion of the nominated books (sometimes there is consensus, sometimes not, as to which are the top-ranked)

Last week of January
Members select the award recipient.
The Chair:

  1. Moderates a discussion about which book(s) should receive the award (the committee has occasionally awarded two prizes).
  2. Writes to the Secretary-Treasurer about f the decision
  3. Contacts the winner(s) to inform them about the award and request their presence at the annual meeting to receive the award (The Secretary-Treasurer also contacts the winner(s) and also writes to the publisher(s) and department chairs to encourage them to acknowledge the award on their website and/or with an ad in the CAMWS meeting program or sponsoring a break at the meeting).
  4. Writes a committee report summarizing the process and the reasons why the winner was selected;Writes a press release
  5. Consults with the committee on any recommended changes to the Bolchazy Book Award criteria, policies and procedures
  6. Transmits any recommendations and a rationale to the Chair of the Steering Committee on Awards and Scholarship
  7. Reviews for accuracy the finalized website language about the Bolchazy Award for the following year.

February 15:
The Chair

  1. Transmits the final report to the Secretary-Treasurer and the Chair of the Steering Committee on Awards and Scholarship.
  2. Contacts those nominees who did not receive the award to thank them for their submissions and to inform them of the outcome.

Annual Meeting:
The Chair

  1. Attends lunch (typically midday Thursday) with members of the Sub-Committee to review the year's work and make recommendatiions for the future
  2. Attends a meeting of the Steering Committee
  3. Attends the Business Meeting on Saturday morning and announces the winner(s) or delegates another member of the Sub-Committe to do so