In August 2008, USATF will honor its top masters athletes at the Spokane outdoor nationals. This will cover the 2007 indoor and outdoor seasons. I’ve already described the change in time frame for selection. But details haven’t been shared on how you can nominate folks for various awards. Doing the honors is Dave Clingan, chairman of the USATF Masters T&F Awards Committee. He’s written a column for the January issue of National Masters News, which he’s shared with me. Dave writes: “Nominations will be accepted from January 1 to January 31, 2008. You may nominate yourself or your fellow athletes. Please use the nomination form provided. Nominations can be submitted either by email or postal mail.”

Dave’s column for NMN:

During the 2007 USATF Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Masters T&F Awards were reviewed and discussed on several occasions, including our Awards Committee meeting, a Masters T&F Executive Committee meeting, and a Masters T&F general session.
These meetings enabled all aspects of our awards program to be examined and new ideas have surfaced which will improve our program next year.
KEY POINTS
1) The MTF Executive Committee voted to express its approval of current awards policies and procedures.
2) Only athletes who have competed in masters events during the awards cycle will be eligible for future awards.
3) The awards cycle will be changed starting in 2008, to correspond to the calendar year.
4) Funding was approved to add features to the Masters Rankings program which will generate more comprehensive athlete profiles for use by the Awards Committee.
5) Funding was approved to develop a method for comparing performances across events (as an alternative to AG scores).
6) Some awards committee members were replaced and others added.
7) The Awards Committee will broaden its mission by offering certificates of recognition to athletes (more news about this will appear in future articles).
8) Honorable mentions (aside from Distinguished Service) will be discontinued.
9) Minimum criteria for awards consideration will be established.
10) Nomination format will be simplified (see nomination form).
11) A composite points chart used to evaluate nominees will be improved to incorporate different weight values for different performance achievements.
12) Awards articles will be submitted to National Masters News on a regular basis.
NEW AWARDS CYCLE
Next year’s award presentations will be based on performances that occurred during the 2007 indoor and 2007 outdoor seasons. Our schedule is as follows:
1) December 10: Submit article to National Masters News.
2) January 1 – 31: Open nominations for 2007 awards.
3) December 3 – February 1: Improve nominee evaluation tools.
4) February 1 – 15: Review nominee performance data.
5) Feb 16 – Mar 15: Deliberate and vote on winners.
6) Mar 15 – 22: Tally votes and announce winners.
7) August 9: Present 2007 awards in Spokane at the Athletes Dinner.
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS!
Nominations will be accepted from January 1 to January 31, 2008. You may nominate yourself or your fellow athletes. Please use the nomination form provided. Nominations can be submitted either by email or postal mail.
For more information about Masters T&F Awards please see the awards website at:
http://www.xro.com/awards or email Dave Clingan at xroads@xro.com