Awards Review Committee – Charter

Charter Overview

The Awards Review Committee:

  • Evaluates proposals submitted to the committee for new awards or changes to existing awards, and sends its recommendations and supporting data to the Board.
  • Compares and contrasts multiple award proposals considered as a pool when requested.
  • Evaluates individual existing awards, or parts or all of the awards program, as requested by the Board, and reports their findings to the Board.

The committee is not responsible for:

  • Ordering, stocking, and fulfilling orders for physical awards to members. (That’s the Awards and Store Committee.)
  • Maintaining award documentation or awardee display on the website. (That’s the Web Team.)
  • Answering member questions about rules and provisions of awards or order status for awards.

Award Proposal Questionnaire

To submit an award idea, a RUSA member fills in a questionnaire. It is sent to the Awards Review Committee.

Current questions:

  • Name for the award
  • Whom does the award target? - e.g. Longer vs shorter distance riders? Older vs younger riders? Frequent vs infrequent riders? Newer randos vs established randos?
  • Whom does the award motivate? How does it achieve this? - e.g. Does it promote new membership/participation in RUSA (engage people who come from other cycling disciplines)? Does it promote continued membership/participation in RUSA? Is it a stepping stone to other awards/types of rides?    
  •  What are the requirements? - How do you earn the award? Does it have an international component? (Can some non-RUSA rides count? If so, how many?)
  • How are recipients recognized? - Recognition on Website and in American Randonneur only?
  • If there's a physical award: What does it look like? Does it need to be customized to the recipients (like the K-Hound or Coast to Coast)? Is it a stock item in the RUSA Store? What does it cost?

Additional Criteria to Evaluate

Website Implications

  • content development
  • code development - for listing and possibly auto-recognizing awards, applying for awards, etc.

Similarity to Existing Awards

  • How similar is this to other awards?
  • Do the requirements for this award overlap with existing or proposed awards?

Other Questions

  • Once-a-year pooling of award proposals, as was supposedly the procedure some years ago?
  • Enhanced questionnaire or alternate questionnaire to propose enhancing an existing award?
  • How many riders are expected to pursue this award?
  • What burden does this award put on RUSA resources, including Permanents Committee, Routes, RBAs Committee, Store?
  • Does this award affect riders differently depending on attributes like geography or weather?

Process Options

  • Award proposals go directly to the Committee. The Committee then notifies the Board at that time, just so the Board is aware (without any analysis).
  • The Board may ask that new award proposals over a given time period (e.g,. annually) be pooled, compared and presented to the Board together.
  • The Committee may ask proponents of a given award to perform some analysis and evaluation so as to offload some of the work the Committee might otherwise do, and thus help bolster the proponent’s case for the award.

 

CREATED: 3/11/2025 (JLE)