IT Excellence Impact Award "The Techie"

Purpose and Spirit of the Award 

In 2023, ITMF charged a committee with establishing a new award to recognize outstanding IT professionals in our respective organizations. The committee aimed to create an award that avoided “popularity contests” that only favorited individuals in client-facing roles or for one-off achievements. While those accomplishments can be important and recognized, the committee wished to also recognize employees whose work may take place behind the scenes, required in-depth learning, or reflected incremental improvements that resulted in a significant positive impact over time.  

As a result, the committee proposed the following award(s), criteria, and nomination and selection processes to ITMF voting members for consideration and vote on Thursday, September 7, 2023. The award was approved. 

Nomination Process 

Award type(s) 

Individual award 

Number of awards issued annually

Up to three (3) award recipients  

Eligibility

• Nominees must have a minimum of two (2) years of continuous service in their current unit at the time of nomination 

• Previous award recipients are ineligible for three (3) years 

• No more than two (2) nominations per unit will be accepted for consideration 

Eligible nominees should also meet the following criteria:

• Perform at a consistently high standard  

• Demonstrate qualities of leadership 

• Build and sustain positive working relationships, fostering positive morale and an inclusive IT community  

• Evidence of significant professional development and growth 

• Maintain a strong commitment to their organization and the university, working in alignment with established standards and promoting knowledge sharing 

Award Process 

Award Committee  

• The committee should include:

  • Three (3) ITMF members (voting or non-voting members permitted)  

  • The previous year’s award recipient(s)

• The chair rotates year-to-year:

  • The previous year’s chair rotates off the award committee and serves in an ex-officio capacity as a resource to the incoming chair for one year 

  • The incoming chair shall be an ITMF member voted on by the committee 

• In the event of turnover, an ITMF member or previous year’s award recipient may substitute on the committee 

• Award committee members should serve no more than three (3) consecutive years 

• Year-to-year, the committee chair should seek nominations for next year’s ITMF representatives for the award committee, and the award recipient will automatically serve on the next year’s committee.  

Nomination Process

• Nominations will be collected via web form in mid-April. 

• Any member of ITMF (voting or non-voting) can nominate an eligible UGA employee 

• If you are nominating an individual outside of your unit, please notify the IT Director; if there are more than two nominations within a unit, the committee will ask the IT Director to identify two (2) nominations to represent the unit. 

• Self-nominations are not permitted.

Selection Process

• The award committee will conduct a blind review of nomination materials. To do this, the chair will distribute nomination materials to the committee with the names of nominees redacted by May 1. 

• Committee members may recuse themselves from reviewing/scoring a nomination for any reason. 

• The committee will use a rubric to score nominations. The highest and lowest scores for each nominee will be omitted.  

• The committee will vote for up to three (3) finalists for the award. In the event of a tie, the committee chair will decide. 

• The award finalist(s) will be announced in the June ITMF meeting. 

Past Recipients