Guest blog by Greg Power, Chief Operating Officer

With this blog, it’s my great pleasure to introduce you to new college-level administrative staff awards being launched at the CoM. Three new awards will support our efforts to recognize, reward and thank our administrative staff for their critical role in the success of our college. Every day, staff support our learners, our faculty and our administrative leaders, and ensure the smooth running of our sites and offices throughout Saskatchewan.

The awards are specifically for administrative staff (not learners, academic leaders or faculty). All administrative staff supporting the CoM are eligible for nomination. Whether you are a USask employee on the USask main campus or at another location, one of our Regina campus staff employed by the SHA, or one of our growing number of employees around the province in clinical locations, you are eligible. These awards add to—but do not replace—existing awards like the Sydney Inskip Service Award and those given out at unit and department levels.

We are starting with three awards, which could expand to more in the future. The awards process will follow a nominations and selection committee approach. More details, including a nomination form, are available on the CoM website.

First and foremost, I want to encourage everyone, including learners, to consider participating in the nominations process for any deserving administrative staff members on your teams, at your site, or who you have worked with or been supported by in some capacity. Through these awards, we want to recognize and showcase the breadth of support and leadership administrative staff provide to our college across all our Saskatchewan sites, departments, units and research teams.

I think we can agree that we don’t recognize this group within the CoM enough, and with these awards we hope to improve on that. Let’s celebrate our amazing staff!

Here’s a brief description of the three awards:

Living Our Values Award – awarded annually to a staff member who exemplifies one or more of the college’s values in their day-to-day work. The college values are: collegiality; fairness and equitable treatment; inclusiveness; integrity, honesty and ethical behavior; and respect.

Team Achievement Award – awarded annually to a team of staff members (two or more people) working together to achieve a goal that supports the College of Medicine strategic plan objectives. We recognize that teams can be formal and non-formal, and encourage nominations for any type of team, working towards any type of goal for the CoM.

Create-it Award – awarded annually to a staff member or team nominated for an achievement that may not fit within the scope of other awards. Nominators will suggest a fitting name for this award based on the achievements of the individual or team they are nominating. With this award, you might choose to recognize commitment to professional development, new work, leadership, or mentorship, for example. But this award gives nominators room to be creative and identify other achievements we should be celebrating!

Nominations are open now and the deadline for submission for the 2022 awards is March 18, 2022—so don’t delay. Fill out a nomination form and submit it any time before the deadline. As mentioned, more information, including the nomination form, can be found on the CoM awards web page, with reminders following this blog in the CoM E-News.

Thank you in advance for nominating one or more of our fabulous administrative staff members for an award!