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Suggestions for Completing Nomination for NPHQ Awards

Completing a nomination for any award is a major effort. It is unthinkable to compromise in preparing the information that tells those reviewing the nomination all pertinent details about the nominated project or activity and showing that it is a strong contender for the offered award. The purpose of this paper is to provide suggestions for completing a nomination for an offered NPHQ award.

Presentation of Nomination. The presentation or packaging of the completed nomination is perhaps the least important element of submitting a nomination. NQI and NPHQ nominations have been received in a variety of styles ranging from a very expensive leather valise to simply stapling the papers together under a bland cover. The Call for Nominations for NPHQ awards discourages ring binders. The reason is they add undue expense, they are bulky and increase shipping costs for the sending the requested number of copies, the NPHQ office is small and does not need that bulk, and the binders and other bulky coverings are ultimately disposed of. While there is something to be said for the first impression made by a neatly presented nomination, there is no need for excessive glamour or expense. Beyond the first impression that takes some note of the effort put into packaging the nomination, the most important element of the nomination is the depth and clarity of the information presented
in the nomination. The ultimate review and rating of each nomination received will be made solely on the descriptive information about the project or activity and the details of its compliance with the criteria given in the Call for Nominations.

Eligibility of Activity Being Nominated. The NPHQ National Achievement Award is given in odd-numbered years and is for a completed highway project that is the result of a single contract. Corridor improvements that are accomplished under a single contract and that are completed within the specified two-year time frame are eligible. An example of such a corridor improvement would be a corridor improvement that was contracted to a principal firm or joint-venture who managed the construction of the corridor by segments that were completed by other firms which resembled subcontractors to the principal contractor.

The Making A Difference Awards are given in the even-numbered years and are for a highway design, construction, or maintenance project; a highway maintenance program or activity; and environmental stewardship program or activity; or a highway operations program or activity. To be eligible for the respective award, the project, program, or activity to be nominated must have been essentially completed during the two-year period that precedes the year in which the award is to be given.

Source of Nomination. It was originally envisioned that each state would have a State Quality Partnership formed by the State Highway Agency, the State FHWA office, and the private industry organizations that operate in the respective State. The nomination should come through the respective State Quality Partnerships. If a formal State Quality Partnership has not been establish in a State, the State Highway Agency, or a contractor or a consulting engineering firm, on behalf of the State Highway Agency and with its consent, can prepare and submit a nomination. Nominations for the National Achievement Award are limited to one per State. Nominations the Making A Difference Awards are also limited to one per state for each category. A project, program, or activity may not be nominated for more than one category of the Making A Difference Awards. Contractors or consultant engineering firms should contact the State construction Engineer?s office to determine if a particular state has an established State Quality Partnership. Awards may be accepted from other public entities that engage in highway, roadway, and/or street work at the discretion of the Awards Subcommittee, on a case by case basis. Questions can be discussed with NPHQ Executive Director Bob Templeton.

Content of Nomination. Each nomination package must include the elements prescribed in the Call for Nominations.

The nomination form is self-explanatory and the information requested in each blank should be provided.
The $250.00 nomination entry fee from all the nominations will be used to exempt up to three (3) members of the project, program, or activity team from the registration fee for the respective NPHQ Conference and Awards Ceremony
The narrative presentation may well be the most important part of the nomination. In this section, the project is introduced through a Project Overview and explanation is given to the thoroughness and manner in which the project achieved each of the five evaluation criteria. Each eligible nomination is rated carefully for its response to the specified criteria. Compromising this section may jeopardize the nomination?s chances of scoring high. (For example, a nomination was submitted for a very fine project, but the narrative was glowing journalistically, but it gave no information as to how the project achieved the criteria. The nominated project received a very, very low rating score.) Good practices and implemented innovations will be compiled from this narrative presentation and will be placed in the NPHQ web site in an effort to provide the information to others who may be able to benefit from implementing those good practices. This part of the nomination is limited to ten, one-sided or five, two-sided, 81⁄2 by 11 inch pages using 11 point or larger font. It is recommended that someone very familiar with the completed project, program, or activity, should review the finished nomination to assure that the narrative addresses the achieving of the stipulated criteria and gives the nomination maximum opportunity of winning.
The one page executive summary is a high level summary that gives the first look at the success of this nominated project, program or activity. This should be given considerable attention. It may one of the first parts of the nomination that is read by the reviewers/raters and gives the first impression of how well the project has delivered quality and customer service.
The appendices are limited to ten, one-sided, 81⁄2 by 11 inch pages and are for adding additional pertinent information, such as photographs, newspaper articles, test results, letters from the traveling public, drawing, partnering charters, etc., that support or further emphasize the project?s accomplished described in the narrative presentation.
The one-page press release is for NPHQ?s use in publicizing the award winners at the earliest opportunity. This item should extol the project?s, program?s, or activity?s achievement in quality and customer service. It will be used to publicize the advances being made by the various State Highway Agencies in the quality and customer being delivered in America?s highway program.
The electronic copy of the nomination package in Mircosoft Word or Corel word Perfect is required for NPHQ?s use to be able to quickly lift portions of each nomination and prepare articles for publicizing award winners and/or the success being achieved by the states. It will ultimately be the file copy of the nomination to conserve storage space.
The 20-30 minute PowerPoint presentation provides opportunity for someone close to the project to prepare a presentation that presents the project in its best light. It should showcase the project, program, or activity; its highlights, and its achievements in quality and customer/community involvement and satisfaction. Extracts from these PowerPoint presentations on the winning projects, programs, and/or activities will be used in future NPHQ presentations at various meetings.
Each nomination should submit three photographs (not photocopies) that provide a project overviews and/or a representative scene from the completed project, program, or activity. One or more of these photos will be used in the publicizing of winners and the other nominated projects, programs or activities.
If video footage is available to help present the good features of the nominated project, it may be submitted with the nomination to help the reviewers /raters visualize the nominated project, program, or activity.
A total of 25 copies of the complete nomination package, collated and separated, must be submitted. Use of 3-ring binders is discouraged, as they are bulky, expensive to purchase and to mail, present handling problems in the review process, and are ultimately discarded because NPHQ has limited storage room. Plastic combs, tanged folders, folded plastic covers with compression strips to go on the spine of each nomination, staples, and other similar binding techniques are all acceptable.