The lack of any distinguished service awards at the 2021 annual meeting?
 

I have been wondering something since the moment of the close of the 2021 annual meeting this past June…. Why were the usual Distinguished Service Awards not given?

In this post from Brian H. In regards to the meeting, it mentions it as part of the program. But it never happened.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthr...=Distinguished

And I have seen or heard no mention of it after the fact.


Has the practice been ended?

I believe Mills was a recipient. Ed Morgan received an award in Sanford back in April. That may have been because he would not be able to attend the June banquet? But then I’m just taking a guess here.

Mills received the Price literary Award. A different animal.

The Distinguished Service Award Program has been temporarily (I hope) suspended.

It was a very worthy program that recognised (by popular nomination and vote) the best of our best.



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And what is the reason for its suspension?

I'd be curious as well.

I'd guess the Wuhan and lack of events? Just my take on it.

I have received a PM from an individual kind of explaining what happened. I do not fully understand it still.
I think it would be appropriate for there to be a public explanation to the membership about the topic. But that is just my opinion.

Later this evening, having been the chairman of the DSP, I will address the reasons for the suspension of the program.





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Gentleman - From the beginning....

The Distinguished Service Award Program was the brainchild of Art Wheaton and both he and I worked very hard on bringing it to fruition. It was actually a labor of love and was based on Art's belief that people who work hard, especially those who do so on a volunteer basis, should be recognized - especially those who go above and beyond.

And so, here it is as it was originally conceived...

Distinguished Service Award: The purpose of the PGCA Distinguished Service Award Program is to adopt a way to recognize a member's personal contributions of spirit, time, dedication and reliability unselfishly donated for the good of the organization. These members will be recognized before their peers at an official PGCA function, primarily the PGCA Annual Meeting and Banquet.

The members recognized will have gone 'above and beyond ' the ordinary and will have distanced themselves by the merit of their deeds. They will have furthered the mission of the PGCA and will have promoted good will and fellowship among members and visitors at activities including the Forum, PGCA sanctioned events, PGCA displays, and PGCA 'headquarters' at shows and events. They will have given freely of their time in doing these deeds and will have presented a friendly face of the PGCA.

The award for each recipient will be a lapel pin replicating the distinct outline and engraving of the fore end tip of a high grade Parker gun. The recipient will also receive an award letter that is suitable for framing.

Members of the PGCA who have received the Distinguished Service Award Pin have their names placed on an Distinguished Service Honor Roll to provide a permanent record of their extraordinary service to the Parker Gun Collectors Association.

If you would like to nominate a fellow PGCA member to be considered for the Distinguished Service Award fill out a nomination form and submit it to the PGCA.

Nominations are accumulated for a rolling three-year period. After a name has been in the nominations file for three consecutive years it will drop off leaving only current (within a calendar three years) entries for that nominee.


The program progressed very well and as planned for several years, in spite of some grumblings by a few who weren't happy with the way it was conducted. You see, these members didn't think the program was being run properly... They believed the DSA Committee should have posted a slate of people they could vote on. But the program was never designed for the Committee to nominate candidates for the membership to vote on. It was designed to allow members to nominate members of their choice who met the criteria set forth and whomever received the most nominations (two per year) would be awarded with the Distinguished Service recognition. But it was never intended that the Committee would determine or decide who the award recipients would be - we were just the ones who kept track of the nominations and presented gthe awards... nothing more - it was all up to the membership who they wanted to be recognized.

The committee consisted of three PGCA members, myself as chairman and two other committee members. Robin Lewis was indispensable as the person who created and maintained the EXCEL spreadsheet of all nominees, dates nominated, reasons the nominators listed for believing the nominee was deserving of the award, those who received the award and color coding them by the three individual years in which each was nominated.

But, aside from the external controversary on how the program was being run, we had dissention in our committee ranks. It was argued that if a particular nominee (name withheld) received enough nominations to receive the award, this committee member would quit the committee because he believed the (unnamed) nominee didn't meet the criteria set forth in the program rules. The (unnamed) nominee actually did receive the DSA...

Then Robin Lewis quit the PGCA for personal reasons (reasons which I do NOT disagree with) leaving me as the DSP committee, on top of my responsibilities as editor of Parker Pages as well as things going on in my personal life.

Unfortunately I simply could not continue with the DSA Program and I contacted the BOD spelling all of this out and asked them to reach out and find a new DSA committee chairman and another member and I would stay on as a committee member.

So the BOD reached out but nobody tossed their hat into the ring. Volunteers in organizations such as the PGCA are extremely hard to find... most people simply want the benefits of membership but don't want to, or can't, put in the time required to make it a success. These programs don't simply just happen... they require the dedication of volunteers. No, there is no pay... The only remuneration is knowing you have contributed to the success of an organization we hold very dear because of its value to more than just our 1,400 plus members but to visitors to our website.

Our collective hat is off to those volunteers who make the PGCA the very best American SXS organization in existence - you make us all proud!!


This then, is the reason for the suspension of the Distinguished Service Award Program. It can continue and we hope it does because it is a very worthy program that celebrates the best, the most distinguished, members of the PGCA.

Your BOD will be more than happy to add you to the PGCA DSA Program committee.





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Thank you for that summation Dean. Thanks to both you and Robin for running the committee. Hopefully a few members will step up and take over.

Dean,

Thank you for the explanation of what has transpired with the program. It is unfortunate to hear of the issues that were encountered to contribute to its current state.

It is ultimately the Board of Directors decision to decide if they want to continue with the program, revamp how it is handled, or scrap it all together.

Nothing frustrates me more than people who complain about something, but never are willing to help with the thing that they complain about. And to not look like someone who is doing that, I will say that I would be more than willing to help in any way needed with the program if it were determined that it should be continued. I will put my name in the hat for consideration.

And I would also encourage ANYONE who would like to see the program continue, or even those who have taken umbrage with it in the past, to also step up and be considered as well.

That's the spirit Brian! Thank You!





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Or another thought is that maybe the program has ran its course. ?
When looking at the criteria, and that a person can only be awarded it one time. The pool eventually gets smaller and smaller for people to choose from.

I really don't think it has run its course. There are still a good number of deserving members who have not received the award.

The rules could always be revamped by a new committee if it is deemed necessary.





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Dudley, thank you for your comment, but I think Dean's further comment is more pertinent. There are members, present and future, who will deserve a nomination. Dean, where can we see the list of past successful nominees. Thanks.

You can find a list of past DSA recipients on the Home page under the Awards link.





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The list needs to be updated. I believe Bruce Day and Josh Loewensteiner were recognized in 2019.

And that's one more thing we lost when we lost Robin Lewis...

He almost single-handedly maintained and updated all of those back pages to our website.

I'll be glad to volunteer my services to maintain all of those informational back pages but I would need John Dunkle's authorization.





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If we just need someone who can run a google sheets excel document, I’m fairly confident I can do that. I’m not very mobile and unable to attend a lot of PGCA events for a variety of reasons, so this gives me some feeling of participation. I would need maybe a little more explanation or a brief overview of Robin’s spreadsheet before I commit totally, but this does not sound like rocket science or a massive time commitment to maintain. So Ill toss my hat in the ring for that.

THAT’S THE SPIRIT!!

Not exactly the case, nor exactly true.

But, as I've said to you and others on the BOD, if folks who are in charge of their areas in the PGCA, want changes on the website - simply email me the changes....

It's worked that way for years, but apparently you have a different view.

By the way, you want to update the pages - go for it, Dean!!! How are you with FTP, CPanel, CSS, and HTML coding...

John D.

Well then - it has been pointed out to me that my explanation of the situation was in error.

So be it.

I never intended or wanted to mislead anyone on the situation so I’ll just bow out of this discussion.

Best, Dean





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