Member of the Quarter Program Rules
UAEA is launching a new program, a quarterly recognition of our exemplary members. We believe our members are doing amazing work every day and want some way of highlighting the best of our group. That said, as of this post we represent 330 City of Tempe employees and a total of 145 different job descriptions. We recognize that the definition of “exemplary” will vary considerably from department to department and want each work area to nominate the employees that they feel deserve recognition. If you have someone in mind, please check out the application. That said, there are some rules that will govern this process: please review them below and reach out if you have any questions.
A “Quarter” is a three-month period. UAEA plans to recognize members every Spring (January, February, March), Summer (April, May, June), Fall (July, August, September), and Winter (October, November, December). Announcements of winners will be made in the first month of each Quarter.
Nominations for each Quarter will be accepted no later than the first day of the month prior to the beginning of the following Quarter. (ie, if the Spring 2025 Quarter starts on January 1st, the final day to submit nominations will be December 1st. Applications received after this date will be considered in the following Quarter’s pool.
Given that the program is launching almost halfway through the Winter 2024 Quarter, nomination for the first round (Spring 2025) will be accepted until Friday, December 13th.
The UAEA Member of the Quarter program is meant to highlight the work of exemplary UAEA members from across the City of Tempe. Exemplary can mean very different things based upon the roles each member plays in keeping our City functioning.
“Exemplary” is a broad phrase meant to encompass as much as possible. The UAEA Board recognizes that not every job receives opportunities for awards or recognition for their work and wants this to be an opportunity to highlight people who otherwise may not receive plaudits. Exemplary work could be a long-term commitment to a role in Tempe (ie, serving Tempe for 20+ years), high-quality work in a role, (ie, delivering some quantifiably high level of performance in a short period of time), supporting department peers in some way, innovating some new solution to a department problem, winning recognition from your field, etc. The evaluation team is tentatively open to considering work done outside of a nominee’s official UAEA role, such as volunteer activity or assisting someone at the scene of a car accident, but as much as possible we want the nominations to focus on the work done as a City of Tempe employee.
Questions to ask if you’re not sure if someone should be nominated:
Has this person not been recognized by City of Tempe Management or staff in the past and deserves some praise?
Did this person recently receive praise or an award from a non-Tempe organization?
Am I nominating this person for a reason someone within this workgroup would recognize as important or worthy of respect? (Does this person take a lot of OT shifts to help cover gaps? Does this person operate more efficiently than other people in this workgroup? Has this person gone above and beyond to assist their peers either in day-to-day operations or in meetings with management? Does this person have an amazing attitude that helps ease the tension caused by a difficult job?
Is this person an exemplary example of UAEA who can represent our organization well both internally and externally?
An independent team of UAEA members (none of which can be nominees) will evaluate the nominations each quarter and present a list of finalists to the UAEA Executive Board. Finalists will be officially announced in the Quarterly Newsletter but may be notified privately prior to the release of the Newsletter to confirm acceptance.
The Evaluation Team may reach out to the person who submitted each application if additional information is needed.
Nominations will be considered with regards to the quality of the performance/award/activity outlined in the application, the number of applications submitted for each nominee, whether others have already recognized the work of this employee, how long they have been a member of UAEA, and, if needed as a tie-breaker, whether or not members of their work area have been nominated recently. Consideration will be given to ensure members from all areas of the City receive comparable recognition.
If insufficient applications are received in each Quarter to recognize at least 3 UAEA members, the evaluation team will have the discretion to re-evaluate prior applications from the past 4 Quarters.
3-5 members may receive recognition each Quarter. If the independent team believes more than 5 people deserve recognition in a Quarter, they may recommend that candidates be recognized in a future Quarter
UAEA members may receive recognition only once per Calendar Year.
These awards may only be given to UAEA members. Members must have been a part of UAEA for at least a month prior to receiving an award.
Members should be nominated only for exemplary performance or activity that occurred while they were a member of UAEA. Members who are nominated but leave the City or promote out of UAEA prior to being awarded will be removed from consideration.
UAEA members may nominate themselves or others. Multiple nominations from one member are fine, as long as each nomination is for a distinct individual.
Nominations should explain, as clearly as possible, what the nominee did and why they deserve recognition. Please keep in mind that the people reviewing the application may not be familiar with the specifics of the nominees’ job - please explain as clearly as possible why the performance was exceptional or otherwise worthy of consideration.
Due to confidentiality, UAEA cannot disclose which City of Tempe employees are current members. We encourage you to touch base with your peers if you don’t know their membership status.
UAEA Executive Team and Committee members are eligible for recognition in this program but they cannot be nominated by themselves or any other member of their Board or Committee. Recognition should be based upon the work they do as a full-time City of Tempe employee and not anything related to their work with UAEA. No more than one Executive Team member may be awarded each Quarter, if they are indeed nominated. The Vice President and President roles will be excluded entirely from this program.
Members who accept an award agree that UAEA may use their name, photo, and reason they have won on internal documentation, our newsletter, or when communicating with City Council and City Management. We are proud of our team and want to highlight our winners at all levels.
Members may be disqualified from future consideration if they attempt to “game” the system by submitting multiple applications for themselves, if they lie or misrepresent facts on their application, or if they have otherwise violated any aspect of the UAEA Membership Code of Conduct while under consideration for this award. This award is meant to highlight the best and brightest of UAEA and behavior that is contrary to that goal may
Members under investigation or in an active disciplinary process are still eligible for consideration but UAEA reserves the right to revoke an award if the result of an investigation is a termination. Without discussing possible scenarios in too much detail, the intent of this is to protect the reputation of our organization - we have no intention of doing this if we believe the termination was unjust or otherwise supported an appeal.
As of the start of the program, winners will receive an official UAEA Certificate, a $25 gift card, and recognition within UAEA within our newsletter, in emails, and at our general meetings. The UAEA Board is open to further suggestions about how to best recognize our peers.
These guidelines are a general outline of this program. The UAEA Board and Review Committee may make additional changes over time if deemed necessary. An up-to-date copy of these rules may be seen at uaeatempe.com/documents at all times. Questions about this process may be directed to the UAEA President.