From the Executive Director: Nominations Open for 2014 FLATE Manufacturing Educator and Manufacturing Industry Service Awards

Nominations are now open for recognizing 2014 FLATE manufacturing educator and manufacturing industry

service awards. This will be our seventh year of recognizing outstanding secondary and post-secondary classroom educators as well as industry and community partners who support the advanced manufacturing industry in Florida.  Twenty one outstanding and dedicated educators and advanced manufacturing professionals from all over the state have been recognized to date.

For 2014, we have improved the process to make it easier to nominate deserving colleagues.  Here is how the 2014 FLATE award process will work:

• Brainstorm a couple of deserving nominees
• Visit the FLATE awards website: http://fl-ate.org/projects/awards/index.html
• Click on Nomination Form I
• Enter your nominee’s name and contact information as well as your own
• Hit the submit button (and you are done with part 1)
• In a couple of days, you and the nominee will get an email from FLATE with an award nominee code and a link to Part II of the nomination process (Note: this part pertains to only nominees)

Part II of the Online Application to be completed by Nominees Only (Due by Sep. 30, 2014)
(Form can be downloaded at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FLATEAWARDNOMINATIONS_PartII)

• Enter your name and name of two references
• Draft a maximum of 250 word statement outlining importance of manufacturing education
• Draft 250 word (or less) statement stating how they have impacted manufacturing education and/or engineering technology education and training for students, educators and community at the local/state/national level
• Click "submit" button

Selection committee will announce winners by November 1, 2014. FLATE Awards are reviewed and judged by our Industry Advisory Committee using a point leveled rubric and score tally sheet. They return their recommendations to FLATE after reviewing all the completed nomination forms. We hope that the two-step process will make the nomination process easier for everyone. By bringing the nominee into the process, the nominee can help document his, or her own accomplishments.

As in the past, FLATE Awardees will be recognized at the Annual Manufacturers Association of Florida (MAF) Annual Summit and Global Marketplace this December. We encourage everyone to celebrate manufacturing and manufacturing education by nominating a colleague or two for one of the FLATE awards. You can learn more about FLATE awards and all of the past FLATE awardees on our website at http://fl-ate.org/projects/awards/index.html.

As you wind down for summer, I encourage you to sit back and take a moment to read the stories in this edition of the FLATE Focus. As always we have great stories focused on engaging women in STEM and also our outreach efforts that culminate into camps for students and educators around this time of the year. Send us your thoughts and comments via email (news@fl-ate.org), or post them right here below the news stories on the blog, or across our social networking platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) using the #STEMtastcSummer .