ACEM Medal

AH371 V4

This policy governs the criteria, procedure and processes for the awarding of the ACEM Medal, which is awarded by the Board of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM; the College) to a Fellow of the College (FACEM) who has given distinguished service to the affairs of the College.

The ACEM Medal is considered the highest award that can be bestowed by the College in recognition of distinguished service to the College over a period of time by an ACEM Fellow. The award is made by the ACEM Board, following receipt of a nomination(s) from the Council of Advocacy, Practice and Partnerships (CAPP), the Council of Education (COE) and/or ACEM Board members.

3.1 Nature of Prize

The medal shall be cast in a precious metal. The College crest shall appear on its obverse side and the words, "For distinguished service to the College" along with the recipient’s name and date of award, on the reverse side.

3.2 Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility for the ACEM Medal is limited to ACEM Fellows who are in good standing with the College.  That is, Fellows who, at the time that they are nominated and/or that nomination is considered, have no debts to the College and who are not subject to any College disciplinary or other investigations by the College and who have met all ACEM Recertification requirements as set out in Regulation E1 – Fellowship Recertification.  The ACEM Medal may be awarded to Retired Fellows and Honorary Fellows.

3.3 Selection Criteria and Process

The ACEM Medal shall be awarded to an eligible individual who is judged to have given distinguished service to the affairs of the College.  Such service may be in relation to any area(s) of College activities; however, should be such that the service was over an extended period of time and the benefits of that service to the College are considered to be such that they are outstanding relative to other Fellows involved in College activities, and to have made an exceptional contribution to the development of the College.

A maximum of three (3) ACEM Medals may be awarded in any calendar year, with a maximum of one (1) award arising from nominations provided by each of CAPP, COE and the ACEM Board.

A call for nominations will be made by the ACEM Board to CAPP, COE and members of the Board in the first half of each calendar year.  Nominations must be made on the prescribed nomination form, with each nomination endorsed by a proposer and two others.  The proposer and at least one of the other two must be FACEM members of the Council from which the nomination is being made or members of the Board as applicable.  Where the third endorser is not a member of the Council from which the nomination is being made or the Board, as applicable, they must be a FACEM in good standing with the College, who has sufficient professional association with and knowledge of the nominee and their contributions to the College to provide detailed support for the nomination.

A proposed citation that acts as both support for the consideration of the award and the citation to be included with the award must be supplied with the nomination form.  The citation should be no longer than four hundred words to enable it to be contained on a single A4 typed sheet.

In keeping with the significance of the award, the process of nomination is one that is undertaken by the relevant Council and nominees should not be aware of their consideration for the award, either at the stage of consideration by the relevant Council, or by the Board.

Nominations arising from CAPP or COE are considered in the first instance by the relevant Council, with a majority vote of that Council (excluding any individual Council members under consideration for the award) being required in order for the nomination to be forwarded for consideration to the ACEM Board.

Only one (1) nomination for the award may be forwarded by each of CAPP and COE for the consideration of the ACEM Board when a call for nominations is made.  Thus, where either CAPP or COE receive more than one nomination and the Council(s) in question resolve that more than one nomination is worthy of support (i.e., more than half the members present and eligible to vote support the applicable nominations), a process by which only one of the nominations is forwarded to the ACEM Board for consideration must be undertaken.

Ordinarily, this process will be through a vote of members where the potential nominations are put to the Council and the nomination with the most support (i.e. the highest number of votes) is that which will be forwarded to the ACEM Board for consideration.  Where two or more potential nominations receive an equal highest number of votes, the Chair of the Council in question will have an additional (casting) vote to decide the matter.

The ACEM President will also receive nominations from members of the Board (in line with the above nomination process), and the Board will then determine from valid nominations whether any nomination will be considered for the Award as the single nomination of the Board.The ACEM Board will consider the nomination(s) received, with a two-thirds majority of the Board required for the award to be conferred. 

The decision of the Board in relation as to whether any nomination(s) will be supported is that of members of the Board alone, and the decision is not subject to reconsideration, review or appeal under the relevant College policy.

Where the ACEM Board resolves not to support a nomination forwarded to them from either CAPP or COE and there was greater than one nomination supported by that Council during the call for nominations process for that year, but which was not the one forwarded to the Board, the Board may, at its absolute discretion, invite the Council to put forward a second nomination that was supported by the Council to the Board for consideration.  Where the original call for nominations and consideration by CAPP or COE of nominations received did not result in more than one nomination being supported by the Council and potentially being eligible for forwarding to the Board in that year, the capacity for the Council(s) to reconsider any nominations for support will not exist and the Board will not invite or consider any alternative nominations to that originally received and not supported by it.

3.4 Presentation of Award

The medal, together with a citation, will be presented at an appropriate function of the College or occasion as determined by the College President in consultation with the Chair of the nominating Council.  This will normally be considered to be a College Annual Scientific Meeting, the Winter Symposium or a Regional College Symposium.