The PAA Board charged this Ad Hoc Committee on PAA Awards to assess the views of the membership on awards, to ascertain how "sister" professional associations handle awards, to recommend an awards policy, to recommend whether to establish a standing Committee on Awards, and consider ways other than through establishment of awards that PAA members might be memorialized. Our recommendations cover some but not all aspects of this charge. For example, in our investigation of other associations, we have not come upon a clear, widely used alternative to awards and hence do not report about alternatives. Nor have we surveyed members, though one of our recommendations is to solicit member feedback on changes in awards policy.
I. What categories of achievement might the association wish to recognize, and how well do existing PAA awards fit these categories? In answering the first question, we were influenced by our participation in and knowledge of other associations as well as by existing PAA awards. The general categories that seem most compelling (and are most often recognized by other associations) are:
1. Career of Distinguished Scholarship-- an award that recognizes a "giant" in the field, often the most prestigious award an association gives. PAA's Irene B. Taeuber Award, given biennially, is such an award. The Mendel Sheps Award also recognizes a distinguished career but its restriction to mathematical demography eliminates much of the profession from consideration. We also note that, although the Robert Lapham Award was established to recognize service, its recipients have often also had a career of distinguished scholarship.
2. Most Influential Recent (e.g., previous 3 or 5 years) Scholarly Publication--in the field of demography, this is likely to be an article but it could be a book that has had a major impact on the profession. Currently PAA does not give such an award.
3. Early Career Achievement Award--an award that recognizes someone who has made signal scholarly contributions to the field early in his/her career. The Clogg Award, given biennially, comes closest to this concept by recognizing achievement and restricting eligibility to those whose degree was awarded in the past 20 years. It is specifically targeted to achievements in statistical demography, however.
4. Career of Distinguished Service to the Profession-- other associations often have an award for someone who has advanced the field in ways other than through scholarship. As noted above, the Robert Lapham Award, given biennially, was established to recognize service, although in practice the award has gone to individuals who have also made a significant scholarly contribution to the field.
5. Promising Graduate Student Award-- probably best determined by an award for the best publication or paper by a graduate student or a dissertation award. The Dorothy Thomas award for a graduate student paper, given annually, recognizes student achievement and, over the years, has been broadened to consider most topics in demography.
II. Overhead costs to PAA of administering awards
PAA manages restricted accounts for three of the awards that it gives (Thomas, Lapham and Clogg). The Taeuber and Sheps Award funds are administered by other organizations. Relative to what other associations set as minimum amounts for restricted accounts, the award accounts administered by PAA are quite modest, ranging from approximately $10,000 to approximately $35,000. Administering awards and award committees clearly entails a cost to the PAA Executive Office as well as a small time cost to the President, who makes PAA award committee appointments, and to the Secretary-Treasurer if s/he advises the President on these appointments. All award committees except for the Thomas Award require coordination with another institution for appointments. For example, the Lapham award requires a Population Council and a University of Michigan appointment; the Taeuber award has Princeton appointments; the Sheps award has UNC appointments; Clogg has Penn State appointments.
III. Time devoted to awards at the Presidential Address may exceed membership tolerance
The number of awards given at the PAA Presidential address session is substantially smaller than at the Presidential Address session of some other associations (i.e., the American Statistical Association and the American Sociological Association). We do not know whether PAA members view the time devoted to awards as appropriate or excessive. If PAA were to give awards in all of the "ideal" categories listed above, the number of awards obviously would increase.
IV. Lack of any policy on new formation of awards or any review of existing awards
To date, PAA has had an "as the need arises" policy towards awards. As members clamor for the addition of an award and engage in fund raising for the award, or as a family donor emerges, an ad hoc committee is formed to establish the award, with the PAA Board granting final approval. There is at least one such initiative currently in process.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Institute a policy of a minimum dollar amount that must be raised before a proposal for a new, named award will be considered. For example, the American Sociological Association does not accept named grants of less that $100,000 without approval of its Council. The American Statistical Association requires amounts in the $50,000-75,000 range before a restricted account for a named award is established. Our suggestion is to consider establishing a minimum amount in the $30,000 to $50,000 range.
2. The PAA Board should consider taking a more pro-active role in the establishment of new awards and steer new fund raising efforts/award proposals in one of two directions:
a) creating awards for achievements that the association would like to recognize but currently does not (e.g., recent scholarly publication), or b) encouraging new donors to work with an existing named award committee to create a jointly named award in order to bolster the award endowment or increase the frequency of the award.
3. If PAA administers an award, PAA should determine the composition of the entire award committee as it does in the case of the Thomas Award. One of the most dizzying aspects of the current award committee membership structure is the complexity in the type of appointments that have to be made. If award committee membership restrictions were kept to a minimum, the PAA could continue to function without a standing Awards Committee to advise the President.
4. If the number of awards grows in coming years, the PAA Board should consider whether to separate awards from the Presidential Address session. Awards could be bestowed at a separate session or reception held to honor award recipients. Currently we would recommend no change. That is, we view the issue of "How many awards" versus "How many at the Presidential Address" as somewhat separable. We note that the American Statistical Association, which gives many more awards at its Presidential Address session, considered such a separation but ultimately decided against it because of concern that separating the two would result in low attendance at the award session.
5. We strongly recommend the Board follow an "OMB" like procedure in announcing policies concerning awards --a change in policy adopted at this or subsequent Board meetings, and the rationale for the action, should be described in PAA Affairs. After the membership has been given a chance to comment, the PAA Board should consider whether to make any changes in policy.