OEST Process and Procedures Manual

For a teacher to be named an OEST winner (state or Section) in a particular year, they must be nominated by March 31st. All submissions must be entered using the section nomination form. The section liaison should inform the NAGT executive office and the National OEST Committee Chairs, Laura Hollister and Ryan Hollister, by June 1st, of all recipient names and email addresses.

Contacts

National OEST Committee Chairs: Laura Hollister and Ryan Hollister

NAGT Executive Office Contact: Rebeccah Bradley

Timetable

January 1

  • Section leadership to notify the NAGT executive office of any changes to the OEST Section Chair/Coordinator.
  • OEST Section Chair/Coordinator can sign up to receive queue notifications for new submissions, otherwise the NAGT central office will email the chair with section submissions as we get closer to the deadline. Contact the NAGT executive office for instructions for queue notifications.

January-March 31

  • Advertise OEST awards in spring newsletter and local GSA sections (nomination deadline is March 31 for all Sections)
  • Continue to remind Section representatives of approaching deadline, encourage/advertise nominations

March 31

April-May

  • Section President or OEST Section Chair/Coordinator sets up a committee for award nomination review, if needed
  • Sections to determine their own deadlines for State and Section winners for section level review, but all awardees' names and information should be submitted to the NAGT executive office by May 31

May 31

  • All awardees must be notified by the OEST Section Chair/Coordinator by this date. Section winners need to be notified first before the remaining state awardees are notified. (Each Section is responsible for notifying nominees that they won and asking them to complete the Recipient Information Form by June 15. The section is also to notify the nominator of the nominees award receipt)

June 1st

  • Section chairs contact the NAGT executive office and National OEST Committee Chair with award recipient(s) name and email address
    • Please direct your award winners to the OEST Recipient Information page (to be completed by June 15). The online form for OEST winners requires the award recipient to include a brief narrative (300 words), a digital picture (300 pixels/inch or 480 x 600 pixels), and contact information for the winner's home and school. These are required for publication in the fall edition of In the Trenches. The material may also appear in publications of the award sponsors.
    • The request for the OEST plaque should be made by the OEST Awards Section Coordinator on the OEST Plaque Information page. Award plaques will be dated in the current year. Complete the form by June 15 or at least 3 weeks prior to the date needed for presentation, whichever is earlier.
  • Follow-up, including publicity, is extremely important and is the most frequently neglected part of the OEST process. Basically, it means taking care of chores after the all the awards have been presented. The following items are critically important:
    • News releases to the hometown paper of each teacher honored as well as to all organizations newsletters
      Sample Newspaper Notice (Acrobat (PDF) 28kB Jan5 11)
    • Letters of appreciation to each financial supporter of the program.
    • Letter to each award recipient encouraging them to write a letter of appreciation to the organizations providing the award(s).
    • A letter of congratulations to the school and system administrators.
    • A letter of thanks to the organization providing the forum for NAGT to make the OEST awards.
    • These things having been done, the state, or Section, is set to begin the cycle again.

Fall

  • Recipient information printed in the fall edition of In the Trenches
  • Recognition at GSA Awards Luncheon - actual date varies

*Note that all winners provided by June 1st are winners for that calendar year. Many of the award benefits (like organization memberships, subscriptions, etc.) will not take effect until the following calendar year. This is a result of the widely varying schedules used by individual sections in presenting the awards.

Forms

These forms are used to collect information about nominations and awardees.

  • Nomination Forms - links out to a list of the nomination forms for each section. All nominations are due by March 31.
  • Plaque Ordering Form - section chairs should fill out this form by June 15 or at least 3 weeks prior to the date needed for presentation, whichever is earlier, so the NAGT Main Office can order plaques in time for award ceremonies for recipients
  • Recipient Information Form - awardees are asked to fill out this form by Section chairs by June 15. This information is used to populate awardee bios on the website and in In the Trenches

Award Details (What Awardees Receive)

Archived Instructions

The summary of information provided above should be sufficient to complete the nomination and award process. However, if you require more detailed information about the administration of the award, advertising, the nomination and selection process, and/or recognition of awardees, please use the following reference material.

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