AAIDD COMMITTEES

ANNOUNCEMENT

Applications for promotion from Active membership to Fellowship status are now being received for the 2008-09 Awards & Fellowship Committee review.

The deadline for receipt of applications is October 31, 2008

To download the Fellowship Application, please click here

Procedure for rating nominees

The Constitution and Bylaws provide that:

Fellows shall be individuals who have had at least seven years of continuous Active membership in the Association at the time of their nomination. Fellows shall have participated in the professional and business affairs of the Association, and shall have made a meritorious contribution to the field of mental retardation in one or more of the following areas:

Contributions to program development or administration and the improvement of services for people with mental retardation

Contributions that benefit people with mental retardation through skillful and diligent advocacy

Contributions to the field of mental retardation through academic achievements, research, publications, and presentation of professional papers

The application form allows, insofar as possible, for an objective evaluation of the member's qualifications to become a Fellow. Additional evidence is also required.

All material submitted is subject to review by references as well as authorities in the fields claimed for meritorious contribution.

Chairperson Awards & Fellowship Committee

PROCEDURES FOR RATING NOMINEES FOR FELLOW STATUS

A number of principles have guided the development of these revised procedures and rating form.

These are guidelines which will inform the Committee's recommendations for Fellow status. However, in exceptional cases, either the Awards and Fellowship Committee or the Board can over-ride the guidelines.

The guidelines were developed to operationalize the by-laws on this topic. The by-laws state the criteria for awarding the honor of fellow status as follows.

"Fellows shall be individuals who have had at least seven (7) years of continuous active membership in the Association at the time of their nomination. Fellows shall have participated in the professional and business affairs of the Association and shall have made meritorious contributions to the field of mental retardation in one or more of the following areas:

A. Contributions to program development or administration and the improvement of services for people with mental retardation.

B. Contributions which benefit people with mental retardation through skillful and diligent advocacy.

C. Contributions to the field of mental retardation through academic achievements, research, publications, and presentation of professional papers.

The evaluation form consists of parallel ratings of the contributions made to the professional and business affairs of the Association (left column) and to the field of mental retardation (right column). The definitions of 'contributions' to each domain are based directly on the wording in the by-laws, and appear as footnotes to the rating form.

Recognizing that the by-laws require that fellows shall have made contributions to both the Association AND to the field of mental retardation, the proposed scoring system was structured so that that meritorious contributions to both are needed to reach a score of 80, which is needed for consideration by the Committee.

We recommend that the rating form be posted on the AAIDD website, in the interest of an open process.

Fellows of the Association shall be in support of the mission and values of AAIDD

We recommend that if a Fellow is found to have breached the AAIDD code of professional conduct, that the designation of Fellow status will be revoked, by a two-thirds vote of the Board of Directors.