McGinnis Award

Description

The IEEE AUTOTESTCON Frank McGinnis Professional Achievement Award is given in memory of the late Frank McGinnis of the Sperry Corporation, who was  instrumental in bringing military automated test to the forefront of visibility for government and industry alike. Mr. McGinnis founded the Navy Ad Hoc ATE Project for the Navy in 1975, under National Security Industrial Association (NSIA) leadership, to examine and recommend to the Navy a program of research & development to help increase the competency levels of automated test. This led to a Joint Services ATE Project that started in 1978 and had a similar purpose, except the focus was tri-service. The culmination was the formation in late 1980 of the NSIA Automated Test Committee, a permanent activity to maintain a focus on military automated test. This activity is still vibrant and functioning, as a Committee of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA, successor to the NSIA) Systems Engineering Division.

The Professional Achievement Award was established in Frank McGinnis’ memory and honor to recognize managers or professionals in the ATE industry who have demonstrated long-term leadership in the field. The Award is a renaming of the former AUTOTESTCON “Man Of The Year” award. The award is presented at the AUTOTESTCON awards luncheon by the AUTOTESTCON Board Chair or Vice-Chair. The Award includes a check, from the current AUTOTESTCON budget, in the amount of $2,000.00, plus a suitable permanent trophy. Prior to 2009, the award consisted of one-year stewardship of a perpetual trophy, and the following year, when the perpetual trophy was awarded to another recipient, the previous winner would receive receives a smaller “keeper” trophy or commemorative plaque, also sponsored by the then-current AUTOTESTCON committee from its budget. In 2009, the permanent award was given to the National Electronics Museum near Baltimore MD to be put on permanent display via a a one-time grant from the Aerospace & Electronic Systems Society. The trophy is ordered by the AUTOTESTCON Board administrative assistant, and as previously noted, paid for by the current AUTOTESTCON Committee.

Sponsorship

The McGinnis Leadership Award is sponsored by the Board of Directors of AUTOTESTCON, and funded by the current year AUTOTESTCON.

Award Criteria

• Nominees must have clearly demonstrated outstanding professional leadership in the ATE field spanning a career
• Nominees should have visibility to the outside world, beyond the normal functional duties of his/her organization
• Demonstrated accomplishments should have significant impact across the automated test community
• Nominees should have visible participation in IEEE AUTOTESTCON
• Nominations may be submitted by any individual, regardless of affiliation
• Nominations should be accompanied by a short biographical sketch, along with a short (300-500) word summary recommendation

Nomination & Balloting Process

• A nominating committee will be appointed each year by January 1, consisting of two or more members of the AUTOTESTCON Board
• The Nominating Committee will solicit nominations via a variety of means, including AUTOTESTCON attendees, AUTOTESTCON exhibitors, AUTOTESTCON Board Sponsoring Societies (I&M, AESS), personal contacts, etc.
• Award nomination solicitations should be publicized via I&M Magazine and AESS Magazine announcements, along with notices sent to various trade publications and organizations that are concerned with automated test.
• Nominations are to be sent to the designated Agent of the Board
• The Nominating Committee shall screen all nominees to assure compliance with the established Criteria and Eligibility regulations, and prepare a final slate
• Once nominations are received and screened, and the slate prepared, which should occur no later than May 1 of each year, balloting shall occur among Board members, with each member having one vote.
• Ballots shall be sent to Board members with instructions to note 1st choice, 2nd choice, etc. Ballots shall be tallied by adding all numbers per candidate, with the lowest count winning. A ballot received with a blank space by a candidate’s name shall be counted as a number representing the highest number of candidates on the ballot.
• Ballots shall also have a “no award” entry, and if a simple majority of votes cast  indicate “no award”, then the McGinnis award will be not presented for that year

Eligibility

• The McGinnis Award may only be received once by the same individual.  The former "AUTOTESTCON Man of the Year" is considered the predecessor award to the McGinnis award, and recipients of this award are included in this eligibility determination.  Prior recipients are listed below.
• Only those individuals who have been active within the past two years shall be eligible for the award.
• Current members of the Board of Directors are not eligible for this award.
• Award Notification
• The Board administrative assistant will inform the AUTOTESTCON Board Chairman of balloting results, and shall cause the awardee to be so notified to help assure his/her attendance at the current AUTOTESTCON. The awardee will be asked to submit a current photograph and biographical sketch to the Agent at least 90 days prior to the current AUTOTESTCON to allow publication in the Proceedings and the Conference Program.

 

Entry
Nominations for the Frank McGinnis award can be filled out with the following Nomination Form.  Please return form to:

Judy Scharmann at [email protected]

Deadlines

Nomination package:  31 May 2015
Biographical Sketch and Photo (winners only):  1 July 2015

Frank McGinnis Award Winners

Man of the Year Winners
1984 - Patrick M. Toscano
1981 - Bernard P. Gollomp
1980 - David M. Goodman
1979 - Fred Liguori