Acceptance of the 2015 Mineralogical Society of America Distinguished Public Service Award

Abstract

Thank you, Peter, for the kind words. They are much appreciated. At this point, typical Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) awardees will relate why they think they received their honor. Unlike other MSA awardees, I need not guess. Even before Council saw it, the award committee’s report and the nomination package came my way as I collected reports for the Council meeting, along with, at first, a puzzling congratulatory sentence in the cover message from the committee chair. My award nominator and supporters were mostly past MSA Presidents. (Thank you.) Each recognized dual contributions both in my role a MSA’s Executive Director and my acting beyond the requirements of the position. It was noted that just doing a good job extremely well might not constitute the exceptional contributions recognized by the Public Service Award. This was the challenge faced by the award nominator and supporters. Thus the letter writers’ task primarily became an exercise to communicate to the award committee the wider public service by MSA to the society and, secondarily, my role. Each had a different take on the public service criteria, which reflected their interests and the issues that arose during their time in office. The criteria they wrote about fell into four areas: These were the readily recognized public services such as Mineralogy4Kids, Distinguished Lecturer Program, research grant programs, Collector’s Corner, and databases. This would also include MSA-Talk, MSA’s presence at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, and the 15 …