 New York State Ornithological Association For the birders and birds of the Empire State |
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NYSOA Awards Program This page last updated 2/28/24 |
Each fall, NYSOA presents awards at the Annual Meeting banquet. Nominations for awards can be made by member clubs/organizations. For the Stoner Award, nominations can be made by member clubs/organizations or individual NYSOA members. The awards are:
The Gordon M. Meade Distinguished Service Award This special award is given to individuals for outstanding service to NYSOA. Send suggestions to the . Most recently (in 2018), Tom Burke was recognized with the Gordon M. Meade Distinguished Service Award, for his many distinguished contributions to the New York State Ornithological Association, and in particular for his thirty years of service as a member of the New York State Avian Records Committee.
The President's Award has previously been given to:
The Emanuel Levine Memorial Award UPDATED 10/26/23 This award, formerly the John J. Elliott Award, recognizes the best Kingbird article each year, selected by the editorial staff. Editor Shai Mitra presented the 2023 Emanuel Levine Award for best article in The Kingbird in 2022 to Candace E. Cornell for her article, “Colonization of the Finger Lakes Region of New York State by nesting Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus carolinensis)” (The Kingbird, Vol. 72, No. 3, September 2022).
The previous 6 winners of the John J. Elliott / Emanuel Levine Memorial Award were:
See a list of all John J. Elliott & Emanuel Levine Memorial Award Winners since 1965
The Lillian C. Stoner Award UPDATED 2/28/24 In 1975 Lillian C. Stoner, a founding member of the Federation of New York State Bird Clubs (now NYSOA), donated money to the organization to establish a fund to enable a student to attend the Annual Meeting each year. The intent of the award is not so much to recognize past achievement but rather to foster a promising young person’s interest in wild birds and ornithology by offering the education and experience of the fall conference.
NYSOA considers nominees who will, at the time of the conference, be in high school grades 10, 11, or 12 (sophomore, junior, or senior), or in one of their first two years in college (freshman or sophomore). Candidates may be anywhere along the birding skill spectrum from beginner to advanced. Our objective is to select winners who demonstrate a strong interest in wild birds and whose attendance at the Annual Meeting will positively influence their desire to pursue birding and/or ornithology as a lifelong interest.
Nominations may be made by NYSOA member clubs/organizations, NYSOA Individual/Family members, and the New York State Young Birders Club. Every student nominee for this award (whether a winner or not) will receive a one year membership in NYSOA. Each Lillian C. Stoner Award winner will receive a certificate and a monetary award to help defray the cost of attending the Annual Meeting. Winners will be honored publicly at the Annual Meeting banquet and announced in NYSOA's publications and website.
If you are interested in nominating a budding birder (or a more advanced one), submit a completed nomination form to the by July 20 for consideration in 2024.
There were two winners in 2023:
Certificates of Appreciation UPDATED 10/26/23 In recent years, nominations have been accepted for recipients
of Certificates of Appreciation. Some of these certificates are awarded
for exceptional efforts that benefited
New York State birds and/or ornithology. Others have been awarded
to "hosts" of rare birds that visited New York State.
These hosts are recognized for their hospitality to birders who
came to view the rare bird. Nominations for Certificates of Appreciation
should be submitted in letter form, providing the name and address of the nominee along with the reason for the nomination, to
the
. In 2023 Certificates of Appreciation were awarded to:
See a list of all Certificates of Appreciation since 2006 UPDATED 10/26/23
Member Club/Organization Grants NYSOA is committed to facilitating the work of its member clubs/organizations and offers modest grants (usually less than $100) to help defray the costs associated with projects they undertake. In the past, grants have been awarded for purchases of equipment for specific projects (e.g. mistnets) and the printing of local or regional bird checklists. More recently grants have gone toward establishing a bird sightings database and constructing an informational kiosk at Cayuga Lake. Applications can be made at any time, and should include a brief description of the project, items to be produced, and a statement of how much funding is needed and how the funds will be used relative to the overall project budget. Send applications in letter form to the . A member club/organization grant was awarded most recently in 2010 to the Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch to purchase one-page hawk identification guides for an educational event. The Newsletter Award is presented to editors of member club/organization newsletters to recognize both the quality of content and the visual impact of newsletters. Newsletter Awards were presented in 2000 to:
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