The Meritorious Service Award was established by the AVA in 1978, and recognises long-term service to the AVA. The Meritorious Service Award may be given to AVA members, or other persons who are not eligible for membership of the Association.
Recent recipients have excelled as enthusiastic and committed servants to the Association over many years.
The Committee, Judges and Board will look at the outstanding service to veterinary science in Australia across:
Members who have rendered meritorious service to the Association, regional Divisions, Branches or Special Interest Groups.
Secondly, to persons who are not eligible for membership of the Association but who have clearly provided meritorious service to those bodies.
This service is at a lesser level or for a shorter period than that required for the award of a Fellowship.
Current employees of the AVA are not eligible for this award.
The MSA cannot be received more than once by any one person. If the nominee is a member and has notable further achievements they should be considered for a higher award, i.e., a Fellow.
The number of awards given out each year will vary depending on the calibre of the nominations received and judged.
Divisional and Special Interest Group Executive Committees.
The AVA Awards Committee is responsible for receiving the nominations and ensuring that recipients have been judged as per the criteria.
The AVA Board ratifies the recipients before they are announced to ensure suitability of all recipients.
Secrecy should be maintained in relation to nominations.
It may be necessary to speak with the nominee to obtain information required for submitting but we ask that you do this discreetly and let them know that nominations do not guarantee success.
If not successful, the same nominee can be put forward for a further 2 years following their first nomination.
Please note that these nominations will not occur automatically. Subsequent nominations must be resubmitted to ensure that all relevant information is accurate and up to date.
After 2 years the nominator will have to apply to the Awards Committee (via Peta Bortfield) to request consideration to be able to submit another nomination.
The Awards Committee will not provide feedback on the nominations as they are confidential.