Volunteer of the Year Awards 2023

It is important that this award stands apart from the Leadership Award, so as not to confuse leadership and volunteerism, especially considering the work that went into the consultation process to define and quantify leadership within Macra.  

Step 1: Nomination 

Candidates for the volunteer award can only be nominated by another member. The nomination form will list three attributes that we consider to be important for the volunteers within the organisation to have.  

  • Involvement 
  • Positive attitude 
  • Organisational input 

The nominator will have to give examples of times their nominee demonstrated these three attributes within the Macra community. The form will include the option to submit your answers as a voice recording in the interest of accessibility. The onus is entirely on the nominator to show that their chosen nominee is worthy of the award. This form will be worth 40% of the overall mark. 

Step 2: Shortlisting 

Between the TDOs and the 3 VPs that the entrants would be shortlisted to no more than 8 per region. No TDO or VP will be responsible for entrants from their own counties or regions. A TDO may be asked to verify that the information on the nomination form is truthful. Shortlisting will not have a mark weighting; it will simply be the mechanism to move from one step to the next. 

Step 3: Zoom Call for nominator with Judges 

Once nominees have been shortlisted, the person who nominated them will be invited to a Zoom call with the judges. This call will be a more informal conversation to discuss the elements of the nomination form in more detail. This part of the process will also be worth 40% of the overall mark. It was suggested that the judges here would be external judges, perhaps a representative from ABP and someone involved in the national volunteer centres.  

Step 4: Voting 

The member vote will be worth 20% of the overall result. The aim would be to do this through the website, with each member being able to vote for one volunteer in each region, and only being able to vote once. This not only allows member voices to be heard but provides an opportunity to promote and recognise the best of Macra’s volunteers across several social media platforms and profiles. It is important to note that social media will play no part in collecting votes, merely creating visibility for our volunteers.  

Step 5: Announcing the Winners 

The top 4 volunteers in each region will be invited to attend the banquet on the evening of the national leadership and training day on September 23rd in Athlone. They will also have the option to attend the training if they would like. Before the banquet starts, after our guests have been welcomed, the Volunteer of the Year Award will be presented. Of the 12 nominees on stage, there will be one winner announced for each region. Of those final 3, one will be named overall Volunteer of the Year.  

The closing date for receipt of entries is Fri Aug 18th at 9pm

Click here for Nomination Forms