Volunteer of the Year "Heart of RIMS" Award

Guidelines

Award Criteria

A candidate for this award must show expertise or experience in the following areas:

1. Promoting the health of RIMS chapter(s)
2. Positive public image
3. Team player
4. Leadership
5. Creativity
6. Advancing the risk management profession

Please cite specific examples of each criteria requirement above in your application.

Volunteer of the Year "Heart of RIMS" Award Nomination Form

Submission Deadline

Friday, January 16, 2026

In Recognition

In recognition of being chosen, the Volunteer of the Year "Heart of RIMS" award will be presented to the recipient at RISKWORLD.

Eligibility

This award is not restricted to a specific time period and may span a candidate’s entire RIMS Membership. Volunteer contributions may include activity in more than one Chapter, and may include representing a Chapter at the local, regional, and/or RIMS (Society) level.

To be eligible, a candidate shall:

• Be an active RIMS Member in any membership category at the time of nomination; and
• Not be involved as a Society RIMS Officer (President, Vice President, Secretary, or Treasurer) or Member of the Member and Chapter Awards Committee, from the time of nomination to the time of award presentation.

Note: The Volunteer of the Year "Heart of RIMS" Award presentation takes place at RISKWORLD.

To be eligible, a candidate’s Chapter contributions must take place while being a Professional Member of the Society.

As the intent of this Award is to recognize contributions at the Chapter level, activities at the Society level (Society Officer duties, Board of Director duties, and Society Advisory Committee duties) are not germane to the application and will carry no weight in assessing an individual’s nomination.

Judging

Entries will be scored by the Member and Chapter Awards Committee. The committee will review the submissions in January 2025. Members of the Member and Chapter Awards committee who are members of the same chapter as the nominee or are long-standing personal friends/professional colleagues may be requested to exclude themselves from voting on the award.

Entries submitted may be displayed, shown, duplicated, published, or disposed of after the award winner is selected and announced at RISKWORLD.

Notification

A representative of the Member and Chapter Awards Committee will notify the submitter shortly after the January meeting. The submitter may choose to notify the recipient or may request that the Member and Chapter Awards Chair notify him/her prior to the RIMS Annual Conference.

Entry Tips

It is likely that the members of the Member and Chapter Awards Committee will not know your candidate personally and will not be familiar with their achievements relative to activities at the chapter level. It is important to be specific in your descriptions and use more than one example throughout the application.

Two electronic letters of recommendation for the candidate are required with each nomination. These recommendations must be from two different sources, excluding the individual doing the nominating, such as co-workers, other chapter board members, members of the risk management community, educators, students, or a member of the RIMS Board of Directors. At least one letter must be from a current or former supervisor. Members of the Member and Chapter Awards Committee may not provide letters of recommendation.

The committee reserves the right to not have an award recipient if no qualified candidate is submitted.