Nominate for service, sunshine awards

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The Hoosier State Press Association invites newspaper professionals to submit nominations for the Frank O’Bannon Sunshine Award and Distinguished Service Award.

The honors will be presented during the HSPA Annual Conference Sept. 16 in Indianapolis.

The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, July 29.

Send a nominee’s name, biographical information, address and phone number, along with a letter explaining why you believe the nominee should receive a Sunshine or Distinguished Service award, to Steve Key, HSPA executive director and general counsel, at skey@hspa.com.

Written rationales should not exceed 500 words. Include any supporting documentation with your nomination.

Frank O’Bannon Sunshine Award

This award is presented to an individual, group or organization that has demonstrated outstanding efforts to protect and enhance open government in Indiana.

While not limited to public officials, HSPA hopes to recognize worthy citizens, elected officials or public employees through this award.

The award is named after the late Indiana governor who was an advocate of the people’s right to know.

Nominees may be:

• Citizens who worked to ensure the Open Door Law or Access to Public Records Act are followed in their community.

• Local or state officials who remained true to the philosophy of openness despite pressure to act in secret.
Nomination guidelines:

• An individual or an entire neighborhood organization, council, or state agency may be nominated.

• The actions warranting recognition may have occurred in the past year, or the nomination may recognize years of work that exemplify open government and public participation in the process.

Distinguished Service Award

The board of directors of the Hoosier State Press Association presents its Distinguished Service Award to an individual who has contributed in any of the following ways:

• Made a significant impact on the newspaper industry in Indiana through service to HSPA in one or more of the following areas – committee work, board membership, lobbying efforts or legal action.

• Performed outstanding service to the newspaper industry in general.

• Demonstrated service in the local community that reflected positively on its newspaper.
Nominees must be:

• A present or former employee of an HSPA-member newspaper or affiliated with journalism through a university, college or newspaper association.

• An exemplary professional who brings credit to the newspaper industry. Length of service is a major qualifying criterion but not exclusively so.

Nomination guidelines:

• Nominations may come from HSPA-member newspaper publishers, editors or other employees, including members of the board of directors.