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Award Process Evaluation Cycle PDF
A team from the Board of Examiners is assigned to your award application.
Independent Review: Members of the team individually review your application against the Criteria for Performance Excellence (part of the Baldrige Excellence Framework) to identify and document strengths and opportunities for improvement.
Consensus Review: Led by a senior examiner, the team conducts a series of reviews, first virtually through a secure website and then through focused conference calls. Through these reviews, the team reaches consensus on feedback and scores.
Based on these reviews, the Judges' Panel determines which organizations receive site visits.
Organizations receiving site visits provide updates for all results in the application. Led by a senior examiner, a team of examiners visits the organization to verify and clarify the information in the application. Site visits consist primarily of a review of pertinent records and data, as well as interviews. The team submits a report to the Judges' Panel.
The Judges' Panel conducts final reviews and recommends award recipients to the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), who conveys the recommendations to the Secretary of Commerce. The Secretary of Commerce and the NIST Director determine whether recommended award recipients are appropriate role models and should receive the award. The purpose of this determination is to help preserve the award's integrity. The Judges' Panel also recommends non-award-recipient organizations that will be recognized for having one or more category best practices. In determining role models, NIST checks records on site-visited applicants and their highest-ranking officials to verify compliance with legal and various regulatory requirements. The Secretary of Commerce then selects the award recipients.
Members of the Board of Examiners prepare feedback reports detailing organization-specific strengths and opportunities for improvement based on the organizations' responses to the Criteria for Performance Excellence. Each organization receives a feedback report when it exits the process: after Consensus Review, after Site Visit Review, or when it is selected as an award recipient.
The President of the United States or a designee traditionally presents the awards (in recent years shortly before the Quest for Excellence Conference begins in early April).
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