Recognizing Excellence

These awards programs provide a rare dose of public recognition to teams of agency people responsible for pushing innovations to fruition. Because the recognition comes from outside government, the awards provide independent validation of achievement. And the projects they honor often serve as exemplars for others who wish to innovate. We covered the acquisition awards winners in our mid-August special Procurement Preview issue; the travel awards were described in last month's issue; and the December issue you have in your hands covers the winners of the technology awards. Also in this issue is a bound-in supplement from the Ford Foundation describing the Innovations in American Government Awards that the foundation co-sponsors with Harvard University.

Sometimes awards have reach even beyond government, as was the case with a Business Solutions in the Public Interest award this summer to the Bureau of Primary Health Care in the Department of Health and Human Services. The bureau won for the outreach effort it has mounted to reach some 30 million citizens who need but now don't have access to primary care. It presented a new version of the award to its key partners, who in turn presented it to their collaborators in local communities. "The award you gave us has generated [much] additional energy, motivation and commitment [and] is strengthening the newly forged partnerships among diverse health care providers in places like Indianapolis, Vermont, Wichita and Raleigh," writes Dr. Marilyn Hughes Gaston, who heads the bureau.

We ourselves have been grateful to have gained recognition in a number of forums this year. On Nov. 1, Anne Laurent and Sue Fourney were in New York representing Government Executive as we joined Time, Business 2.0 and other magazines in receiving Folio: Magazine's Editorial Excellence award for this year. I received two awards this fall that were a tribute to the work of the Government Executive staff. The first was from the Association of Government Accountants, which in September honored 26 people for "outstanding contributions toward advancing government accountability during the past 50 years." The second was from the Defense Logistics Agency, which last month presented its Scissors Award to three people "who have been at the forefront of government reinvention."

And last month, Anne Laurent joined me as an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, whose 450 members are among the most expert students and practitioners of government in the nation. The Bible says it is more blessed to give than to receive. We are fortunate to have been doubly blessed this year.