Iron sharpens iron: Collective benefit to applying for the Excellence in Consulting Award

24 November 2015 – Kathy Shinnick

Cathy Stanton, “Plant Yourself in My Neighborhood,” winner of the 2014 award.  Photo credit: National Park Service

As public history consultants, we are spread all over the nation. We complete projects in small towns, back rooms of museums, major cities, and community organizations. We come together one time a year at the National Council for Public History’s annual conference. Otherwise, we find each other on this blog. The consultants who connect here are producing some of the most influential projects in the field. The lessons contained in their work inform the field, yet we rarely see each other’s work.

The NCPH Excellence in Consulting Award is one of a few opportunities to improve upon the whole by sharing our best work with one another. This award provides a space to demonstrate the variety of consulting projects procured around the country and the high level of expertise applied to their work. High-quality entries encourage a higher level of excellence year after year. As an added bonus, the winners gain industry credibility that is often hard to obtain as an independent contractor.

If you are wondering if your project may qualify for an excellence award, you might start by looking at recent winners. In 2013 Marla Miller, Anne Mitchell Whisnant, Gary Nash, and David Thelen represented the Organization of American Historians in their work Imperiled Promise: The State of History in the National Park Service. That same year Cathy Stanton submitted her work on a special ethnographic report for the Martin Van Buren National Historical Site titled “Plant Yourself in My Neighborhood.” In 2011 Patrick O’Bannon of Gray & Pape, Inc. received the award for “Working in the Dry: Cofferdams, In-River Construction, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers.” Last year’s winner, Matthew Godfrey, Paul J. Sadin, et al., of Historical Research Associates, Inc., won for their work on Privatizing Military Family Housing: A History of the U.S. Army’s Residential Communities Initiative, 1995-2010. These examples are just a sampling of the wide variety of consultants’ work that is eligible for this award.

Have you or someone you know worked on a project this past year that has significantly contributed to the historical lexicon of a community? Consider applying for the Excellence in Consulting Award.

Here are the specifics:

The NCPH Excellence in Consulting Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of public history through consulting or contract work by recognizing professionals whose primary engagement with public history in the past five years is through consulting. Up to two $500 prizes in two categories (individual and group) will be awarded. Award winners will receive complimentary registration for the awards breakfast. To be considered for the award, the applicant/nominee should submit a resume, synopses of consulting/contract projects in which the applicant/nominee played a significant role, and a sample of work to which the applicant made substantial contributions (such as a written work, public program, exhibit, or media project). Contract work sponsored or funded by NCPH is not eligible for consideration.

Nominations and supporting materials should specifically address these criteria:

• Value of contributions to a project’s intended public audience(s)
• Ability to serve client needs effectively
• Best practices in public history, as evidenced by letters of support from clients or another independent party
• Contribution to the public’s understanding of history
• Intellectual rigor
• Originality and creativity

Procedures and Submission Requirements

• Applications/nominations should include a resume, synopses of consulting contract projects, describe each contributor’s contribution, and a sample of work to which the applicant/nominee made substantial contributions.
• Applications/nominations may also include letters of support from clients or other independent parties. Other examples of feedback from clients or the public (such as newspaper articles) are encouraged.
• At the committee’s discretion, it may choose, in any given year, not to make an award in one or both categories if it feels that none of the applications/nominations rise to the level of excellence expected for this award.
• Winners are ineligible to apply or to be nominated for the three subsequent years after receiving the award.
• A total of four copies of all submission materials are required. Send a cover sheet and a copy of all materials to each of the Consulting Award Committee members and one to the NCPH executive office at the email address: [email protected]. Clearly mark each submission “NCPH Consulting Award.” Please note that hard copy materials will not be returned. Emailed submissions will be accepted for this award. Hard copy nominations must be received (not postmarked) by December 1, 2015.

Questions? Call (317) 274-2716 or email [email protected]

A challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities makes possible NCPH’s expanding awards program and other uses of earned income on the NCPH endowment. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed on this blog do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

~ Kathy Shinnick is an independent public historian. Her work focuses on exhibit curation, museum education, and historical research and writing with a specialty in sites of commemoration, including war, politics, and sports. Her blog, Playing For Keeps, explores the intersection of sports and public history.