A Lifetime Achievement Award in the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) is in recognition of outstanding services to TFOS and to the wider ocular surface community.
Nominations will be sought at least once yearly by a communication from the Secretary of the Governing Board (GB) to the membership of TFOS.
A maximum of 2 members can receive Lifetime Achievement Awards each year.
Nomination of Candidates for a Lifetime Achievement Award
Any individual, who is a current member of TFOS and has held membership for a period of at least 6 years is eligible for a Lifetime Achievement Award in the society. Candidates may be proposed by any member of TFOS, endorsed by an additional member, neither of whom may be a GB member.
The candidate's name should be sent to the Secretary together with a one page summary of support. This must be endorsed by the seconder. The Secretary will act as Electoral Officer in relation to a ballot.
Details of the nominee will be circulated electronically to members of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board (MSAB), including the name of the candidate, the proposer and the seconder, the one page summary of support and details of the election process. The MSAB members will notify the Secretary electronically their support or otherwise for the candidate within 6 weeks of the announcement of the election.
The Secretary will collate the responses and announce the result of the election process to the Board, either electronically or during a regular meeting of the Board. The GB will then decide upon whether the candidate will be offered a Lifetime Achievement Award. To be offered a Lifetime Achievement Award, a candidate must be supported by at least 75% of the MSAB voters.
Having met this criterion, rejection of the candidate to a Lifetime Achievement Award by the GB can only occur if the eligible members of the GB are unanimous in their decision.
In the event that more than the maximum number of 2 candidates receive the 75% support from voters, the GB will choose 2 of these candidates and the others will be considered in subsequent years (further election for these candidates is not required).
Should the nominee be a member of the GB, he/she will be considered to be ineligible as a voting member on the GB when considering his/her nomination for a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Secretary will announce the result of the election to the general membership of TFOS electronically and via the TFOS web site.
The web announcement will include details of the process of nomination and election and those elected will be added to a current Lifetime Achievement Award list on the TFOS web site.
