May 6, 2009

ANNUAL KEENAN SERVICE AWARD

 

NOMINATIONS OPEN UNTIL MAY 22ND

 

The Guild is pleased to announce the opening of nominations for its annual award in honor of Tom Keenan, former chairperson of the New York Times Guild unit who died in December 2000 after a long battle with cancer.

 

Keenan was the Times Guild unit chair for seven terms, longer than anyone else, before joining the Local’s staff in 1997 as a Local representative. He became ill shortly after coming to work for the union. He had also served on the Local’s Executive Committee for the second-longest period of any rank-and-file member in our 75-year history.

 

In 1999, while Keenan was still alive, the Executive Committee created the Thomas M. Keenan Newspaper Guild of New York Service Award. It is presented each year to a member in good standing of the New York Local who is nominated by at least one other member in good standing. The winner is selected by the New York Guild’s Administrative Committee: the president, secretary-treasurer, chairperson, three vice chairs and the Local’s representative on the TNG-CWA Executive Council. Nominees may also include members who retired from a Guild job during the past year. However, the nomination must be made by a current member.

 

In determining a winner, the Committee seeks the nominee who “has performed above and beyond the call of duty in service to the New York Local, and best exemplifies the ideals of a true labor leader, in the spirit of Tom Keenan.”

 

Nominations are open until Friday, May 22nd at 5:00 p.m. EDT, and must adhere to the following guidelines:

 

* Nominations must be delivered to Local Secretary-Treasurer Peter Szekely at the Newspaper Guild, 1501 Broadway, Suite 708, New York, NY, 10036, by the deadline in order to be considered.

 

* The nominations may be made either by regular mail or by e-mail to PSzekely@nyguild.org

Written nominations must be signed by the member(s) making the nomination. E-mails must come from a verifiable e-mail address belonging to the member making the nomination.

 

* No self-nominations, please.

 

This year’s prize will be presented at a General Membership meeting later this year.

 

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5/6/09