Australian Natural History Medallion Dossier Information Guide

The Australian Natural History Medallion is awarded annually in recognition of services to Australian natural history during the previous ten years.

You will make the Award Committee’s task so much easier if you commence with a comprehensive summary of the contributions that your nominee has made to the advancement of natural history.

It is strongly recommended that you discuss the dossier with your nominee to ensure that there are no serious omissions.

Please restrict the volume of back-up material to a reasonable amount, particularly published books and scientific or popular printed articles. List them in a bibliography and provide no more than a few examples. Only one set of documentation is required.

Your nomination would be enhanced by seeking letters of support from clubs and societies who have benefited from the services of the nominee.It would be to your candidate’s advantage if you gave significant examples of strengths in the following areas:

Scientific Professionals still in Employment:
Contributions where the candidate has been solely involved are to be preferred and the Awards Committee will adopt a “contribution relative to opportunity” approach. Extra-curricular and involvement with local and amateur groups and examples of mentoring will be more highly regarded than purely professional pursuits. Letters of support from other clubs and societies would be highly desirable.

Retired Scientific Professionals:
As well as those criteria applying to practicing professionals, relevant activities within the community since retirement should be stressed.

Amateurs; those whose employment has been in a field substantially different from their natural history interests.
The Awards Committee recognises that an amateur naturalist will have been restricted to activities predominantly in his or her own recreation time, so will regard favourably a breadth of experience and a demonstrated willingness to share knowledge and encourage other individuals and groups in their own studies.

The following categories are guidelines only; nominating bodies should include any other information or aspects which they consider relevant.

1	Name in Full
2	Qualifications and Occupation	Degrees, diplomas.Occupational status and employer if connected professionally with natural history.
3	Membership of societies and clubs	Give names, with dates or approximate number of years membership of each.Offices held: give details with dates.
4	Natural History Fields	Botany, conservation, ecology, entomology, geology, mammalogy, marine biology, ornithology, etc
5	Research	Direct projects (individual or group) undertaken; those completed; present projects; achievements or information gained (very briefly). Draw attention to particular publications if desired Indirect: guidance and assistance to other research workers, e.g. in locating and collecting specimens, surveying areas or populations, gift of materials to public institutions, etc. Indicate publications which embody results and work participated in, or which give acknowledgment to the nominee. Species new to science: those described by the nominee, or discovered by him and described by others. Collections made by the nominee and used as type material either by himself or others.
6	Publications.	List all chronologically, giving name of publication, reference (volume and pages), title of article, co-authors, if any. If references to smaller articles, e.g. newspaper cuttings, are unavailable, give name of publication, approximate number of articles, and time period over which they were published. Include material duplicated and distributed privately, e.g. check-lists, censuses, representative samples of publications should be submitted with the dossier. These will be returned when the nomination lapses, or the nominee receives the award.
7	Photography	Content, amount, use in lectures, etc. If published, give details.
8	Expeditions	Those of an exploratory kind connected with natural history.
9	Conservation	Activities aimed at conservation; work connected with reserves, national parks, committees of management, ranger activities; rearing or growing rare native creatures or plants.
10		Broadcasts and telecasts: give details Lectures: how many, how often, on what subjects; to which community groups (natural history clubs, church groups, C.A.E., scouts, guides etc.); in what areas. Excursions: leader of excursions: where, in what fields, for which groups. General Activity: active member in club affairs; extension of interest in natural history and conservation to the general community; creating greater awareness of their importance.
11	Follow-up	Once made, a nomination remains current for THREE YEARS , unless the nominee receives the Award. Further material, e.g. supplementary bibliographies, may be sent each year, to keep the dossier up-to-date.