The purpose of this award is to recognize excellence in clematis matters, or to recognize specific achievements by both Members and non-Members of the Society. It is an alternative award to the Honorary Fellow, which is for Members only, who have rendered distinguished service to the study and culture of clematis or rendered notable service to the Society.
Rules of the Golden Clematis Award
- Each nomination for the award should have a Proposer and a Seconder.
- The Golden Clematis Award is for meritorious service to the Society or the genus Clematis, such service being in keeping with the aims of the Society.
- Any Society Member can submit a nomination. The Award is open to Members and non-Members.
- The Proposer should give a detailed justification as part of their nomination and the Seconder should sign it. If the nomination is accepted, this justification will be read aloud at the Constitutional General Meeting and published in the journal of the International Clematis Society. Without a detailed justification, a nomination will be rejected.
- All nominations should be submitted to the Council during non-Constitutional General Meeting years and the Council will select one or more nominees, to be recommended to the Membership at the next C.G.M.
- Nominations shall be confidential; the nomination should be made without the knowledge of the nominee.
- The Award will be an agenda item of every C.G.M., provided the Council have selected at least one nominee for recommendation. The attending Members will vote by simple majority.
- In non-C.G.M. years Members should be regularly reminded in newsletters of the Award, so that the Award does not fall into oblivion.
- The introduction of this award does not preclude future induction as an Honorary Fellow of the Society.
- Whilst there is no fixed limit, there is an expectation that there will be no more than two awards each year and no more than 5% of the total membership. However it is recognized that there may be a backlog of nominees and so the Society may wish to relax the annual limit target during the first year or so of operation.
Golden Clematis Award Nomination Form
Awards are made at Constitutional General Meetings which are normally held every two years, though the next one has not yet been scheduled. Nominations can be sent to the Secretary at any time. However since they have to be considered by Council, once the next C.G.M. has been decided, a deadline will be published to enable nominations to be considered by the preceding Council meeting.
For a copy of the nomination form, please click on Golden Clematis Award Nomination Form.