MIAMI - During the ATM Industry Association's ATMIA East Conference Feb 14-16, Chief Executive Mike Lee announced structural changes to the association's annual awards.
ATMIA has cut the number of annual awards in half, from 16 to eight, Lee said. And the pool of potential winners has been expanded to include non-members.
The new awards include: the Lifetime Achievement Award, which will go to an individual and will be voted on by the ATMIA Executive Board; the Most Influential Member Award, which will go to an individual and an organization and will be voted on by ATMIA members; and the Best ATM Technology Award, which will be awarded in three separate categories -- hardware, software and ATM security -- to an organization or organizations and will be voted on by ATMIA members.
The new GASA (Global ATM Security Alliance) Award for Best Contribution to ATM Crime Fighting will be awarded to an organization and be voted on by the GASA Executive Committee. The new Regional Board Award, an optional award that will be given to an individual and to an organization, will be voted on by each ATMIA Regional Board for best contribution to the industry in that region.
The announcement of the awards will now be made in February for the previous year rather than September for the current year..
"We had been criticized before for giving the awards in September instead of at the end of the year," Lee said. "Basically, they (members) felt like the year was cut short."
Lee also said the change in the way the award recipients are selected will eliminate members' concerns that the awards are not objective. And by eliminating runners-up in all of the categories, Lee said, ATMIA expects the awards to hold more value.
"We want the awards to be competitive and we want them to mean something," he said.
