Candidates for the award must be members in good standing of the Institute, and have been a member for at least five (5), but not necessarily consecutive, years. A candidate for the Moving Spirit Award must have been a "moving spirit" in their forum. A candidate may qualify through:
- leading efforts either to form a new forum or revitalize an existing forum;
- long-term involvement with various forum activities, and services to the Institute on forum committees and/or as a forum officer.
In order to avoid giving the impression that a forum officer is rewarding themselves, the candidate cannot currently hold the forum offices of president, vice-president or president-elect. Past Forum Moving Spirit Award recipients are not eligible to receive the award, and their nominations will not be processed.
Candidates shall be nominated by the themselves, forum members and/or other observers. The work of some candidates would be known through observers, e.g., the Chapters and Forums Committee (as in the case of nominees who have led efforts to form a forum).In the case of recognizing long-term forum volunteers, the candidates would be known through the forum members, and nominated by the forum.
Nominations must be received at least six weeks prior to the national meetings of INFORMS, and submitted in writing to the Chapters and Forums Committee in care of the INFORMS office. All relevant information, including the candidate's qualifications along with a statement describing how the nominee is a "moving spirit" in the forum.
Only nominations of eligible candidates will be processed. Each forum may nominate one individual annually, but may only have one nominee recognized biannually thus, nominations of candidates from a forum that had a member recognized in the previous calendar year will not be considered until the following year. Nominations of those candidates considered but not selected for the award will be combined with additional nominations received prior to the next national meeting for further consideration at that time.
Selection of recipients will be based on the recipients' contributions to their forum's longevity and to the Institute through forum activities. A survey of the Chapters and Forums Committee members will be performed in order to determine a relative ranking of the deserving candidates.
The number of the candidates to be selected for the award in a given year will be determined at the discretion of the Chapters and Forums Committee Chair. No more than two candidates, each from different forums, will be selected for the award annually. There is no obligation to give any awards in a given year.