FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2003
FY03-17
ORAU Presents ACAP Awards to Employees
Oak Ridge Associated Universities awarded more than $46,000 to 79 employees (9 teams and 5 individuals) at a recent ceremony in Pollard Auditorium. ORAU’s Achievement Cash Award Program (ACAP) provides cash bonuses and recognizes exemplary contributions and achievements of individual employees and teams directly related to ORAU’s strategic goals. Among the winners were the following three teams.
The Homeland Defense Equipment Reuse Team's work has had a direct impact on the security of our country. What started out as a proposal for a small delivery of surplus radiological instruments to overseas countries turned into an effort that has delivered more than 1,000 pieces of instrumentation to several major metropolitan areas in the United States, saving the government an estimated $500,000. In providing surplus radiological instruments to our nation’s first responders, this team provided prototype radiation kits, fact sheets and job aids, instrumentation repair training, validation of radiation field responses, and a commitment to the pursuit of additional surplus radiological instrumentation throughout the DOE complex. The importance of this team’s work to the nation was officially acknowledged by the Secretary of Energy.
When ORAU teamed with the Dollywood Foundation to offer books to young children, this team knew it would involve much more work than simply cutting a check. Since taking over this community initiative and making it their own, the team has successfully managed the program, which involves recruiting children, processing the monthly book orders, overseeing the mailing of bookends with the ORAU logo, processing graduations, and handling correspondence. They placed the first order three months ahead of schedule, and found innovative ways to boost enrollment, including attending evening events to meet parents and encourage participation. To date, close to 500 children from Andersonville, Briceville, Lake City, and Oak Ridge, as well as children of ORAU employees, have participated in the program, and 3,892 more books are now in the hands of young children as a result of their hard work and dedication.
By developing the Immunization News for Managers Web page (otherwise known as INFORM), this next team helped the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyze and trend reports from newspapers, TV, radio, and magazines. The team’s level of input to this process increased dramatically during the smallpox vaccination efforts in order to keep the CDC communication staff aware of issues being reported around the country. Their analysis of this information helped the CDC quickly respond to questions and issues that arose from media reports. Over a period of 30 working days, the team coded and input 11,710 smallpox/bioterrorism articles, an average of almost 400 articles per day! This was a particularly extraordinary effort because the 30-day period included the Christmas holidays, so some team members worked from offsite during evenings. This truly illustrates what teamwork can accomplish.
ORAU is a university consortium leveraging the scientific strength of 88 major research institutions to advance science and education by partnering with national laboratories, government agencies, and private industry. ORAU manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the U.S. Department of Energy.