Paying for certification
Scholarships
Six each year. Intended for the members whose municipalities will not pay, which in Clearwater is most of them.
What is available
Institute scholarships — four
Tuition, lodging and a travel stipend for the July week at Fairholm State. The travel stipend matters more than it sounds: for Districts 11 and 12 it is usually the difference between attending and not.
Conference scholarships — two
Registration and two nights for the annual conference. Smaller, less competitive, and the one to apply for if you have never been.
Who gets priority
Cost, not keenness, is what these are for.
Priority goes to members from municipalities under 2,500 population, and to Districts 11 and 12, where travel cost is the binding constraint rather than interest.
You do not need a hardship case or a letter from your mayor. The Awards Committee is not assessing your municipality’s finances; it is trying to reach the people the funding structure already misses.
- Active or associate member, dues current
- Municipalities under 2,500 prioritised
- Districts 11 and 12 prioritised
- Reapplying is normal and carries no penalty
Applying
1. Applications open 1 December
In the member area. You will need to be signed in, which means dues current — worth checking in November rather than on 30 January.
2. Write one page
What you do, what your municipality is like, and what finishing the CCRO would change about your work. The committee reads forty of these and has said repeatedly that a specific short application beats a general long one.
3. Close 31 January
Not extended. The Institute’s own registration deadline is what forces this, and the committee cannot move it.
4. Decisions in early March
By the Awards Committee, in time for Institute registration. Recipients are announced at the annual conference banquet; if you would rather not be named, say so on the application and nothing else changes.
If the cost is not tuition but the week away
Cover, travel and childcare are the reasons members most often give for not attending, and none of them are what a scholarship traditionally pays for. Say so on the application anyway — the committee has discretion and has used it.