Tamarack Award

The Tamarack Award was instituted to recognize members who go “above and beyond the call of duty” in their volunteer work for the Society. According to ISC president Alexandra Peace and past president Margaret de Boer, it was an easy decision to recognize the 2019 recipient, Stephen Ullstrom.

Stephen, who lives in Edmonton, was chosen because of his dedication and valuable input on the executive committee and for his commitment as the Prairies and Northern Canada regional representative for the past two years and agreeing to remain as the representative for an additional period. He is also being recognized for his strong vision of a mentorship program for the Society and for bringing it to fruition.

“We are thrilled to present this award to Stephen, and we are honoured to have him as a member of our society,” said Alexandra and Margaret. “Thank you, Stephen, for all you have given to the Society and its membership.” And here’s what some of Stephen’s colleagues on the executive had to say:

Pierre Joyal, Vice-President: “Stephen was the driving force behind the mentorship program. He was its initial sponsor, the originator of the concept and saw it to fruition. It would not have happened without his commitment and dedication, his work efforts, and determination to seeing it through. We are grateful for the work he accomplished and congratulate him on a well-deserved award.”

JoAnne Burek, Website Administrator: “As the regional representative for the Prairies and Northern Canada, Stephen genuinely cares about the well-being of his colleagues. He ensures that every few months they get together for conversation about business, indexing, work/life balance—whatever they want to talk about—even though they are spread across three provinces and into the States.”

Congratulations to Stephen on his accomplishments and for this special recognition.

Past recipients of the Tamarack Award and other ISC awards can be found on the awards page.

Stephen Ullstrom (second from left) receives the 2019 Tamarack Award from members of the ISC Executive.

Photo credit: JoAnne Burek

The Tamarack award was instituted to recognize members who go “above and beyond the call of duty” in their volunteer work for the Society.

This year we have chosen Christopher Blackburn as the Tamarack Award recipient for that very reason.

The award  is a  symbol of our thanks and gratitude for what he has given to the Indexing Society of Canada |Société canadienne d’indexation and is well-deserved after many, many years of service for our Society.

Chris served as a dedicated Central Canada regional representative and has been a member of the Executive committee where he provided wise and thoughtful contributions.

You could consider Chris our Society historian! He has in his possession every issue of the Bulletin since its inception, attended numerous conferences, both national and international, notably England, Ireland, and the US. He has made several contributions to the Bulletin reporting on the many events he attended.  His involvement can be traced back to 2001, planning the Toronto conference when our Society was called the Indexing and Abstracting Society of Canada (IASC/SCAD). Chris has a deep and personal knowledge of the evolution of indexing methods and is always willing to share his indexing knowledge with other members.

Chris was presented with the Tamarack Award and he humbly accepted it at our recent Toronto indexers’ meeting in June. It was a delightful moment!

We are honoured to present this award to Chris this year and we are honoured to have him as a member of our Society.

Thank you and congratulations, Chris!

Margaret de Boer

Senior Co-President

Alexandra Peace

Junior Co-President

 

Many of our members volunteer in various capacities, however one person in particular stood out this past year.  At our awards banquet in Montreal on June 2, JoAnne Burek was honoured as our 2017 Tamarack award recipient .

JoAnne is deserving of this award for many reasons: JoAnne has a “yes, I’ll do that” work ethic and has shown dedication in improving the experience of members in our Society. In her creative and skilful style, she has crafted compelling and well-researched promotion pieces for our Society. She has taken the time to be present at events in order to promote the benefits of ISC/SCI. Finally, JoAnne continues with the detailed assignment of our website renewal project.

We are honoured to have JoAnne as a member of our Society. Congratulations to her!