Greetings AER Education Curriculum and Personnel Preparation Division Members, It is time to nominate colleagues and chapters for AER's prestigious chapter and leadership awards. AER has several awards to recognize outstanding dedication and accomplishments of professionals working to support professionals and consumers in the field of visual impairment and blindness: . The C. Warren Bledsoe Award is given in recognition of a particularly noteworthy piece of literature in the field of blindness. . The Douglas C. MacFarland Award was established to honor an individual who has provided leadership in the field of blindness and visual impairment and who made innovative, significant or outstanding contributions to the education or rehabilitation of people who are visually impaired through either direct service, professional organizations, research, literature and/or preparation of professionals and is retired from the field. Our profession is filled to the brim with persons whose work inspires, motivates, and even sometimes amazes us. Recognizing our members for their dedication, commitment, service, and leadership on behalf of people with visual impairments is a way to honor and lift up our profession. It is also how we recognize the significance and quality of all of our work. Please take the time to consider someone for one of these prestigious awards. The nominations process is open through March 14, 2016. Please send your completed nomination form to <mailto:nominations@aerbvi.org> awards@aerbvi.org. Award recipients will be notified by May 16, 2016. Please consider nominating your mentor, your colleague, your hero. I look forward to seeing you at the 2016 AER International Conference in Jacksonville, Florida July 21-24, 2016 and celebrating the success of our colleagues and each other. Thank you for your time and effort in this AER Awards process. Kathryn D Botsford, Chair, AER Awards Committee Mark Your Calendar: AER IC 2016 Email Signature.NoNm AER International Conference 2016 July 20-24, 2016 * Jacksonville, Florida USA AER International Orientation & Mobility Conference 2017 July 19-22, 2017 * Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail <http://www.twitter.com/aerbvi> Twitter-T <https://www.facebook.com/groups/aerbvi/> Facebook_small