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Call for '06 FOI Award nominations |
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Nominations are now being accepted for VCOG’s 2006 Freedom of Information Awards. Entries should be submitted by Sept. 15 to VCOG, Box 3094, Roanoke 24018 (Fax: 540-774-5020).
Awards are given for outstanding efforts by citizens, media and government to keep government meetings or records open to the public.
An individual citizen or citizens’ group will be the recipient of the Coalition’s coveted Laurence E. Richardson award. (A long-time Charlottesville broadcasting executive, Richardson helped spearhead the Coalition’s founding and was a life-long foe of government secrecy. He died in 1999.)
Generally, the awards will be given for achievement in the last 12 months, but longer-term contributions also will be recognized.
Last year’s awards went to a four-employee team at the Virginia Department of Transportation that designed a Web-based system to record, track and archive VDOT’s 350-400 yearly FOI requests; Virginian-Pilot reporter Bob McCabe, who obtained public records showing Chesapeake houses were being built on toxic abandoned dumps; and Richmond activists Andrew Beaujon and Don Harrison, who used the FOI Act to obtain financial documents and correspondence related to the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation.
Winners will be presented with laser-engraved jade acrylic awards at the Coalition’s statewide conference at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, Nov. 16-17. Entries should include contact information for yourself and your nominee and documentation of the open-government contributions.
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