JAC

David Wood

Over the years, many officers have wanted to understand how the Superior Achievement Awards
(SAA) operate. It can be frustrating not understanding why some officers receive a SAA and others do not. So first, let’s talk about the process and what we can all do to get a piece of the
SAA pie.

Every fiscal year (FY), per the NTEU/CBP contract, a certain amount of money is set aside for SAA’s non-management employees. A committee, known as the Joint Awards Committee
(JAC), is formed based on the NTEU/CBP contract. The committee consists of 3 Union Officers and 3 Management personnel. The FY is broken into four (4) quarters. Each quarter, an e-mail is sent out from the JAC soliciting nominations for SAA awards. Any employee can submit any
other non-management employee, including themselves, for consideration of a SAA.

The nomination is based on any reason the employee feels the SAA is warranted. The nomination needs to be submitted on a CBP 80 Form. If a non-management employee submits a nomination, they must use a CBP 80 Form and send it through their Supervisor. We advise that you cc the Union Secretary as well. Next, the
Supervisor will review the nomination and forward it on to the JAC with their
comments/approval.

Each quarter, the JAC meets to go over the nominations to determine if a share is warranted. If so, they then determine how many shares are warranted for the nomination. At the end of the last
JAC meeting for the FY, the amount of shares are divided by the amount of money set aside and the SAAs are then paid to the employees. No employee is to receive more than $2,500 each FY,
regardless of the number of shares it was determined that the employee was awarded. Each share must also be at least $100.

A common mistake officers often make is thinking that if they go ABOVE and BEYOND they will be nominated by their supervisor. However, this is seldom the case. The issue is that your
supervisor may think you’re a good worker, but don’t know how to articulate the details of how
you go above and beyond. You may also have a supervisor who never nominates anyone.

A reoccurring issue with SAA’s is that some Supervisors nominate their favorites and some underperforming employees self-nominate. The end result: the SAA’s come out and most of the harder working employees are overlooked and become discouraged when they see the SAA recipients. The current process is working to correct this, as the JAC is very diligent in weeding out those from getting undeserved SAA’s.

Now, what can you do to get a piece of the pie? The key to receiving a SAA is ensuring your nomination is well written and detail oriented. Follow these simple steps and you should see
yourself being on the SAA list:

NOMINATE YOURSELF!

Put something of substance in your nomination;

a) A collateral duty
b) Numerous (more than 1 or 2) extra activities: arrests, seizures, kickbacks, penalties etc. Show
your numbers!
c) A special act that was more than a 1 time incident (a 1 time incident is not eligible for a SAA, it is only eligible for an “on the spot” award.)

That’s it. It’s that easy. For clarity, here is a list of things, not to be considered as above and beyond, as these are merely part of your daily job:

I show up on time.
I look and carry myself professionally.
I work well with my co-workers and other agencies.
I work lead.
I work lots of OT.

Refrain from stating the basic actions everyone should be doing, even if everyone isn’t doing
them. Write something that shows you go above and beyond the normal job requirements. If you have
collateral duties, write yourself in for one collateral duty assignment each quarter, until you have put yourself in for each one, as a collateral duty is above and beyond. Remember to refrain from putting yourself in for the same thing from one quarter to another as duplicates will get rejected.

We hope this not only helps you have a better understanding of the SAA process, but also assists in getting your fair share of the awards available.