Life Membership Award

The Life Membership Award is awarded to members retiring from the profession for displaying consistently high qualities of leadership, performance and service to education, the teaching profession or to the Nova Scotia Teachers Union. It is awarded at the sole discretion of the Provincial Executive and is the highest honour that the Provincial Executive can confer upon a member.

Life Membership Recipients

Guidebook excerpt

Life Membership Award

1. Purpose:

To recognize from time to time the outstanding contributions of members. The Life Membership Award is the highest honour that the Provincial Executive can confer upon a member.

2. Criteria:

(a) Member must be retiring from the profession, after having displayed consistently high qualities of leadership, performance and service to education, the teaching profession or the NSTU.

(b) Member must have given of him/herself to the Union and the profession by having served in progressively more challenging positions at the Local or Regional level and at the Provincial level. Candidates must have given a minimum of twenty (20) years of active service to the Union and the profession.

(c)  Member must be a leader who is recognized by his/her peers as a person whose dedication to education and unionism is both outstanding and meritorious.

3. Applications:

(a) Candidates can be nominated by any member of the NSTU Provincial Executive by completing the appropriate application form and submitting the form to the President of the NSTU by no later than the last business day of the week before the March Executive Meeting.

(b) Application forms must be completed in detail including the names of three (3) references who can be contacted by the selection committee if needed.

4. Selection Process:

(a) The Provincial Executive shall annually from among its members appoint three (3) persons and at least one (1) alternate who will serve as the Awards Selection Committee. Should any member of this Committee be a person who has submitted an application on behalf of another member, or be a member from a Local for whom a candidate has been nominated, he/she shall declare a conflict of interest and refrain from participating in the selection process.

(b) Ordinarily one (1) Life Membership Award would be given in any year. There is no obligation to give an award each year.

(c)  The Awards Selection Committee may contact the nominated candidate(s) and/or the references to obtain additional information.

(d) If there are multiple nominations received by the Awards Selection Committee, the Committee shall rank the candidates and make its recommendation to the Provincial Executive by no later than the April meeting of the Provincial Executive.

5. Presentation of the Award:

(a) The Life Membership Award which consists of a certificate, a pin, and paid life membership in the RTO shall be presented to the nominee by the NSTU President at the Annual Council.

(b) The Teacher shall publish the name of the member, a picture, and a short biography in an edition of The Teacher following Annual Coun