ABFM 2017 Awards Call for Nominations

The Association for Budgeting and Financial Management (ABFM) is accepting nominations for two awards. The awards will be presented at the 2017 ABFM Conference from September 28-30 in Washington, D.C. at the Washington Marriott.

Aaron Wildavsky Award
Deadline: July 31, 2017
The was established in 1993 as a lifetime achievement award for work in budgeting and financial management in memory of Dr. Aaron Wildavsky. Professor Wildavsky was a pioneering scholar in the fields of government budgeting, public policy, and policy analysis.  He is most remembered for his work on the theory and concept of budgetary incrementalism, which was often held in contrast to rational decision approaches to public management and policy outcomes.  His academic contributions include 37 books numerous articles on a wide variety of policy and budgeting topics including budgetary process, policy analysis, political culture, foreign affairs, public administration, strategic choice, and comparative government.  His book, Politics of the Budgetary Process, which was first published in 1964, is still one of the most widely read and cited studies of federal budgeting- now at its 5th edition (2003).  He spent most of his career at the University of California at Berkeley where he was the founding dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy. For a list of past award winners visit http://abfm.org/?page_id=93.

Submission:
Please send nomination letters and candidate's CV to ABFM Chair, Dan Smith at [email protected].

Michael Curro Award
Deadline: July 31, 2017
The Michael Curro Award for best graduate student paper was established to honor Michael Curro.  Graduate students who have written outstanding papers in the field as part of a course, independent study, or other faculty supervised project are eligible. Mr. Curro was an active and engaging member of ABFM; serving on the Public Budgeting and Finance editorial board, ABFM’s executive committee, and the board of directors of Public Financial Publications, Inc. He worked for the GAO in a variety of capacities for over 30 years starting in the regional office of his hometown Cincinnati, Ohio in 1974.  Mr. Curro often wrote about budget and finance topics in professional journals and taught classes at Georgetown University, USDA Graduate School, and Central Michigan University. Among other accomplishments, Mr. Curro helped shape and implement the Government Performance and Results Act through the General Accounting Office.  His body of work on performance budgeting and the federal budget account structure continue to be important documents with a wide audience.

Papers will be judged by both academic and practitioner members of ABFM and will be evaluated according to general criteria: contribution to the field, the appropriateness of the methodology, the quality of the research analysis, clarity of writing, logic of presentation, and originality and creativity. Faculty members responsible for nominating students should send a letter of nomination that includes the student’s name, the degree the student is pursuing, the school name, when the paper was written, and the thesis or purpose of the paper. If the paper was written for a class, please include the name of the course and when the course was offered. If the paper was part of the student’s extracurricular duties, please describe these duties. A financial award and commemorative plaque will be presented to the winner. Authors of other top papers not selected will be encouraged to present their papers in appropriate ABFM panels. Conference registration will also be waived for the winner.

Submission:
Nomination letters and copies of student papers should be sent as e-mail (.doc file or PDF) attachments 2017 to Committee Chair, Dr. Robert Bland at [email protected].

Submit general questions to the conference committee at [email protected].