Sharon O'Meara CE Scholarship Fund

PURPOSE

The priority intent of this scholarship is for continuing education seminars that are laboratory related or for academic use at a University, College or Technical School to further the educational goals of the recipient in Clinical Laboratory Sciences or closely related fields. The successful applicant will correlate the achievement of their personal goals to the benefit of CLSA. In choosing the scholarship recipient, weight will be given for active contributing members of CLSA.

This scholarship is to be funded from the General Fund. If money is not available in the General Fund, the Board Of Directors may, at their option, vote to transfer funds from the Educational Grant to the General Fund. The decision to award a scholarship and the amount of the scholarship award will be made each year by the Board of Directors at the Fall Meeting when the budget is approved for the coming year.

1. To be eligible for the scholarship, one must have been member of CLSA for one year at the time of the application The "active" or "student" classification of membership status is required.

2. One must be a paid-up member in good standing of CLSA at the time the money is received by the scholarship recipient.

3.  The scholarship award money will be transferred to the recipient after documentation of successful completion of goals as stated in the application for the scholarship. Alternatively, the funds may be paid directly to the institution or corporation sponsoring the seminar or classes.

4. All claims for scholarship monies by the recipient must be made within the fiscal year of the award.

5. For the recipient to receive funds, documentation must be presented to the Treasure of a grade of "C" or better in a graded course, a pass grade in a pass/fail course, or success completion if no grade is given. Receipts for all claims, such as registration fees, travel, books etc. must be submitted. If the amount of the scholarship award exceeds the funding necessary to accomplish the recipient's stated goals, the excess amount will revert to the general fund of CLSA. Before issuing a check, the Treasure will consult with the Scholarship Chair to verify that all claims correspond to the recipient's scholarship application.

The scholarship money may be used for:

• Seminars
• Continuing education
• Computer courses
• tuition
• registration fees
• lab/special fees
• books
• travel
• room

The Scholarship Committee may approve additional uses the time of the scholarship award. The decision of the Scholarship Committee is final.

7. The scholarship Committee has the authority to decide on a yearly basis how the funds approved by the Board of Directors will be distributed. For example, if there are three applicants who qualify, the board may select one winner, prorate the award to all three applicants, or do partial funding to the applicants. The Scholarship Committee can determine the amount and distribution of funds among the applicants each year as they see fit.

8. The Scholarship Committee is composed of the four CLSA Board Members - South East, South Central, Central and Arctic / Interior. Each Board Member has one vote. The four Board members will elect a chair for this committee each year. The applications will be reviewed at each Board Meeting (Winter, Spring, Fall) and awards made. Exceptional cases could be decided by a phone vote between Board Meetings. The Committee may only allocate the budgeted amount for the year. Only a vote of the full Board could allocate more funds to the budgeted amount.

9. The President, President - Elect, Past - President, and Scholarship Committee of CLSA are not eligible for this scholarship.

10. A person may not receive this scholarship two years in a row.

11.  Before release of money to recipient, a short synopsis of goals achieved with the funding must be submitted for publication in the newsletter.