ESSAE Recognizes Distinguished, Associate Members of the Year and Three Member Associations for Excellence

ALBANY, NY (01/20/2010)(readMedia)-- At its 31st Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet on February 4, 2010, the Empire State Society of Association Executives (ESSAE) will honor Dan Murphy, President of the NYS Hospitality Association, as its 2009 Distinguished Member of the Year. This award recognizes an association professional, and active ESSAE member, who has provided all around leadership both within his or her association and to the field at large.

Murphy has been the President of the New York Hospitality & Tourism Association (NYSH&TA) since 1995. NYSH&TA is an Albany based not-for-profit trade organization representing nearly 1,300 member businesses and individuals in the lodging and attractions industry. Murphy was recently appointed to the New York State Governor's Tourism Advisory Council. He also serves as the New York State Tourism Industry Coalition (TIC) Administrator, comprised of 19 various association and industry-supporting organizations whose main goal is to represent the state's second-largest industry – tourism – on key legislative and regulatory issues.

Prior to his current role as NYSH&TA President, Dan was active with the association in a volunteer capacity since 1984, serving as an officer and Chairman. Early in his career, Mr. Murphy was a hotel general manager for the ITT Sheraton Corporation, managing hotels in Hartford, Detroit, Boston, and Philadelphia. In 1983, he opened the Sheraton Saratoga Springs Hotel and served as general manager until he was named president of NYSH&TA. Since 1992, Murphy has been a Venture Board Member for the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show (IH/M&RS), tri-owned by NYSH&TA, the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Hotel Association of New York City. He currently serves as Secretary for IH/M&RS, the largest hotel trade show of its kind in the country. He was a founding board member of the Saratoga Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau; sits on the advisory board of the National Statler Center for Careers in Hospitality Service; is an advisory board member of the Delta Epsilon Chi Association (DECA), an association of high school marketing students.

The Associate Member of the Year Award will be presented to Total Events, LLC. This award recognizes achievements by an ESSAE associate member representative who provides goods or services to associations. The recipient must have provided outstanding service and significantly contributed to the association industry. In 1999 Total Events was born out of the idea that event rentals - tents and decor - could be fulfilled by a single qualified resource. Since its conception, Total Events in Albany has experienced remarkable growth and success in the industry as a result of their belief in going beyond the expectation of customers to deliver the most impressive event.

The association will recognize three associations for their creativity and talent in providing programs and services to their members. These three award-winning entries provide important models and benchmarks for other associations, and demonstrate the high level of service each association affords its members.

ESSAE's Association Excellence Awards recognize achievements by an ESSAE member for a particular project, idea, publication, practice or membership service instituted by an association in the last 24 months in any of these seven categories: education, government relations, marketing/public relations, meetings and expositions, membership recruitment and retention, publications, and technology.

The New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging/Foundation for Long Term Care will receive the ESSAE Association Excellence Award in Technology for its "Equip for Quality" program, a web-based informatics tool currently used in over 350 nursing homes in 24 states nationwide. Developed by the association in 1998, Equip for Quality has expanded from a single tool to offering many valuable products and services, such as analysis tools, clinical resources, online learning, and a user community. The software program is a comprehensive assessment tool to determine nursing home residents' cognitive and functional capacity. The Equip team are experienced long term care RNs, software and e-learning developers, research analysts and statisticians working to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of quality improvement efforts in the nursing home through technology.

The School Facility Management Institute (SFMI), a non-profit organization created to provide education and training programs for the New York State Association for Superintendents of School Buildings and Grounds (SBGA) will receive the ESSAE Association Excellence Award in Education for its progressive approach to professional development, timely education and training. Managed by the Association Development Group, SFMI's education and training programs provide on-going professional development for school facility professionals throughout New York State. Programs implemented include the School Facilities Management Academy (SFMA); a self-certification program, the Certified Director of Facilities Program (CDF), which offers core technical competencies of school facility management; the Affiliate Development Program (ADP) for head mechanics, head custodians, health and safety and other school facilities personnel; the Facilities Management On-line Associate's Degree and Technical Certificate offered through Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC); the School Facility Managers' Personnel Management Academy; and its Preventative Maintenance Webinars.

The NYS County Highway Superintendents Association will receive the ESSAE Association Excellence Award in Marketing and Public Relations for its Local Roads Matter! campaign, a grassroots legislative advocacy campaign intended to highlight the importance of local roads to the state and local economy, and the critical nature of our nation's local roads. The association created a legislative center on their web site, a "virtual headquarters" for the campaign, a campaign-specific logo, letterhead for communicating with legislators and government agencies, banners to display at legislative events and postcards for members to send their local legislators. The New York State County Highway Superintendents Association (NYSCHSA), the New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highways, Inc. (NYSAOTSOH) and now the National Association of County Engineers (NACE) have joined forces in the Local Roads Matter! campaign, and continue to fight for adequate funding to maintain safe roads and bridges nationwide. To-date, thirty-one states have started their own Local Roads Matter! campaign.

The Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet takes place at The Desmond Hotel in Albany. The awards presentation segment will begin at approximately 7:45 p.m.

ESSAE comprises over 590 association and supplier members, and represents executives employed by trade, business and professional associations. ESSAE provides its members a means to exchange ideas and encourages high professional standards through educational forums, publications, industry resources and networking luncheons. ESSAE advances the association profession through a community of knowledge, sharing, education and advocacy. It is affiliated with the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), whose headquarters is in Washington D.C.

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