Online applications are now being accepted from NADO members for the 2011 NADO Innovation Award and the Excellence in Regional Transportation Award!

NADO's Innovation Award honors projects in a variety of regional development program areas.  The Excellence in Regional Transportation Award, a program of NADO’s RPO America and the NADO Research Foundation’s Center for Transportation Advancement and Regional Development, recognizes noteworthy projects and practices in rural and small metropolitan transportation planning, programming and service delivery.  Submit your application online at http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BTQ5P9S9V. 

Share your region’s most innovative and effective projects this year to maximize your chances of winning a Trailblazer Award.  This year, NADO is especially seeking projects that show creative funding or partnerships; long-term viability or long-ranging impacts; and significant, demonstrated value to their regions.  Support for regional innovation strategies, post-disaster economic recovery, best practices in regional transportation, planning efforts that integrate economic development with other issues such as workforce or transportation, effective small business outreach and finance, use of social media, and other innovative regional planning and development practices.  Projects that consist mainly of writing a grant application will not be accepted, unless it is connected to a robust implementation strategy that is underway and has some demonstrated results.

Don’t miss this opportunity to:

• Gain national recognition via your local media, www.NADO.org and www.RuralTransportation.org
• Be recognized during a special roundtable reception in your honor, and network with other award winners during NADO’s 2011 Annual Training Conference in Miami Beach, October 8 – 11 and the 2011 National Rural Transportation Peer Learning Conference in Washington, DC, August 24 – 26  
• Become eligible for the Trailblazer Award, which will be judged by peers during the Annual Training Conference and the National Rural Transportation Peer Learning Conference
• Receive a certificate, a press release to share with local media, and the opportunity to have a photo taken with NADO leadership during both conferences

For more information, visit http://nado.org/rf/award.php or contact NADO Program Manager Kathy Nothstine, at 202.624.5256 or knothstine@nado.org.