With ASA’sAnnual Convention, SUBExcel, moving from March to September 2025, there will be changes with how the annual awards work. The ASA Certificate of Excellence in Ethics will remain unchanged. The deadline to apply for this award is December 31, 2024. The ASA Certificate of Excellence in Ethics will remain on this same schedule moving forward and will be awarded each year at SUBExcel Awards Gala in September.

All of the other awards are shifting to the fiscal year deadlines. We will be releasing the awards application package in the coming months and it will be due on June 30, 2024. The committee will then review and awards will be given at the SUBExcel Gala in September, in Oklahoma City.  

Recommended Steps for preparing an Application for a 2024 ASA Certificate of Excellence in Ethics. And know you’ve probably already done most of these activities, or know exactly the whats, whos, and hows to do it. You know you deserve it. Get the recognition from your colleagues!

1. Designate a corporate ethics officer (if not already designated), and review application form.
2. Identify a customer, subcontractor/supplier and competitor, which your firm has worked with in the past 12 months, to provide recommendation letters for your application. Use ASA’s models in the Excellence in Ethics Resource Guide (available in the Info Hub by choosing “Show only … Documents” under Resources) to draft your requests for recommendation letters.
3. Mail requests for recommendation letters, asking each recommender to send its letter to you in a sealed envelope with the recommender’s signature over the seal by Dec. 6, 2024.
4. Use ASA’s models in the Excellence in Ethics Resource Guide to write/review your company’s:
   • Written code of conduct policy.
   • Written whistleblower policy
   • Written conflict of interest policy
   • Written policy on fair competition practices
   • Written non-discrimination and equal employment opportunity policy
5. Schedule corporate ethics training for November, if documentation of previous such training does not exist.
6. Begin gathering and reviewing your:

• Written health and safety policy and plan.
• Financial controls and accounting policy.
• Equal employment opportunity compliance statements and relevant hiring policy.

7. Write/review a procedure for staff to submit questions relating to ethics policies or practices:
8. Write/review a description of the company’s methods for ensuring all sales, promotional materials and advertisements are truthful and accurate.
9. Send invitations for corporate ethics training, including an agenda. Retain copies of the invitations and agenda for application.
10. Remind recommenders of recommendation letter due date.
11. Begin gathering and reviewing your:
    • NEws clippings or thank-you letters documenting community service
    • Agenda and invitations to safety trainings
    • BBB complain resolution record, if applicable

12. Review status of written policies and procedures. Ensure they are complete and have needed approvals.
13. Get authorization for $400 payment to be mailed with application.
14. Gather all documentation. Fill in the application form. Identify missing/incomplete items using Application Checklist.
15. Contact recommenders whose letters you have not received.
16. Make copies of all documentation (except recommendation letters, which must remain unopened).
17. Finalize application form. Conduct final review of, and begin final packaging of, documentation.
18. Mail application with documentation and payment (make checks payable to American Subcontractors Association):

American Subcontractors Association

ATTN: Shannon MacArthur

Chair, ASA Task Force on Ethics in the Construction Industry

MEMCO

4555 Dacoma, Suite 100

Houston, TX 77092

Office: (713) 683-8996

Email: Shannon@memcostaffing.com cc: education@asa-hq.com