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Housing & Conference Services

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Housing & Conference Services Awards & Nominations

Housing & Conference Services is proud to celebrate the accomplishments of our teams and to inspire continuous innovation in our department.

Awards and Nominations

Winner: McMaster University President Award for Outstanding Service 2022 Learn More

WINNER – Monica Palkowski, Living Learning Coordinator, as part of the Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) Working Group

The Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) Working Group has been recognized by the Present’s office for their environmental sustainability campaign. This initiative aims to reduce the use of single use plastic water bottles by encouraging the McMaster community to use the water bottle filling stations located throughout campus.

Finalist - Hamilton Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Business Achievement Awards

Top 3 Finalist: COVID Champion Category

The Outstanding Business Achievement Awards celebrates business excellence in Hamilton and surrounding regions. As a Top 3 Finalist in the the COVID Champion category, HCS was recognized as a business that has stepped up, joined the fight, retooled their business, or diverted resources to support COVID-19 efforts.

Winner: Health & Safety Awards of Excellence

This award is presented to an individual/group from our McMaster community who has done an outstanding job of promoting health, safety, and wellness in the workplace.

The HCS custodial team was selected for going above and beyond the traditional scope of their role to ensure the campus and local community is safe for everyone working, quarantining, and living on site. Our custodians have been hard at work since the onset COVID-19, modifying standard cleaning procedures to implement proactive strategies to prevent the transmission of COVID in Residence. This team award is shared with our custodial counterparts in Facilities Services.

Winner: McMaster University President's Award for Outstanding Service Learn More

WINNER – Special Achievement Award
Student and Community Support Team

Recognized for the unique support initiatives created in response to COVID-19, the Student and Community Support Team was recognized by the President’s office for providing exceptional support to students, their families and the greater McMaster community.

The 45-member team includes 25 individuals from Housing & Conference Services, who led the way in delivering comprehensive support both in-person and online.

2020 OACUHO President’s Recognition

WINNER – Laurie Ham, Manager, Conference & Events Services

Laurie has also gone above and beyond in times of need. She is always the first to ask how she and the CES team can best assist other units and departments at McMaster. Her exceptional leadership paved the way for CES to pivot from its typical business model to a flexible and innovative system, which actively supports the needs of McMaster’s students and community.  

NOMINEE – Raquel Gavey, Manager, Residence Building Operations

Rising to each new challenge faced, Raquel’s collaborative spirit and great attitude has ensured high morale and engagement throughout the custodial team, allowing them to deliver exceptional service in support of HCS and beyond.

2020 TMG Peer-to-Peer Recognition

The TMG Peer-to-Peer Recognition program is intended to recognize TMG members who are doing outstanding work and contributing to a brighter McMaster through the demonstration and reinforcement of McMaster’s core leadership capabilities.

2020 NOMINEES

  • Jaimie Dickson, Manager, Admissions & Administration
  • Karen Bigeye, Custodial Coordinator
  • Sean Beaudette, Manager, Educational Initiatives & Assessment

2020 CAUBO Quality and Productivity Awards

Since 1987, CAUBO has celebrated the administrative achievements of its members through the Quality and Productivity (Q & P) Awards, rewarding effective and innovative practices that enable excellence in the management of risk, and human, financial, IT and physical resources on our Canadian campuses.

NOMINEE – Housing & Conference Services and the McMaster Ancillary Model

Through strong ancillary services, McMaster builds expertise in many areas to support the university’s higher purpose of global leadership in innovative research, excellence in teaching & learning and building a Brighter World.

By keeping these services internal and exclusive, the university creates initiatives driven by organizational values such as sustainability, equity, inclusiveness and community, in addition to keeping valuable dollars on campus.

Winner: 2019 OACUHO Innovation and Vision Award & 2019 OACUHO Program/Service of the Year Award

This summer, the HCS team was honoured not once, but twice! Congratulations to the team for receiving the OACUHO Innovation and Vision award for our deployment of Lean Six Sigma in our operations and the OACUHO Program/Service of the Year award for our Organic Waste Pilot.

Winner: 2019 Health and Safety Week Video Competition Daily News Article

The Environmental & Occupational Health Support Services (EOHSS) held a Safety Video Competition to celebrate the 2019 Safety and Health Week. For the second year in a row, Housing and Conference Services Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) took home the win with their video submission, “We Are All Leaders in Reporting Safety Hazards.”

Winner: ACUHO-I Marketing Award 2018

Our Maroon & Gold Employee Recognition Program has won third place in the 2018 ACUHO-I Specialty Category.

Winner: 2018 McMaster President’s Award for Outstanding Service

Roger Couldry, Vice-President (Administration) and Sean Van Koughnet, Associate Vice-President (Students and Learning) and Dean of Students, nominated the 2017 North American Indigenous Games Planning Committee for this award, which includes a number of Housing & Conference Services team members.

Winner: 2018 OACUHO Innovation/Vision Award

The highlight of the event was when Sean Beaudette (not pictured here) was honoured with the OACUHO Innovation/Vision Award for his work on making big improvements to our Residence Academic Centres.

Winner: 2018 Unique Venues Top Pick

McMaster was named as a “Top Pick” by Unique Venues. Congratulations to Conference & Event Services.

Winner: 2018 JHSC Health and Safety Poster Competition Daily News Article

Environmental and Occupational Health Support Services hosted several events to celebrate North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week from May 7-11, 2018. New this year was a Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) poster competition. Committee members were challenged to identify a hazard that is relevant to their specific group or to the University and develop a poster related to reduction/mitigation of this hazard. The Housing and Conference Services JHSC won best poster for “That Text Can Wait – Don’t Text and Walk”.

Past Awards

Winner: 2007 President’s Award for Outstanding Service Team Award

Winner: 2014 President’s Award for Outstanding Service Individual Recipient - Marta Prancho