And the winner is ...

Late winter and spring are two of my favorite times of year - awards season! The Golden Globes, the Grammys and the Academy Awards. There's nothing quite like the famous 'Red Carpet' with cameras flashing and all. Like the nominees for Best Actor always say, “It was an honor just to be nominated.”

I am proud to say that I work for an organization that has also gotten its fair share of nominations this year! We were recently nominated for -- and won! -- the 2008 Veterans Employer of the Year Award by the California Employer Advisory Council!

Of our 337+ Airport Authority employees, some 62 of us are veterans. Our Human Resources department does an excellent job of recruiting vets, and Airport Authority policies are supportive of potential employees transitioning out of the Armed Forces into civilian life. Click to read more about why the Airport Authority won this award.

The San Diego Business Journal also nominated the Airport Authority as one of San Diego’s 2008 Best Places to Work (in the Large Business Category). I was at the ceremony in La Jolla, along with some of my friends and colleagues from other departments. I was really excited that we were nominated and in the same playing field as Qualcomm! Not bad for an agency that's only five years old!

According to the nomination package we submitted for that award, what makes the Airport Authority such a SANtabulous (that's a special word invented by fellow employee Dianne to describe the work we do here) place to work is our commitment to the community we serve. We strive for world-class performance, but always remember that “world class” has to start at home. It really was an honor just to be nominated.

We better all start practicing our acceptance speeches for next year!