The Award of Merit is the highest honor paid by Tree Care Industry Association to an individual or company. We don’t always give an Award of Merit each year, so this is considered our industry’s most prestigious recognition. The award nominations are due early in the fall and the award is presented at the Winter Management Conference. Download an application form here 

Award of Merit goes to Dan Christie

Presented by Terrill Collier at WMC

As we come to the most prestigious recognition that the Tree Care Industry Association gives, the Award of Merit, I would like to ask the following previous recipients who are present to please join me at the podium.

Members of the TCIA Awards Committee this year were past chairs – Scott Packard, Jeanne Houser and Tom Golon.

There are times when a project or program is completed and everyone can point to its culmination and say thank you to the people who devoted their time and effort to make it happen. At other times, the work of dedicated members may go unnoticed. The work of this year’s Award of Merit winner falls into the usually quiet but always effective category.

TCIA’s Tree Care Academy has evolved over the years to become seven, separate, step-by-step training modules for tree care employees. In the beginning when this was a mere idea, this year’s honoree was one of the driving forces to develop training programs for members so they could teach employees how to work safely and profitably. Quiet service may be the best description of this year’s honoree. He devoted his time over the years to the Excellence in Arboriculture Committee, Education and Employee Development Committee, Winter Management Conference Committee, Site Selection Committee, and the Government Affairs Committee.

For six years he served as a member of the TCIA’s Board of Directors. During his tenure, all who served with him described him as very effective – a board member who was never afraid to broach any subject. While a man of strong opinions, he was also willing to try to see all sides of an issue and insisted that discussions were comprehensive. Of course, that doesn’t mean he was willing to allow discussions to go on forever when he felt the board or committee were plowing over ground repeatedly.

Perhaps most importantly, in times of rapid change and the launching of new strategic initiatives, he insisted the association stay true to its values and ethics. This was particularly true in his insistence on looking out for the interests of the average member.

After six years on the board, it was his time to run for chair. Because of the demographics of the time, a race between candidates would have been needed. Instead, he stepped away from a more visible role and declined to run, feeling satisfied with the significant contributions he had already made. This typifies his commitment to service and effectiveness over recognition and the center stage.

Every year, one of the hardest things TCIA faces is the transition of the Board, which involves the loss of tremendous talent. That was certainly true when this year’s award of merit honoree, Dan Christie, stepped away from the board. We are grateful he has stayed quietly involved with the association and honor him here today. Because Dan left as a board member and not as a past chair, his contributions have been under appreciated. Be clear, Dan brought his farm boy good sense, and practical insight to every strategic decision our organization faced. His honesty, opinion and humor were freely given and always appreciated. We are a far stronger and more effective association today and into the future because of his leadership.

So today we honor with the Award of Merit one of our quiet champions, Dan Christie.