The Ambassador of the year award was established by Jack Humphries and the GMIS Board to honor and recognize a GMIS member, who recruits the most new members in a year thus helping to make GMIS a great organization.

• 2006 Matthew Wainwright, Rhode Island GMIS Chapter President
• 2004 Michael D. Esolda, NJ GMIS President
• 2003 Janet Claggett, Richmond County, SC
• 2002 Elaine Olah, Santa Fe, NM
• 2001 Johnny Walton, Aiken, SC
• 2000 Charles Downey, Atlanta, Georgia
• 1999 Richard Douglas (Doug) Taylor City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama
  
• 1998 Robert (Bob) Canney, Black Hawk County, Waterloo, Iowa.

The Hershel Strickland Ambassador of the Year Award award is bestowed upon the individual who epitomizes the essence of GMIS, that of "sharing". The individual who shares GMIS with his/her peers and/or contemporaries by recruiting the most new members in a fiscal year, is designated "Ambassador of the Year", is awarded a plaque and receives special recognition at the annual conference.

Everyone who recruits a new member receives credit for the award. For instance, credit for five new members was carried over FY 94/95 because we stopped counting in May, 1995 in order to get the award prepared for presentation at the annual conference, but the individuals recruiting those new members received credit in FY 95/96.

Let us add your name to the "Honor Roll"; pass the short application form found in the GMIS brochure, or the application form found in each copy of the GEM to a potential member; put your name on the application form and when the agency joins, you become an Ambassador.