WCOG Awards
2008 Call for Nominations  |  2007 Madison-Andersen Award Event  |  Madison Award  |  Andersen Award  |  Key Award

2008 Call For Nominations

The Washington Coalition for Open Government is now accepting nominations for the 2008 James Madison and James Andersen Awards. Deadline for nominations is July 1, 2008.

Click here for more information and for nomination forms.

2007 Madison - Andersen Award Event

Click here to watch this years James Madison - James Andersen Award Event

Featured Speaker - Brian Sonntag, Washington State Auditor/ WCOG Director
Keynote Speech.pdf

Download the Event Program
Event Program.pdf

2007 - Paul Wright

Paul Wright is the editor and co-founder of Prison Legal News, the longest publishing independent prisoner rights magazine in US history. He is the co-author of The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the US Prison Industry (Common Courage, 1998), Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America’s Poor (Routledge, 2003), and the forthcoming Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Imprisonment (New Press, 2008). His articles have appeared in a variety of publications. He is also the National Lawyers Guild Jailhouse Lawyer national co-vice president. A former prisoner, Paul was imprisoned for 17 years in Washington State until his release from prison in 2003. During and since his incarceration, he has successfully litigated a wide variety of censorship and public records issues against prison systems around the country both pro se, as a plaintiff, and on behalf of Prison Legal News. He is on the advisory board of Stop Prison Rape. Paul is a former Military Policeman and a graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in Soviet history. Paul founded PLN in 1990 while imprisoned.

2006 - Rowland Thompson   2005 - James Andersen

Andersen Award

Criteria
The Andersen Award -  Given  to  an  individual  or  organization  that  has  done  something extraordinary  to  advance  the  efforts  of  the  Washington  Coalition  for  Open  Government.
Nomination Form (.pdf)

Recipients

2007 - Frank W. Garred

Frank W. Garred is a retired newspaper publisher, owning and operating community newspapers on the Olympic Peninsula since 1967. He has served as president of the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, the National Newspaper Association (NNA), National Newspaper Association Foundation, and the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. He served seven years as NNA’s representative to the national Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. A 1958 graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in Journalism, he served in the army (infantry) with duty in Korea prior to joining the news staff of the Aberdeen Daily World in 1960. He was a newspaper reporter and editor from 1960 until 1967 when he purchased the newspaper at Port Townsend. He served as executive director of the Washington Coalition for Open Government from its creation in 2002 until June 2004, and as Vice President in 2006. He has taught Journalism courses at Western Washington University and Peninsula College (Port Angeles).

Key Award

Criteria
Any person or organization who has done something notable for the cause of open government within the past 12 months is eligible; this includes board members, WCOG members, the general public, or public officials.
Nomination Form (.pdf)

Recipients

June 3 , 2008
Click here to download the press release
Pictured: Tim Ford, WCOG President Toby Nixon, Key Award Winner Shawn Bunney, and Brian Sonntag.
February 28, 2008
Click here to download the press release
WCOG President Toby Nixon and Key Award Winner Brendan Williams
September 21, 2007
Click here to download the press release
Glen Milner,Todd Hogden, Mark Mahnkey, Rep. Lynn Kessler, Rob McKenna, Armen Yousoufian (not pictured here)

May 17, 2007 Winners
Michael Brannan, Ken Meyer, Beth and Doug O'Neill, Greg Overstreet, The Seattle Times

For more information, contact Washington Coalition for Open Government, 6351 Seaview Avenue NW, Seattle, WA 98107-2664 or on the web at www.washingtoncog.org or call (206) 782-0393.