NCADD is pleased to announce that the 2012 EAPA Ross Von Weigand Award will be presented this year to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) EAP. The award will presented at annual EAPA conference scheduled for October 17-20, 2012 in Baltimore, MD.

NCADD is the birthplace of Employee Assistance Programs (originally known as Occupational Alcoholism Programs) and very few people played a more critical role on behalf of NCADD in helping to make EAP a reality than Ross Von Weigand, as a successor to Lewis Presnall at NCADD. Over the years, millions of lives and careers have been saved as a result!

The annual World EAP conference is the world's largest gathering of employee assistance professionals offering the most intensive and comprehensive learning/networking opportunity dedicated to the growth of the employee assistance profession. Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) is the world's largest, oldest, and most respected membership organization for employee assistance professionals. With members in over 40 countries around the globe, EAPA is the world's most relied upon source of information and support for and about the employee assistance profession.

EAPA will be presenting the Ross Von Weigand Award to the FAA at the Awards Luncheon on Saturday, October 20th. In the book, "Mrs. Marty Mann: The First Lady of Alcoholics Anonymous", NCADD's Founder and her support of EAP is quoted as follows: "In 1959 Lewis F Presnall became the first director of the Office of Industrial Services, established by Marty Mann in her organization, National Council on Alcoholism (NCA)- now NCADD. His outreach to business and industry helped support the handful of existing Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), and encourage and train personnel for new programs.

"Marty's rallying cry became 'Save the man, Save the investment!' ...NCA's most successful programs became their industrial ones, because those employees were highly motivated to recover in order to keep their jobs. (Marty quoted a 75 percent recovery rate.)"

About Ross Von Weigand:

In 1971, Ross Von Wiegand was Director of Labor Management Services for the National Council on Alcoholism (NCA- now NCADD). He was one of the founders, in that same year, of ALMACA, the predecessor of today's EAPA, and he served as its first Vice President. He helped ALMACA/EAPA define its original objectives and subsequently supervised the development of many early occupational alcoholism programs, the forerunners of EAPs. ALMACA/EAPA established the Ross Von Wiegand award in 1979 to recognize labor/management EAPs that demonstrated excellent cooperation between management and unions. In its first 10 years, the award was given to:

• 1979: General Motors / UAW GM
• 1980: Western Electric / union not specified
• 1981: United Airlines / union not specified
• 1982: United States Postal Service / PAR (Project Alcohol Recovery)
• 1983: ALCOA / various unions not specified
• 1984: Kimberly Clark / United Paperworkers
• 1985: Firestone Tire & Rubber Company / United Rubber Workers
• 1986: Ford Motor Company / UAW Ford NTC
• 1987: no award given
• 1988: CSX Rail Transport / United Transport Workers
• 1989 - 2007: List of Awardees Not Available
• 2008 The US Postal Service (USPS)
• 2009 International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 1150
• 2010 City of Saskatoon Family Assistance Program
• 2011 no award
• 2012 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Employee Assistance Program in Partnership with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) CISM Team

To purchase A Biography of Mrs. Marty Mann - The First Lady of Alcoholics Anonymous, click here.