County Clerk Receives Five Star Vital Award
for
Twelfth Consecutive Year
During the 55th Annual Conference on Vital Statistics in Austin on Dec. 9-11th, the Williamson County Clerk’s office was presented for the twelfth consecutive year the Five Star Vital Registration Award by the Texas Department of Health, State Health Services Vital Statistics Unit. This award is presented annually for exemplary work in the area of Vital Registration. The criteria for qualifications of this award include timeliness of filing registrations entered into the state database by the clerk’s office, annual training at conferences, use of the Texas Electronic Registrar (TER) for all birth, death and marriage registrations, completing an assessment survey and providing documentation of recruiting physicians to sign up and use State Dept. of Health required banknote paper. This year's competition included over 529 local registrars, out of which there were only 69 local registrars across the state that met the five specific criteria needed to achieve this prestigious award. Thirty-nine were County Clerks' offices who met the exemplary designation. Two employees in the Vital Statistics area attended the conference, Shirley Merkord, Linda Jons with their supervisor Gary Elderton. Mrs. Rister attributed the twelfth consecutive win to her staff who have strived to maintain the high standards. The annual three day conference included topics on Nuts and Bolts of TER Birth Registration, Detecting Fraud, Homeland Security and Identity Theft, Data Quality and System Integration, Statutes Governing Marriage Registration, Nuts and Bolts of TER Death Registration, Supplemental Registration, Remote Birth Access, Passport Fraud, Paternity Certification and others. This is only the third time that the designation of "Exemplary" has been achieved as the requirements become increasingly tough to reach this top designation. This extremely difficult designation was achieved in 2003 and 2008 also. The staff were recognized in Commissioner’s Court on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010.
The 2009 Exemplary Five Star Vital Registration Award
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Presentation During Commissioner's Court 1-5-2010
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Linda Jons, County Clerk Nancy E. Rister, Shirley Merkord
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Shirley Merkord receives her Master Registrar Certification at the 2006 Conference in Austin
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