Members of the Chanticleer Intelligence Brief (CIB) met for the culmination of the semester on December 6, to recognize the hard work of officers, analysts and members, and to renew their pledge to make the organization even stronger in the coming semester. This was the fourth CIB Banquet, in the tradition of the group’s first-ever banquet, which was held in May of 2016. As always, the event featured free food provided to all CIB members, which was enjoyed in a relaxed atmosphere.

At the opening of the awards ceremony, CIB Executive Editor Casey Mallon and CIB faculty mentor Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis, recognized the hard work of our Operations Officer, Connor Kilgore, who was awarded thee CIB Achievement Award. This recognition is offered by the CIB Executive Team to an individual member of the organization who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in contributing to the CIB’s efforts. There were nine candidates for the award this year, more than ever before.

The CIB Executive Team also recognized the crucial contribution of CIB members Lindsey Hamilton and Logan Jarrell, who led the launching of a new CIB project this semester, The Weekly Intelligence Brief. Lindsey and Logan are editors of the new weekly publication, which contains timely analytical briefs submitted by CIB members based on their areas of focus. In turn, Lindsey and Logan recognized CIB Africa Desk member Jake Lewis with the Rising Analyst Award. This new award is offered by the Weekly Intelligence Brief editors to the CIB member or who has submitted the most and highest quality contributions to the publication.

Four awards were presented to CIB Analysts during the ceremony. The Intelligence Analysis Award, presented for delivering the highest-quality oral analytical product during the semester, was won by CIB Analyst Madison Nowlin. Madison’s topic this semester was: “How is Sunni Islamism in the Middle East complicating US-Russian relations?”. She concluded the semester with the highest average evaluation score for her oral briefings. The Intelligence Forecast Award, given for achieving the most successful analytical forecast record in the semester, was presented to CIB Analyst Allison Reilly. Allison’s topic for the semester was: “Is southern Africa heading toward destabilization?”, and featured real-time analysis of the November 2017 coup in Zimbabwe.

The Intelligence Progress Award is given to an individual analyst whose work has shown the most progress during a single semester. This award recognizes a person who rose to meet the high standards of the CIB though constant improvement, dedication and hard work. This award was presented to CIB Officer and Analyst Katelyn Montrief, who leads the organization’s Middle East Desk. Katelyn’s topic for the semester was: “How is Turkey’s political instability affecting NATO?”.

The Best Intelligence Essay Award recognizes the best written analytical product of the semester. It went CIB analyst Matt Pologe. Matt’s analytical question for the semester was: “How likely is a war involving North Korea?”. His final analytical product was deemed to be the best quality by a review committee composed of intelligence professionals.

In addition to Analysts, the CIB recognized its most promising members based on the consistency of their work this semester. The head of each membership desk nominated a member for the Regional Expert Award, which is given for distinguished semester-long performance as a CIB member. The award winners were: Joseph Cain (Americas); Courtney Woods (Europe); Amber Fields (Russia); Daniel Lewis (Africa); Fabio (Asia); and Kyle Brossard (Cyber).

The final recognition of the evening went to the CIB Africa desk, headed by CIB Communications Officer Allison Reilly. The desk won this semester’s CIB Weekly News Trivia Quiz with 61 points, four points ahead of the Americas desk, which came in second place. The Russia Desk came in third with 46 points.

To see photographs of the Banquet ceremony, please visit the CIB’s Facebook page.

The CIB wishes to thank all of its Executive Team Officers, its Analysts and its Members, for a highly successful semester, and looks forward to continuing to strengthen our organization in the future to come. We also want to congratulate our graduating members and wish them our very best as they embark on their next steps in life.