On November 30, members and supporters of the Chanticleer Intelligence Brief (CIB) met for yet another CIB Awards Ceremony, a longstanding CIB tradition that marks the culmination of the semester. The event takes place to recognize the hard work of CIB recruits, members, analysts, and senior analysts, and to renew everyone’s pledge to make the organization even stronger in the coming year.

This semester’s celebration marked the 14th CIB Awards Ceremony, in the tradition of the group’s first-ever banquet, which was held in May of 2016. With the organization having finally emerged from the coronavirus pandemic environment, CIB operations were in full force this semester. The Awards Ceremony provided the CIB with an opportunity to recognize a number of members who did outstanding work in the past several months.

During the ceremony, 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: Mason Marlowe (Americas); Sarantis Markaris (Europe); Jordan Maple (Russia); Aubrey Belanger (Africa, who has now won this award twice as a member of two different desks); Liam Boyle (Asia); Kevin Joyce (Middle East); Hannah Flick (China, CIB’s newest desk); and Brendan Valcone (Cyber/Transnational, second semester in a row).

Additionally, the editors of the CIB’s Weekly Intelligence Brief publication recognized one of the contributors this semester whose work for the publication represents the highest standards of content selection, analysis and written delivery. The award recipient was Kevin Joyce (Middle East).

The organization recognized its four Critical Mission Center (CMC) directors, who served in the Intelligence Internship this semester. These are: Giovanna Costantiello (CMC FOXOTROT), Hannah Flick (CMC ZULU), Liam Boyle (CMC X-RAY), and McKenzie Tsiantoulas (CMC WHISKEY). These Directors were surrounded by 20 Critical Mission Center Support Officers, who became eligible to complete this internship in a subsequent semester.

The following awards were presented to the following CMC participants: The Highest Quality Oral Intelligence Product Award, presented to the CMC Director with the best overall delivery of oral intelligence briefs, went to Hannah Flick (ZULU). The Highest Quality Written Intelligence Product Award, presented to the CMC Director with the best overall Trend Analysis and Assessment Reports, went to Liam Boyle (X-RAY). The Highest Quality Current Intelligence Product Award, presented to the CMC Support Officers with the highest-quality Current Intelligence Report Circulars, was presented to Tyler Connolly (X-RAY), Sierra Mason (X-RAY), and Amanda Lane (ZULU). Finally, the Critical Mission Center Support Excellence Award, which recognizes the two most valuable CMC Support Officers of the semester, went to Alexa McMichael (FOXTROT) and Kevin Joyce (WHISKEY).

On behalf of the CIB Executive Team, CIB Executive Director Lukas Delaney recognized the longstanding work of our Executive Officers, Scott Boster, Sophie Sherwood, Sierra Mason, Tessa Bentley, Ryan Freyland, Kristian Nesheim, and Abigail McLean. In a rare instance, the CIB Achievement Award, which 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, did not go to a current member of the Executive Team. Rather it went to a former member of the Executive Team Piper Danzek (Europe), who is graduating this semester.

The final recognition of the evening went to the CIB Europe, headed by CIB Officer Sierra Mason. The desk won this semester’s CIB Weekly News Trivia Quiz, placing several points ahead of the Americas Desk, which came in second.

The CIB wishes to thank all of its Executive Team officers, its senior analysts and analysts, as well as its recruits, for a highly successful semester. Our organization looks forward to continuing to strengthen our work and output in the semesters 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.