Have we got a deal for you.

If you're plugged into your community's business grapevine, you probably hear about some innovative deals, many of which are good for the local economy. In fact, the need to recognize and foster these beneficial business deals led two FEI chapters to create "Deal of the Year" awards. Under both the Hawaii and San Diego programs, chapter members select the nominees, evaluate them and present a representative from the winning company with a plaque at an honorary dinner.

Paul Henigin, a member of the Hawaii Chapter, says he modeled the idea partly on the state's Better Business Bureau company-of-the-year award. "Financial executives work hard to make difficult things happen, but often the mechanics of their actions don't get much attention. The Deal-of-the-Year award is a way to recognize those contributions and to get attention and exposure for FEI," he explains.

Right now, the chapter's award committee of three people is trying to decide between two candidates -- a real-estate developer that's working on a shopping center to attract discount retailers, which Hawaii has traditionally had a hard time doing, and a company that's buying out a sugar cooperative and thus extending the life of the sugar industry in the state. One committee member, John Karbens, is a finance professor at Hawaii Pacific University and is enlisting his students' help in making the final evaluation. Based on the background material on the two candidates, the students write papers explaining which one deserves the award and why. "Pulling in the educational process is the key," Henigin says. "This way we have a structure of motivated people to do the analysis, and that helps ensure you don't get embarrassed. Plus, it gives the students some real-world experience."

Of course, the committee is the final arbiter, and it's developed certain standards for the award, which will be presented in mid-November. First, the transaction or deal must be identifiable as a discrete transaction that can be analyzed with concrete data. Also, the deal must be beneficial to the Hawaiian economy. "That screens out creative deals that aren't necessarily in the public interest," Henigin says. The principal people involved in the deal must be willing to make financial information easily accessible to the committee and the students. The committee also will favor candidates that it believes will help it promote the award. "We want to enhance the image of the financial profession, so the award recipient should reflect FEI in a positive light," Henigin notes.

After hearing about the Hawaii Chapter's idea at an FEI Western area conference, the San Diego Chapter decided to give the Deal-of-the-Year award a whirl, too. Ken King, president of Signal Consulting Group and a chapter member, says the chapter wants "to recognize local executives who do beneficial things for the community through their business dealings." With an award as positive reinforcement, he hopes that San Diego companies will be more likely to evaluate the potential impact of their business strategies on the community.

Like Hawaii, San Diego initially planned to introduce some academic involvement, but it also wanted to develop the award process relatively quickly. "Once you get into the planning mode, it's too easy to get bogged down with details," King points out, so the chapter decided to enlist its board of directors in coming up with the list of candidates. This year's award probably will go to a ship-building company that recently negotiated several major contracts, which are expected to generate many jobs in the San Diego area, he says.

So far, Hawaii and San Diego are the only chapters doing deal-of-the-year awards, but the Rochester Chapter has a twist on their theme -- it's developing an annual Rochester Business Excellence Award to reward outstanding businesses (rather than specific transactions) and identify FEI with business excellence. Both the Hawaii and the San Diego chapters plan to make the award an annual event with which to generate interest in FEI. Henigin believes that chapter members next year will have a better idea of what constitutes a good award candidate. Even after his committee sent out letters inviting the chapter members to supply some good candidates, "We really had to shake out the nominations from the membership -- I think people really weren't sure which deals would meet our criteria."

He also warns that deciding on the winner involves some judgment on the part of the committee. "You have to be careful about the timing," he explains, "because if a company is in the beginning stages of a transaction, the deal might fall through. On the other hand, you don't want to wait too long after a transaction's done, because that detracts from the newsworthiness of the event." But he's confident that the committee members can iron out the kinks and make the award a new chapter tradition.

JOSEPH SCIARRINO RETIRES AS FEI VICE PRESIDENT AND TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Joseph A. Sciarrino, FEI's vice president and technical director, retired on April 1. He was a member of FEI's headquarters staff since 1968, when he signed on as technical director for the six technical committees in existence then. He assumed the additional title of vice president in 1980. In the past 26 years, he's been involved, on behalf of FEI, in many issues of corporate governance, reporting, audit controls and other areas. Before joining FEI, Sciarrino was controller of Libby, McNeil & Libby in Chicago and controller of Crouse-Hinds Co. in Syracuse, N.Y. He and his wife Millie now live in South Carolina.