County Clerk Receives Five Star Vital Registration Award for Eleventh Consecutive Year
During the 54th Annual Conference on Vital Statistics in Austin on Dec.10-12th, the Williamson County Clerk’s office was presented for the eleventh 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 death 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 and death registrations, completing an assessment survey and providing documentation of recruiting physicians to sign up and use TER-Death registration. This year's competition included over 529 local registrars, out of which there were only 65 local registrars across the state that met the five specific criteria needed to achieve this prestigious award. Forty-one were County Clerks' offices. Three employees in the Vital Statistics area, Shirley Merkord, Susie Napier and Shelly Cole attended the conference. Mrs. Rister attributed the eleventh consecutive win to her staff who have strived to maintain the high standards. The annual three day conference included topics on Master Registrar Certification, Identity Theft, Twogether in Texas, Statutes Governing Local Registration, VS Document Fraud, Enhancing TER, Disaster Planning, Mexican Consulate, Remote Birth Access, Paternity Certification and others. The staff were recognized in Commissioner’s Court on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008.
Pictured below are: Dr. Yvonne Howze-Section Director for Health & Vital Statistics with the State Dept. of Health Services, Susie Napier-Deputy Shirley Merkord-Deputy, Shelly Cole-Deputy, Geraldine Harris-State Registrar.
County Judge Dan Gattis
Shelly Cole, Deputy Clerk
Shirley Merkord, Deputy Clerk
County Clerk Nancy Rister
The 2008 Five Star Vital Registration Award
Shirley Merkord receives her Master Registrar Certification at the 2006 Conference in Austin
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