Examiner Qualifications and Eligibility

Examiners are selected based on their personal qualifications and are not considered representatives of their employers or any other organization. Efforts are made to ensure broad participation and to minimize disproportionate involvement of one industry or of employees from a single organization.

Examiner Qualifications:
• Knowledge/experience in business, manufacturing, government, healthcare, education or nonprofit work
• An understanding of business processes or business results
• Knowledge of quality practices and improvement strategies
• Written and verbal communication skills
• Leadership and interpersonal skills
• Related education and training

Examiner Eligibility:
• Required to submit an Examiner Application (this form)
• Completed pre-work assignment
• Actively participated and attended all training sessions
• Agree to follow the Code of Ethical Standards and Rules of Conduct (provided during training).

Upon completion of Examiner training, you may receive an assignment. If warranted, a site visit will be scheduled for your examination team.

**Note: Site Visit location MAY be outside the state of California**

Examiner Time Commitment

The CAPE Program seeks to provide fair and competent evaluation of each application. Accordingly, Examiners are assigned applications on the basis of their knowledge and experience, consistent with requirements to avoid conflicts of interest, to apportion the application load equitably, and to adhere to agreed-upon schedules. Depending upon the results of evaluations, overall participation of Examiners may vary.

The award cycle for the Eureka Award is July-late January and typically requires 150 hours of volunteer work. The site visit dates for 2027 are:

Wave 1 - TBD

Wave 2 - TBD

Serving as a CAPE Examiner requires training for and participation in all three stages of the award cycle (Independent Review, Consensus Review & Site Visit). Independent and Consensus Review typically takes about 110 hours between July and early September.

A site visit includes travel to the applicant’s site(s) for five to six days of interviews with the applicant organization. All expenses are paid or reimbursed by the applicant organization.

While participating in a site visit is a large time commitment, we strongly encourage all Examiners to be available for site visit work. Most of our Examiners say that the site visit is the most rewarding part of an Examiner's work. You must be able to accommodate the schedule set by your evaluation team during both the Consensus Review and Site Visit phases of the evaluation process.

Approximate time commitment per Stage

CAPE Examiner Training Time Commitment: ~ 30-40 hours

Stage 1: Independent Review (IR) Time Commitment: ~ 50-70 hours

Stage 2: Consensus Review (CR) Time Commitment: ~ 45-60 hours

Stage 3: Site Visit Prep Time Commitment: ~ 20-30 hours

Stage 3: Site Visit (SV) Time Commitment: Sunday-Friday ~12-14 hours each day

Assignment of Examiners

We assign examiners to award applications with the goal of ensuring the fairest, most competent evaluation possible. If you are selected to serve as an Examiner, you'll be assigned to an application based on your knowledge and experience and on the need to avoid conflicts of interest.

Term of Appointment

Examiners are appointed for approximately four months, beginning in July. Examiners must complete Stages 1 & 2 of the evaluation in order to receive credit for being an Examiner.

Code of Ethical Conduct

As an Examiner, you’ll be expected to observe the Code of Ethical Conduct.