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Best Practices for Chamber Awards
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Key Takeaways
Reflect your community.
Be intentional.
Keep what works. Tweak what doesn't.
Use volunteer leadership.
It might feel like there’s a trophy for just about anything these days. But even with competition, chambers with award programs are carving out a spot on the mantle to honor members and those making a community-wide impact.
In addition to the recognition aspect, these programs present an opportunity to spotlight partners and members, enhance community goodwill and bring in non-dues revenue. And if you’re looking to start or enhance an awards program, here are some things to consider before rolling out the red carpet.
Reflect your community.
Nestled between Dallas and Fort Worth, the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce embraces what makes it stand out in the metroplex – a strong sense of community. For the past 64 years, its Community Awards event celebrates outstanding individuals and businesses each January. It also serves as the changing of the guard for its board of directors. “It’s a mix of community awards and chamber awards all in one night,” said John Adkins, the chamber’s director of events. Every award is sponsored, and most winners are chosen by previous recipients and the chamber’s board.
While categories can reflect chamber priorities or special community attributes, the physical award is another way to showcase the characteristics of your community. Winners reel in a piece created just for the Alaska Chamber of Commerce. “I wanted it to be super unique and Alaskan,” Annie Graff, events and membership director for the Alaska Chamber of Commerce, said. “I worked with two local artists to create a fish.” It became so popular that the fish design was added to coasters as a giveaway for attendees.
Be intentional.
Not every award your chamber presents has to be given at the same event. The Evansville Regional Economic Partnership (E-REP) places awards where they make sense. “We try to highlight either individuals or organizations in a way that will be most impactful,” said Kali Mayes, E-REP’s manager of events. For example, a manufacturer may be honored at an industry event, while the young professional of the year is acknowledged at a YP gathering. “We try to be really intentional in looking at the big overarching view of the year,” Mayes said. At E-REP’s annual meeting and dinner, just three regional awards are included: the Community Champion Award, Distinguished Business Leader of the Year and Business of the Year.
Keep what works. Tweak what doesn’t.
Summers in Alaska are full of sunlight and warm weather. Graff wanted to try something new with their top business awards by moving them from their annual fall forum to a summer happy hour. After two years, the awards are heading back to the fall forum. “It was successful, but we didn’t feel like we were getting enough recognition,” Graff said. “We decided to wrap it back into the fall forum. It’s more visible recognition to our members and attendees.”
Wrapping awards back into its big fall forum event isn’t the only change Graff is making for the Alaska Chamber’s 2023 awards. After hearing from members, the nomination process will also undergo some adjustments this year. “The time it took for somebody to do the nomination process was too short of a window,” she said. “Plus, we require letters of recommendation from additional companies or people.” The form couldn’t be submitted without those recommendation letters attached, and nominations ended up unfinished. This year, nomination forms can be sent to the chamber first, with just one additional recommendation letter required any time before the deadline.
Grapevine is adding an award for next year based on demand. “We’ll be adding one more Community Spirit award,” Adkins said. Since nominations for the award previously included businesses and individuals, the chamber will instead create an award for each. “Looking through our nominations over the last year, you can see that there’s a need,” Adkins said. “Don’t try to fix something if it’s not broken but do innovate if the need is there.”
Use volunteer leadership.
Adding a buffer between chamber staff and the awards process can help ensure fair proceedings, eliminate potential disputes and keep members from asking staff to divulge winners. In Grapevine, all nominees are listed for each award before the event. “It also helps sell tickets. We had 363 attendees for the community awards this year,” Adkins said. But only one person knows who will take home awards – CEO RaDonna Hessel, CCE. “We don’t know until that night,” Adkins said.
It’s also a way to engage volunteer leadership and add diverse viewpoints. “We are really intentional about having different voices at the table,” Mayes said. “We’re strategic about making sure we look and evaluate over a lengthy period of time.”
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