Outstanding Women in Business Awards Rules and Regulations
The Outstanding Women in Business Awards celebrate the success and achievements of women across qathet’s diverse business community. These awards celebrate women who have truly excelled, not only in their professional lives but also as leaders and role models in our community. While many of these women come from different industries and walks of life, they share several traits: a strong sense of self, a success-driven work ethic, and the extraordinary accomplishments to show for it. Their commitment, vision and talents make them true leaders in their chosen fields.
Awards
A. Outstanding Woman in Business:
This woman has owned her own business for two or more years.
She consistently offers outstanding service and/or products to her customers and displays a strong commitment to community involvement. This woman contributes to the social, recreational, cultural, and overall well-being of the community through her business. Her business demonstrates exceptional promise of continued growth as well as serving as an inspiration for other new businesses.
B. Outstanding Home-Based Business Owner of the Year:
This woman has owned her own business for two or more years.
A home-based business owner who demonstrates good business practices and consistently offers outstanding service and/or products to her customers all the while embracing an outstanding commitment to quality. Business should be easy to contact and locate. This woman also demonstrates a commitment to the community.
C. Outstanding Volunteer/Community Involvement of the Year:
The organization has been in operation for two or more years.
This award recognizes and honours an outstanding individual who is volunteering her time and talent in the non-profit sector. This woman is making a significant contribution to the qathet community through commitment, service, creativity, cooperation, and leadership in her volunteer role(s). She has shown a commitment to supporting events, programs, projects, and sports teams throughout the year and has been there for those in need as well as going that extra mile to support the community.
D. Outstanding Employee / Customer Service of the Year:
This woman has been working within a business in qathet for a minimum of one year.
This award recognizes and honours an individual who constantly strives and is committed to providing outstanding customer service. She recognizes customers needs and surpasses their expectations. She achieves a high level of respect from customers and the business community for their professionalism, service quality and commitment. She also excels in developing customer relations while “Raising the Bar” for other businesses to follow.
Nomination Guidelines
You are invited to nominate any woman in business.
You do not need to be a member of Coastal Women in Business to nominate or be nominated.
Previous winners (in any category) may not be nominated for two years after winning their award. Finalists from previous years are free to be nominated.
Award nominations must be for one person only. Group applications are not eligible.
A separate award nomination/application must be submitted for each award for which the nominee is to be considered.
Coastal Women in Business will require all nominees to submit an online form for further information based on the submissions.
Award applications will not be returned. Please do not include materials that you would like returned.
Award Application Procedure
Upon the receipt of your nomination, Coastal Women in Business will notify nominees. Nominees will be asked to complete an award application. As this information is used by the judging panel, we recommend each nominee complete these forms. Nominees nominated in more than one category must tailor their submissions to the specific award category.
The award application requires completion of the following items, which will be used by the judging panel to determine award winners (Nominees will fill out the appropriate area).
Profile (should be 2-3 sentences, but no more than 5)
Business profile: Include a short biography of your business to provide background information for the judging panel. “Applicants could explain their passion or reason for choosing their field of expertise. Why are you doing what you do? What is your source of motivation to work in this discipline or field?”
Employee profile: Include a short biography of what your job title is and what you do for your employer. “Applicants should reference something they have done to help a customer in a unique situation or some new way they are working with clients to better serve their needs.”
Community Involvement profile: Include a short biography of the organizations that you are associated with and the positions and jobs you do for them. “This could include things like: sitting on a board of a non-profit, coaching children or adults, being active in local politics and implementing a program to better the community, volunteerism or charitable work – this could be either professional or personal time donated to help others.”
Statement of Nomination (3-5 sentences)
Indicate how you meet the criteria for the award for which you have been nominated. Each award has different criteria, which are outlined below. Please also include other noteworthy contributions and accomplishments.
A Coastal Women in Business committee will organize the nominations and the award applications and get them organized for the judging panel.
Packets for each award with the nominees and award applications will be sent out to the judges, who have been selected and have agreed to participate on the Women in Business judging panel.
Judges are selected based on their respected role in the community, integrity, expertise, and their ability to remain objective.
If a judge is nominated for an award, they will be offered the choice to either judge or be eligible for an award, but not both.
If a judge personally nominated someone for a category, they must declare a conflict of interest and not participate in the discussion on that nomination.
Judges will shortlist the nominees for preparation of the final judging process.
Judges are sequestered and judging process begins. Judges will be using questions like:
Focus on the energy of the individual: what they are doing above and beyond to carve out a niche in her market?
What makes this women’s thinking unique?
Has her decision-making illustrated creativity?
Is she an industry leader?
In today’s tough economy, how has this woman and her company been surviving? Has she had to expand to new programs or get creative on introducing a new service or product to the market to avoid downsizing and save jobs?