THE TERRACE and District Chamber of Commerce is adding a bit of mystery and making changes to its annual business excellence awards this year.
It’s doing so by a change in how judges choose the top three finishers in each category.
This year the judges won’t know the identities of those who have been nominated for one of the 12 categories, says chamber executive director Erika Magnuson-Ford.
Instead they’ll only receive the details as to why someone or a business should be nominated, she said.
The idea is to put the emphasis on the accomplishment or activity of the company or person being nominated, Magnuson-Ford continued.
“It’s a big change. We really need the public to become involved in nominating in all the categories,” she said.
And in another change, the judges who choose the three nominees in each category this year will be the winners from last year’s awards.
“This way we’re hoping they’ll become involved in the awards over the two years,” said Magnuson-Ford.
The chamber has also made changes to the award categories by dropping the family friendly, welcoming and inclusive and retailer of the year awards.
“We found a lot of duplication between company of the year and retailer of the year,” explained Magnuson-Ford of the latter category decision.
But there is also a new category – that of renovation of the year.
“When you go around town you notice a lot of renovations. It’s a constant here on the part of businesses and we wanted to recognize that,” said Magnuson-Ford.
Also new this year is the venue for the gala banquet at which the winners will be announced – the arena banquet room.
Nominations for the 12 categories are now open by going to www.surveymonkey.com/r/2015TerraceBEA and close Sept. 25.
Once the nominations are in and the three finishers in each category are selected, a ballot will be posted and voting will take place.
Magnuson-Ford said the chamber hopes many members of the public will take part.