Within the last few years, we introduced a new awards program to manage the ACE Awards nomination, entry submission and judging!  The process is outlined in detail below.  Please review this before you begin the nomination process. 

******NEW in 2025******
All INDIVIDUAL and COMMUNITY WINNERS from the 2024 ACE Awards cannot be nominated for the same category in which they won!

How to nominate:

1. Nominators (people who are doing the nominating) click the "ENTER NOMINATIONS NOW" tab above and you will create an account login. (this is different than the VAMA member password).  You will keep this login and password to track your nominations you submit. 

2. Once account is created, you will begin nominating individuals or community / company for various awards categories.  You do this by:

• Click start application
• Select category in which to nominate.  First, you select from the drop down options which award category you are nominating.
• Put in your (nominator) Name, Email, Company Name (this may auto populate).
• Enter in your Company/Community Address
• Then enter the nominee name and the nominee’s DIRECT contact email. NOTE: For individual awards this will be the individual nominee’s name and for community/company awards this will be the Community/Company name and in the email field you should put the DIRECT email address for the person who will be submitting required category information.
• Enter in the nominee’s community or company address
• Enter in the community unit count (if applicable)

3. Once you are done with this nomination - Click “Add to cart” IMPORTANT:  At this point, you have the option to “Check Out” if you are ready for the Payment Options (either invoice OR pay with credit card). IF you would like to nominate additional categories in this same order (meaning, so they are on the same invoice), you should select “Make Another Submission” and do this process over and over again until all of the nominations you want on this order is complete and then you will click “Check Out” and select the payment option you would like. NOTE:  What is listed in your cart at the time of checkout will be all items listed on the invoice. You can login and do this as many times as needed in your awards account (if you need multiple nominations on different invoices). After you click checkout, there will be a button that says FINALIZE, be sure to click this button. If you do not, your nomination will not be complete and you will not be able to move on to the submission part! 

4. We will email the newly nominated Candidate / Community / Company, notifying them of your nomination with a link to the application to submit the required entry material for the award.

5. Nominations close May 9th.

6. Award Category Nominee Candidates will have till June 6th to complete the application of required entry information for judging.  

Nominees:
Once you are nominated, you will receive an email from Haley Ladia Haley@vamaonline.org that states what you have been nominated for, keep this email for your records!  This email will contain instructions as well as a link to create/access the nominee account.  This is where you go in and select the category in which you were nominated for and then submit the required entry materials for the category (this may be answering questions or submitting documents.  See CATEGORY GUIDE for the exact category requirements.

NOTE:  Depending on the category, the nominee will be required to either answer questions directly into the award system AND/OR upload required documents / links.

Did you delete that nominee confirmation email or can't find it?  Don't worry, you can CLICK HERE to access that page to answer questionnaires or upload required documents.  You will just need the name of the category in which you have been nominated for. 

Judging:
VAMA will provide judges with their own login and password to log into the system to review the nominee submissions for the category in which they are judging for.  Any category that narrows down the nominees to 8 finalists to receive a Zoom interview will be notified about date and times once judge selects the final 8.