Better Business Bureau Education Foundation (BBBEF) is encouraging local businesses who embody integrity and ethics to enter its 2008 Torch Awards for Marketplace Ethics. Applications must be received by May 1.
Finalists will be announced in late May and winners will be honored at BBB’s “The Big Event” on September 17, 2008 at the Visionary Art Museum. Winners and finalists will be determined by a voluntary panel of judges from the business community.
Categories for the award are broken into five categories based on employer size and two additional categories for minority and family owned.
“The goal of the program is not only to honor those companies who strive for excellence in business,” said Angie Barnett, president & CEO of BBB | Greater Maryland, “but also to encourage consumers to seek out businesses that believe in and support a fair and ethical marketplace.”
BBBEF will host two, free one-hour workshops to help candidates prepare their applications. Workshops are scheduled for March 3rd at 8:30 a.m. and March 28th at 4:00 p.m. Both workshops will be held at BBB’s office in Federal Hill at 1414 Key Hwy., suite 100, Baltimore, MD.
A company must be in good standing with BBB; however, BBB Accreditation is not required.
Eligible winners of the local competition will be submitted to the 2009 International Torch Awards for Marketplace Excellence held by the Council of Better Business Bureau’s.
BBBEF’s mission is to advance and promote consumer and business education so all segments of the community, at every economic level, may possess a better knowledge and understanding of the marketplace.
The Torch Awards program was introduced locally in 1997.
For more information or to apply for the 2008 Torch Awards for Marketplace Ethics, go to www.greatermd.bbb.org/torch-awards. To register for one of the free Torch application workshops, contact Jennifer Robinson at 410-347-3990 ext. 3012 or jrobinson@greatermd.bbb.org.
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