The process, end to end
Nothing here is discretionary. The rubric and the dates are published before nominations open, the panel before nominations close, and the numbers behind the list after it.
Five months from opening to announcement
Nominations open
One form. Self-nomination, agency nomination and third-party nomination all use the same form and are scored identically — the route in carries no weight.
Nominations close
No late entries, and no exceptions, because an exception for one agency is unfair to every agency that met the deadline.
Screening and redaction
Staff check eligibility, verify that evidence links resolve, and reduce each category to twenty entries. Then every identifying detail — agency name, vendor name, officer name — is redacted.
Blind scoring
Two judges per category independently score twenty redacted entries against the rubric. Roughly seven hours of work each. Judges do not see one another's scores.
Chair review
The independent Chair scores the leading five in each category as a third reader, resolves ties, and signs off the evidentiary file. The Chair may withhold a category that cannot be judged cleanly.
Everyone hears
Honorees are notified under embargo. Every other nominator is told the outcome on the same day — not left to find out from the announcement.
Announcement
Sixty minutes online, free, captioned. The full roll and the funnel numbers publish the same day. Awards ship in March.
Six criteria, weighted, published in advance
Half the available score sits in outcome and evidence. That is deliberate.
Ten honorees. Three of them Gold.
GovTen Gold Award Trophy
The three highest-scoring entries in each category. Twelve a year.
Receives the crystal trophy on a granite base, the gold seal, a speaking slot in the ceremony and a place in the annual report. Entitled to use the Gold badge.
GovTen Winners Award Trophy
The remaining seven in each category. Twenty-eight a year.
Receives the Winners Award Trophy with the navy-and-gold seal, is named on screen at the ceremony, and appears on the permanent honoree roll. Entitled to use the standard badge.
Both are shipped at our cost, worldwide, duties paid. Neither can be bought, and there is no charge to accept either.
What GovTen does not do
No public vote
Popularity measures reach, not quality. A small county doing outstanding work would lose to a metropolitan agency with a communications team, every time.
No paid placement
No entry fee, no shortlist fee, no gala table, no sponsored category, no “featured honoree”. Sponsors fund production and shipping and touch nothing else.
No sales follow-up
Being nominated or honored does not put you on a call list. This is a written policy with a technical control behind it, not an assurance.
Someone in your organization has done awesome work worth ten minutes of your time.
Nominations for the inaugural cycle close Wednesday 30 December 2026. There is no fee, and self-nomination is welcome — most good work is nominated by the people who did it.