By Shelbi LeMeilleur
For 25 years, the Bryan Rotary Club has been celebrating the Bryan College Station community with their annual Bryan Rotary 10 Business Performance Awards. Since 1994, the awards have recognized the fastest-growing small businesses in the B/CS community. This year’s program will take place on July 11 at the Hilton College Station and Conference Center from 12 to 1:30pm.
At the award luncheon, the Bryan Rotary Club will announce the winners of the Bryan Rotary 10 Business Performance awards for the top 10 fastest-growing small businesses, the Bryan Rotary Club/Anco Insurance Award for Lifetime Business Achievement, and the first ever Research Valley Partnership Launch Award. Also new this year is a blue carpet reveal.
The Business Performance Awards are decided after a nomination period, where businesses can either self-nominate or receive a nomination from someone in the community, according to Joan Quintana, public relations chair from Bryan Rotary 10. To qualify, businesses must be an independent, privately held corporation, proprietorship, or partnership; have been in business for at least five years; be headquartered in Brazos County; have sales of more than $50,000 but less that $25 million; and show growth.
For the Lifetime Business Achievement Award, companies are nominated solely by any Brazos Valley Rotarians. This award is not based on growth, unlike the Business Performance Awards, but based on community impact. Past winners include Texas Commercial Waste, Copy Corner, University Title Company, and ACME Glass.
“They are businesses that have had a significant impact in a number of ways,” says Quintana. “They are not just open for business; they are actually getting involved in community events and those sorts of things. They’ve also created jobs and a good work environment.”
Bryan Rotary has partnered with the RVP for the first-ever Launch Award. The Launch Award looks at businesses less than 6 years old that have significant contributions to the community and an expected impact in the future.
“It is exciting to be able to work with the Research Valley Partnership and define this new award that really looks at a company that’s not going to qualify yet for the Bryan Rotary 10, because maybe they haven’t been around that long in the community, but we expect that they are going to be around,” explains Quintana. “Not only are they going to show some significant growth in the community, but they are in a space that we very much want to grow.”
With the new addition of the Launch Award, the luncheon now looks at and celebrates what Quintana calls “life cycles” in the community: the up-and-comers with the Launch Award, the growing companies with the Business Performance Awards, and the established companies with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“We’re excited about that mix of awards because it just goes right back to the reason we are doing this, and that is to acknowledge the people in this community who are dedicating themselves, their lives, and their livelihood to growing small business,” says Quintana.
Tommy Williams, senior advisor for fiscal affairs to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, will offer the keynote address on July 11. As a local, Williams is in the unique position to address the B/CS economy from a local, state, and national context, according to Quintana. “We are really honored to have him on our stage this year, and I think our community is honored to have him here with us,” she says.
Although Bryan College Station has changed over the last 25 years, Bryan Rotary 10 still holds the same value in community and economic growth to heart.
“As Rotarians, we wanted to honor both that entrepreneurial spirit and the contributions then, back 25 years ago, and we continue with that in that vain today,” says Quintana. “We are really honored as the club to be able to look at that history, but also know going forward that we have a lot to look forward to. The community as a whole has a lot to look forward to, and Bryan Rotary 10 helps tell that economic story over time.”
Individual tickets or tables are available for purchase. Individual tickets are $40 per person. To secure a ticket or table, visit www.Bryan-Rotary.org or contact Janie Williams at (979) 862-5408 or jwilliams@athletics.tamu.edu.
