Once a manager receives the minimum of three nominations, they advance to the next phase of the awards process. In this phase, nominees are evaluated through a structured review process designed to identify the strongest candidates in each category.

Weight is given to the variety of nominators—such as board members, peers, supervisors, and vendors—as this demonstrates a broader industry impact. Duplicate submissions are consolidated, and incomplete nominations are removed to ensure fairness. Each nominee is then evaluated based on factors such as tenure in the industry, number of doors managed, overall impact, and the depth and quality of the nomination itself.

Each nomination will be carefully reviewed and redacted to remove any identifying information—such as the nominee’s name, management company, or community—to ensure an unbiased and fair selection process. These anonymized nominations are then provided to the Connect Awards Committee, who will individually evaluate and score each nominee based on the established criteria.

All scores are tallied, and the nominee with the highest overall score in each category is selected as the winner. This grading process applies consistently across all award categories to ensure transparency, fairness, and integrity in the selection process.