A Guide to Gold Crown Awards 

Every year at Annual Session, one night is reserved to celebrate the achievements of local chapters by awarding Gold Crown Awards for exceptional work. No words can do justice to describe the level of hype and ASDA Fever that is created by the end of the night. I hope you all have a chance to attend an Annual Session and better yet, have the chance to walk up on stage to accept an award! In addition to the actual award, Gold Crowns are a great way to reflect, organize and share your local chapter’s accomplishments. In applying for Gold Crown Awards, a yearly compilation of events is created and can be shared with your school, faculty and any others that support organized dentistry! It is like balancing the books at the end of the year. The application can help transition your next Board and provide a history of past events and future goals.

Where to start:

https://www.asdanet.org/index/programs-events/asda-awards/Gold-Crown-Awards

When in doubt check this website! There are also examples of past winners.

All five District 9 chapters do amazing work and each school is encouraged to apply for a Gold Crown Award! This can be something as simple as an award in the Media category (e.g. Most Improved Newsletter) or Best in Competition (e.g. Ideal ASDA Chapter). By applying for Ideal Chapter, you are applying for all awards. Winning “Ideal ASDA” means that your local chapter is Ideal in every category. If you win Ideal, your chapter will not win the individual awards in the Outstanding category. (Best Website in an exception)

The Gold Crown awards are broken into 2 Categories:

Chapter Achievements includes awards like:

• Outstanding Membership Engagement

• Outstanding Advocacy Initiatives

• Outstanding Activities

• Outstanding Predental Involvement

• Outstanding Wellness (New in 2019)

• Outstanding Community Outreach (New in 2019)

These first five awards are given a page each to talk about your year’s work. For example, if your chapter was applying for Ideal ASDA, you will submit a PDF up to 50 pages. The first six pages of that PDF will be the first six bulleted pages. (If you are only applying for certain awards you may have less than six bulleted first pages.) Make sure that you limit each award to one page. The remaining 44 pages max will encompass more detailed photos, captions, and descriptions that support the first six pages. Refer to the above website and then click ‘award criteria’ for a comprehensive list of what you should be answering in those first six pages.

*If you are applying for the Most Improved Chapter (you can’t apply for Ideal Chapter) and the first page of your PDF must include a paragraph why you think your chapter is the Most Improved.

*If applying for Ideal Chapter you also need to submit a one-minute max video. See website for details.

Below is a section of CO’s 2017 PDF. Judges want to see New and Improved events. If there are numbers and percentages to share, this helps support the success of an event.

Predental Involvement

Recruits predental members for national ASDA membership.

• NEW: Encouraged registration for ASDA Predental Membership at the inaugural Predental Conference, which fell on the Saturday of national ASDA Predental Week.

• IMPROVED: Advertised the benefits of predental ASDA membership on both the Colorado ASDA Predental Committee Facebook page and website.

• IMPROVED: Colorado ASDA’s Predental website to make it more user-friendly and concise than before.

• NEW: Created mock AADSAS application toolkit with organizational templates via Google Forms to be used as review during mock interviews.

• NEW: Linked CU student’s new predental-centered blog (carpedentum) to Colorado ASDA page.

• IMPROVED: Updated CU informational page for current fast facts.

The following are updates for 2019 awards:

• Addition of Outstanding Wellness

• Addition of Outstanding Community Outreach

• Removal of Outstanding Fundraising: bullet was added to Outstanding Activities:

  • Conducts one or more organized efforts to earn money for chapter events or initiatives.

• Removal from Outstanding Membership and Communication (Now Membership Engagement)

  • Publishes a chapter newsletter at least three times per school year.

• Removal from Outstanding Activities

  • Participates in community service or outreach activities. (Now its own section)

  • Conducts health and wellness activities. (Now its own section)

• Removal of Most Creative Application

• Removal of Best Presentation

Media includes awards like:

• Newsletter- Best in Competition

• Newsletter- Most Improved

• Website- Best in Competition

• Best Chapter Blog

• Best Social Media Campaign

• Best Chapter Video

2019 Removal

• Newsletter Design and Layout

• Quality of Newsletter Information

• Website Design and Layout

• Quality of Website Information

Again, refer to the above website and click ‘Media’ and then ‘award criteria’ for a more comprehensive list. These are super easy to apply for! All of your work has been done in creating the media platform and it stands as your application. All you will have to do is complete a Survey Monkey poll in which you will attach PDF’s of your Newsletter, upload the URL for your website, blog and potentially for your video.

*Best Social Media Campaign requires a one-page (300-word max) description of what you did. Refer to website for more details. 

IMPORTANT: Follow the criteria on the website. If they say 50 pages max, 300-word max, 1-minute max etc, do not exceed! There are typically about 60 schools that apply and a lot of awesome events and media to review. If you don’t follow the requirements, judges will be quick to throw all of your year’s hard work to the side and you will not be eligible for those awards.

I also wanted to include some tips that I took from Tanya Sue Maestas’ presentation she did in 2017 about GC’s. I think the timeline is a nice place to start to get a plan for your school, and the last tip to ‘Share it!’ is a great way to share with your local dental society what you are doing, regardless of whether you win an award or not.

The Application

• Format

  • Must submit PDF

  • Can also submit hard copy

    • Be creative/professional

    • Professional printing: Walmart, Blurb.com, Vistaprint.com, UPrinting.com

    • Examples: yearbook style, pop-up book, sound book, patient chart, scrapbook

Timeline

• When to

  • Start gathering information : January 1st

  • Start assembling/designing application : August or earlier, add place holders for future events

  • Print : Mid November or earlier

  • Apply : Mid/late December (deadline is January 8th) (hard copy must be postmarked by the deadline)    

Tips

• Make it fun

  • Judges review a lot of applications, make it fun for them

  • Use supplemental materials like photos

• Proof read

  • For completeness and compliance with guidelines

  • For grammar and spelling

• Share it!

  • Whether you win or not, the application is a compilation of your year’s achievements as a chapter

  • Send to chapter, deans, constituent societies, etc. 

When in doubt check the website! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

-Gabe Casias

gabriel.casias@ucdenver.edu

CU Class of 2020

CO Membership Chair

D9 Gold Crown Liaison

Coming Soon!