National Club Achievement
A key goal of the AAF is to acknowledge excellence and promote high standards among industry professionals. The Ovation Awards competition aims to celebrate the remarkable achievements of AAF-affiliated chapters while highlighting the initiatives and projects they pursue annually.
2026 Club Achievement Book Deadline
The AAF's national Ovation Awards competition recognizes achievement in five categories:
- Club Operations
- Cornerstone Initiatives & Events
- Membership Development & Communications
- Programs
- Public Service
These categories were chosen to reflect the areas of operation of local ad clubs. Each category is judged by a separate panel of professionals with expertise in that specific field.
In addition to the five categories noted above, clubs also earn points throughout the year for accomplishing the tasks detailed in the Ovation Awards Scoring Guide.
Chapters compete within their membership size divisions. These divisions provide for a more equitable competition and thus for an opportunity for any size chapter to win. Ad 2 chapters compete in a separate division regardless of membership size:
Division I—500+ members
Division II—250–499 members
Division III—100–249 members
Division IV—up to 99 members
Division V —Ad 2 Clubs
Each panel of judges reviews and scores each entry in each of the membership size divisions. First-, second-and third-place awards are given in each division for each category, at the discretion of the judges. A Chapter and president of the year award are designated in each division to the club with the highest total points. Awards are presented annually at ADMERICA, AAF’s national conference.
