Looking For Recognition

[Eamonn]

I think that I'm very fortunate that I have an absolutely great team of community FOS captains.

We have never not reached our community goal, thanks to the hard work that these guys and girls do. Going out and asking people for money is not an activity that I like doing. Still these people are out there many of them year after year bringing in tens of thousands of much needed dollars.

We do kick off the campaign with a lunch time meeting at the country club. The council pays that tab. When we reach goal, we have a celebration meeting with pizza and adult beverages. Our DE I pick up that tab and for the past couple of years I have invited them to dinner at Summer Camp to eat in the dining hall and then tour the camp, where they can see the money that they have raised at work. At this camp meeting we give them a Camp T-shirt.

I am looking for a more meaningful way of recognizing these individuals. A few years back one of them was awarded the District Award of Merit.Even though the man who received it had many years ago been active in Exploring and had organized district Camporees, no one knew who he was and I was given a hard time by a lot of the volunteers. They see the award as being for the program people. I don't agree and the committee that selected him must have thought that he was a worthy candidate.

In England there is a Thanks Badge. It can't be awarded to active leaders but would be ideal for this group. It is a silver pin with the Scout sign and the word Thanks. It comes with a certificate.Any group can buy this award for anyone who they feel they need to thank.

Do we have anything like it or are there any ideas what would be a suitable recognition for these people?

Eamonn

[BadenP]

In the past we used the Norman Rockwell scouting prints, framed them and added a small engraved strip with their name, the year and the line "A true friend of Scouting". They went over big time, and portrayed Scouting in a great way. Each cost about $20 with everything, and now have become a district tradition.

[SR540Beaver]

Eamonn,

 

If you have the BSA Official Retail Catalog, there is an Awards and Gifts section in it. They have a variety of "thanks" type awards. One is a gold plated brass pin that says "Volunteer, the gift of time" on it. It is only $4.80. There is a paperweight that spells out the words thank you with a BSA emblem set in it. There are Norman Rockwell foil certificates that can be customized on your PC's printer. There are several "outstanding service" plaques with Rockwell prints and engraveable plates. There are other appropriate awards listed in the catalog, but you get the idea. Our scout shop has some of these available in stock.

[Fat Old Guy]

Certificates are nice. Just don't give them Xerox copies of one that was bought at the Scout shop.

 

Plaques are nice.

 

Tie tacks and watches are nice too. You can get watches with custom faces for about $30 each.

 

I'd say that you shouldn't make it a big enough gift that the folks say, "Hey, I raised all that money and now you're spending it on me."

[wojauwe]

I've put together customised certificates and used relevent photos as back ground.Each one is personalised.

It's neat I gave them to my staff at a district merit badge workshop.It was covered with pictures of the staff at their stations teaching.

Something with pictures of the group you are honoring and maybe photos of the camp and campers the money raised,helped support.

I buy some really nice photo quality paper to do these.If you can afford it,they could be framed.

 

I've got one of those thank you, scout pins I was given as a cubscouter about 12 years ago.I don't think it was any kind of official award,just something that you could buy to show thanks

to adult volunteers.

I think you can still find them in the scout shop.