Adult Recognition Comments - District and Council (or other)

[ScoutDadof5]

In a short while, my district and council will once again be hosting thier annual recognition dinners.

 

Over the years, I have enjoyed watching others selflessly give of themselves in the scouting program. To that end, I enjoy submitting nominations for worthy individuals for the DAM and Silver Beaver awards. It is a pleasure to see ones nomination go through and to see someone deserving recognized in front of thier peers.

 

Seeing as it is the season, I was wondering what advice or recommendations others might offer up on this topic.

 

Have you ever submitted a recommendation? How did it go? What qualifications stand out?

 

I would enjoy hearing your comments on this.

[gwd-scouter]

We hear at our roundtables every year that very few nominations are received by the District Committee. Sometimes they receive only one nomination per award. Sometimes none. I think there are a great many folks in our District that are deserving of recognition, but never receive it because either no one in their unit (or outside it) ever nominates them for anything or they are the more quiet type of leader, working in the background and making little noise about themselves so as to escape notice.

 

I interact with a lot of leaders in the District, both at the Scout level and Cubs, so I try hard to nominate at least one person every year for something. I''m happy that the folks I''ve nominated over the years have all received an award.

[Eamonn]

I have been privileged to sit on the selection committees for both the District Award of Merit and the Silver Beaver.

We are a small District and award two Awards of Merit a year.

We are also a small Council and are only allowed to award five Silver Beavers a year.

Up until about six years ago the names of the Silver Beaver recipients were kept secret until the recognition dinner.

I really had pushed for the little old fellow who had been our Cub Scout Round Table Commish to get the Beaver. That year our District Chair sat on the Beaver Committee. (I was serving as District Commish)

He attended the meeting and phoned me when he got home. I of course asked if the person I had nominated had been selected? He said "No".

As I have been known to do, I went off on one of my long never ending speeches about how unfair things were and what a bunch of good for nothing so and sos the committee were.

I then asked who got it?

He laughed and said "You did"

I was speechless!!

My guy got it the next year.

Eamonn.

[ScoutDadof5]

Eamonn...that was a great post. Thanks for sharing that. I am glad to hear that you and your nomineee both received the recognition =)

[kb6jra]

I''ve received the DAM and know what that recognition means to me, and have submitted a nomination for a husband/wife team last year. Both were accepted and I was asked to make the presentation. As often as I need to get up in front of groups, I was so nervous...I hated it honestly.

 

I was very pleased that my nominees were accepted on my recommendation. It''s humbling to think that my opinion would have been worth so much, but apparantly it was...

 

This year I''m on the selection committee for the DAM. We have 6 to give out, hopeing to give out all 6. Giving recognition is a wonderful thing.

[evmori]

I've received both the DAM & Silver Beaver. Was quite surprised both times! I have also recommended Scouters for both & have had the honor to present the DAM to those I have nominated.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[jr56]

I had a experience similar to Eamonn's. Nominated 2 leaders for the DAM , they were the only two nominations. I asked the DE after the meeting if my nominations had gotten through, he said no, we had another nomination at the last minute, turns out the last minute nominee that got it was me.

[Eamonn]

I have been at a couple of big dinner meetings where they have asked people who hold awards to stand up and be recognized.

When they ask for Eagle Scouts.

A lot of people stand.

Same goes for Silver Beaver.

Silver Antelope award leaves a lot of people seated.

But the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award as a rule only brings a very few to their feet.

The only person I knew who had been awarded the Silver Buffalo is George Zambelli Sr. Who was from the Pittsburgh area. He was the founder of Zambelli Fireworks Internationale and donated the fireworks for the National Jamboree. He passed away in December of 2003.

Ea.

[gwd-scouter]

Something has changed in the past few years in our District. In years past, I've had the privilege of being asked to present awards won by Scouters I had nominated. Past couple of years, the District Commissioner presents all the awards and says a few words about the recipient. He kind of "wings it" in making the presentation. Does a good job for those Scouters he's known for a while, but very poorly for those he hasn't.

 

It's sad because last year I nominated someone for the District Award of Merit and hoped I'd be able to present if he won (I am a recipient of that award). I was very happy that he received the award, but I do think I'd have done a better job at recognizing him than "this Scouter did a lot of work for the District this past year." Likewise, my husband was nominated by our Committee to receive the Scouter of the Year Award. Certainly some bias there, but almost all of our Troops nominated folks in their Troop for an award each year. Anyway, when he was called up, District Commish said "we received a nomination for this Scouter, he's done a good job for his troop."

 

Again, kinda sad. Wish they'd go back to letting those folks that make nominations present the award if one of the nominees is chosen.

 

 

 

 

[bt01]

I've received the DAM. I was quite surprised! I have also recommended Scouters for DAM and the Silver Beaver.

 

In the council that I am with if award dinners are the well attended.

[Gags]

This is just a general request to those of you out there who promote the DAM at the annual dinners and the like.

 

It seems like each of the past several years, after the awards are given, the scouter who runs the nominating committee reminds everyone that "we can give out 3 awards each year, but this year we only received 2 (or 1) applications."

 

I haven't quite got around to telling him yet that he's making it sound like the two who received the DAM only minutes ago were given the award because they were the only ones who were nominated - NOT because they were deserving of the award, regardless of the # of nominations submitted.

 

Speaking of awards, 2 years ago all the Dist Comm members were awarded the District Comm Members Key. I'm quite certain none of us completed all the requirements (particularly the D.Comm Training Workshop). It was a nice thought on behalf of the district leadership to recognize all the members for their years of service, but this is one knot that will be staying in the dresser drawer for the time being.

 

Gags