Silver Bearver?

[Gold Winger]

I moved not long ago and in my old district, very few Scouters seemed to have the Silver Beaver and those were one who had been involved for many years. In fact, one friend has been an active Scouter for over 40 years and just received his this year.

 

In my new district, it seems that everyone has a silver beaver. Well, not everyone but many.

 

I know that there are committees that decide such things but it seems that different standards are being used.

 

The fellow in charge of applications stands up at Roundtable and announces, "if anyone in your unit does a lot of work, submit his name."

 

What's it like in other areas? Few or many beavers?

[Eamonn]

The number of awards is determined by the size of the Council.

The Council I'm in awards five Silver Beavers a year. It used to be four.

Of course when looking at the number of active people who have the Silver Beaver, all sorts of things come into play.

In our area people don't seem to be very mobile?? They die with their beads on!

Most of the recipients tend to have been around for a while and have been active at the Council and District level.

I have sat on the selection committee a few times and it does seem that unit Scouter's who only serve the youth at the unit level are un-lightly to receive the award.

When Her That Must Be Obeyed found out I was receiving a Silver Beaver, she informed me that I was too young!!

With friends like her...

Ea.

[scoutldr]

My wife says only she will decide if I ever get one or not.

 

As far as I know, there is no "nominating committee". All nominations have to come "from the field"...or from one's peers. There is a "selection committee" who are supposed to decide only on the basis of what's submitted. Having sat on a selection committee, it's sad that many deserving Scouters never get nominated, or the quality of the nomination is poor because the nominator doesn't go to the trouble to document the nominee's accomplishments. Same is true of the Vigil Honor.

[baden]

I have served on the Silver Beaver selection committee for our council several times. I don't know how this is done in other places, but our council sends out copies of the Silver Beaver nomination forms to all the members of the committee and asks with the names and districts blocked out. They then ask the committee members to rate each nomination on a scale of 1-10. Your "ballot" is due at the Council office by a certain date. When the "ballots" are received, the numbers are added up and the results are totaled in a column. Starting at the top they go down the list until the allowed number of awards is depleted. The committee then meets and the results are announced by the Chairman and the identities are revealed. This always seemed like a very fair way to do it to me. Before I was on the committee I assumed that favorites were played and back room deals were cut. Not true.

 

Of course when you read the nominations you can usually figure out about 2/3 of who the nominees are. Just by being around you know who has done what and for about how long. As far as District weighting I have found that the closer to the Council office you are the better your chances are of being recognized. If you live 6 blocks from the Council office you are more apt to render service at the Council level than some guy who is 80 miles away.

 

 

generally I have found our system to be as fair as you can make it. I don't know how this is done anywhere else.

[LongHaul]

Seems the Silver Beaver is now available to Professional Scouters and the requirement for "service to youth outside the Scouting Program" seems also to have either changed or is being overlooked in my council. Where the SB was a recognition for service to youth it now seems to be a recognition of service to the Council, read professional staff. IMO.

 LH

[scoutldr]

It must be a very recent change...the SB nomination form on the National web site still states:

 

3. Long-established policy limits the award

of the Silver Beaver to adults 21 and older

who are registered with the Boy Scouts

of America as volunteer Scouters. Explorer

leaders are eligible to be awarded the

William H. Spurgeon III Award.

4. Nominations will not be considered for

former professional Scouters or council

employees within 5 years of their leaving

employment with the BSA (i.e., any

form of full-time or part-time employment

such as secretary, ranger, or professionaltechnical

position).

[LongHaul]

I stand corrected. After several phone calls I find the change was that professional scouters can nominate candidates, which is why only 1 of the 8 recipients for 2006 was a unit level scouter. A professional was over heard to say that "I'm going to see that all my people get the beaver".

 LH

[GNX Guy]

The Silver Beaver is for any volunteer rendering service to a large number of youth at Council level. Meaning more that just your unit and more than just your district. It means things like heading up the council's pow wow, or on the staff of a camperall. Things that cover all the youth in the council. In can be for noteworthy service of a single action that touched the lives of many youth or a small group over a long period of time. Realize that each council may have other desiged requirements. The National application has all the requirements. See Article X, Section 6, Claus 3 for more information.

 

[LongHaul]

The form from Chicago contains this;

 MANDATORY QUALIFICATIONS:

 Candidates for the award shall be registered volunteer Scouters within the council territory.

 Candidates must be at least 21 years of age.

 Candidates must have rendered exceptional service to youth.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:

 Ten years of cumulative service to youth.

 Service to youth both within and outside of Scouting.

 Service regarded as outstanding or distinctive beyond the expectation of normal duty.  Value of youth service proven by time and experience.

 Record of community service and involvement.

LH

[MVScouter]

2 years ago, our council awarded 27 scouters with the Silver Beaver. At the Council Recognition Dinner, it took nearly 90 minutes to announce them all (we are the 5th largest council). Last year, the count was over 20. Each year is different. 3 years ago, our district had no one awareded. The year after that, we had 7.

 

Baden, as I understand it, the way your council nominating committee does their process, ours is the same way. It does seem the most fair.

10 years does seem to be the minimun number of years of service. I don't know of anyone in our district that was awarded with less years of service.

 

If you want to talk about service on a total level, check out some of the National OA committee members. Some have awarded, what is called,

the "homerun" (Silver Beaver, Antelope, and Buffalo).

[scottteng]

Some of these good folks volunteer huge chunks of their time year after year after year to be day camp directors, district advancement chairs, roundtable chairs, organizing camporees,etc long after their children and grandchildren have aged out. We all owe these people for keeping things going so that we can focus on our units and our little part in the rest. Lets not begrudge them a little knot and a little recognition at the banquet. Heck I don't even go to the banquets but a little recognition goes a long way to keeping people motivated. That ten year base almost guarantees that your not doing it just cause your kids are any more.

[WVCubDad]

In my Council we also have a Statuette Award which is lower than a SB.

 

I don't know if the word on professionals making nominations filtered up this way, but it was suggested to me that I submit a nomination for a Statuette for a Scouter who has done good work in the District. The nomination form seemed to be the same for both awards, just circle the appropriate award at the top of the form.

 

I haven't really paid attention to the number of SB's awarded here so I can't tell you exactly how many are submitted or awarded. YMMV.

 

YiS,

 

John

Assistant Cubmaster

Pack 13

Shenandoah Area Council

[kb6jra]

Our council can award up to 23 Beavers a year, and I imagine it takes a long time for the bios at the annual dinner. I was humbled to be chosen to recieve the SB for 2007.

 

My Council uses a blind system of determining who, if any, are chosen to recieve it. The Asst. SE assembles info in a matrix, removes all identifying info, previous council names and odd positions as an example. We had one fellow scouter who had been active in several councils in several district and council level positions before deciding he's staying put in So Cal. Most know his moving record, so any council or pequliar position name would have made his nomination known. The recommendation committee then takes the time to read all nominations by number, ask questions of the ASE, then vote on a points system.

 

They have a minimum nubmer of points that are to be made in order to qualify for the award. Some people's nomination are just not as thorogh as others and don't rate as highly. It's up to the nominator to develop the nomination and get as much usefull info to the recommendation committee as possible. The Council allowed the Recommendation committee to chose up to 20 recipients, the council reserved 3 awards. The Council can bank any of the allotted awards they don't use on any given year. These can be awarded in a subsequent year. I'm sure there's a good reason to have a bank of them, 20 awards seems like a lot to me.

 

In my old council, which was allowed 5 awards/year, the nominations were not blind and were scrutinized by a group of well meaning and over qualified persons. Needless to say the committee typically knew more about nominees than what the nomination form said, and probably made thier own suggestions for nominations on more than one occasion. Honestly I don't think I've met anyone from my old council that had received the SB that certainly didn't deserve it, so who's to say which method is better.

 

As for the disparity in number of SB's in a district, I'd say it's probably a factor of the number of quality nominations from that district, not necessarily the number of qualified persons. That has seemed to be the case recently with our new council, lack of quality nominations. That's something you can help with in the short term, if you feel someone in your district deserves the aware, nominate them, but be a thorogh and complete as possible in the nomination to give your nomination the best chance of success.