Masonic Scouter Award

[lee1989_2007]

Hi everyone,

There is a young man in my lodge who is being nominated for the Daniel Carter Beard Masonic Scouter Award. I was approached by a member of my lodge asking me questions like "who makes the decision of if this person will get this award?" i told them that i am not sure but i would check around to see. I read the form and i saw that the Master of the lodge where the recipiate goes to makes the decision and sends it to the apropriate people for verification that the scouter has done what it say he has done on the form. So i guess my question is, who decides if this person will recieve this award? is it the Master of the lodge, the scout executive, or the Grand lodge Master of the persons state? thanks for your help!

[NeilLup]

It would appear that the procedure is the following:

 

The nominee must be recommended by a Master Mason in good standing.

 

The Official Nomination form (Petition) must be used.

 

Step 1: The recommender must complete the petition and submit an attached page explaining the candidate's qualification for the award.

Step 2: The recommender should also have the petition approved and verified by the local Council, indicating that the candidate is currently registered as an active Scout leader.

Step 3: The recommender should then have the petition reviewed by the Worshipful Master of the candidate's lodge. If found to be qualified, the petition will be authorized and forwarded to the lodge's district deputy or other Masonic authority designated to handle the award in his home jurisdiction. That person will then submit the petition, as instructed by his Grand Lodge, for action.

Step 4: The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania will then forward the information on awardees to the Boy Scouts of America, Relationships Division, Irving, TX for the official record of recipients.

 

 

To me this implies that the primary decision maker is the Worshipful Master of the candidate's lodge. I would imagine that the lodge's district deputy or other such Masonic authority designated to handle the award in his home jurisdiction may be another such decision maker although I got the feeling from the above material that once the Worshipful Master submits it, everything else is pretty administrative.

[Secret DE]

As a Master Mason and the professional designee in my council who handles these awards this is a fairly easy process. First and formost the individual must be nominated by another master mason.

 

Step one is that the nominating Mason fills out the form indicating who he is nominating and gives his information.

 

Step two is that the Council Designee verifies that the nominee has met the Scouting Criteria for the award. If they do, then the sign off on behalf of the Council stating that they agree with the nomination and verify the nominee's service record.

 

Step three is that the nominee's lodge signs off on the verification of masonic service (ie. that the nominee is in good standing)

 

Step four is the sign off of the Grand Lodge. Because I am a Master Mason I usually personally attend to steps 2 through 4 personally. Ultimately this is not an award that is for the the Lodge to grant or deny. It is intended to recognize the contributions of Masons who actively support Scouting. The final decision ultimately rests with the Grand Lodge of the nominee's and the Gl of Pennsylvannia's Youth Committee.

 

SDE(This message has been edited by Secret DE)

[NeilLup]

This is interesting, SDE. Is the idea that it is almost some kind of "warm body award" where if one is a Mason in good standing and a Scouter in good standing, they get the award or is some judgement involved. Have you ever had a Mason in good standing and a Scouter in good standing submitted for the award and had it not granted? If so, by whom was the decision made not to grant? Does the nomination involve a lot of data and substantiation or is it primarily certification of active service in both the Masons and the BSA?

[jmwalston]

To use the term "warm body award" is very misleading. The applications I have seen ask for tenure and any recognitions that the nominee may have received (to the best of the nominating Lodge's knowledge). It is not often given, at least to my knowledge. A list of all receipiants can be found on the GL of Pennsylvania's website. Looking at the list, 9 Scouters in my Council have received it, none of them who have served less than 16 years in Scouting. My experience is that many lodges are actually unaware of the award. In comparison with the other Community Organization Awards, it probably is awarded on an equal or less frequency, as I have not encountered to many Lodges that actively support or charter Scouting organizations.(This message has been edited by jmwalston)(This message has been edited by jmwalston)

[NeilLup]

Hello Jim,

 

I apologize for less than sensitive words at the end of a long day.

 

The point of my question was this:

 

There are some awards which involve meeting some requirements and once those requirements are met, all further processing is automatic. There are other awards which have requirements but then involve a review at some other level not to see that the requirements are met, but to determine that the individual is "worthy." Awards where the person can be deemed locally to meet the requirements but still have the award not granted because of a "higher level" review not for requirements but for merit.

 

An example of the former is the Scoutmaster Award of Merit. If the person meets the requirements and the local decision is made that the person is worthy, the rest is administrative. Examples of the latter are the National Court of Honor awards like the Heroism Award, the Honor Medal and the Medal of Merit. The local council can determine that the person is worthy and submit the award. However, there is a further review for merit at the National level and it is very possible for an award to be downgraded or even turned down for not being sufficient meritorious. Distinguished Eagle Scout is the same way. The local council can make the nomination. However, a Natioanl commitee determines whether the person deemed "distinguished" at the local is indeed sufficiently distinguished to receive the award.

 

None of these awards is limited in number like the District Award of Merit and the Silver Beaver. As many can be awarded as are deemed to meet the requirements.

 

So it would appear that the requirement for the Masonic award in this case is to be a Mason in good standing, a Scouter in good standing and to have someone at the local council and the local lodge care enough to put in the nomination. It does not appear that the requirements call for the person to be "outstanding" or "distinguished" or in some way be other than a card carrying, dues paying member. That's not criticism, simply a statement of fact. So if, for example, some Scouting person at local lodge would decide that every member in good standing who is a registered Scouter should be put in for the award, would they all get it? Or is there some implicit quota that a local lodge may not nominate more than one or two people per year? The quota may not be stated or be public, but it may be there. Do you know?

[jmwalston]

There is no quota, or really any prerequisites for the award, for that matter, other than membership in both. It is up to the discretion of the Master of the Lodge to consider and forward the petition. Other GLs may have committees or different procedures for vetting petitions, NC does not. But in that context, consider the organization. Masonry is very conservative in many respects. There are not a lot of awards in the Blue Lodge, at least not in my jurisdiction. The only one the GL of NC has is the Joseph Montford Medal (sort of a "Mason of the year" award) which is given solely at the discretion of the Grandmaster, and limited to no more than three per annum (out of 55,000 masons in NC, less those who have already received it). So despite the lack of criteria, I do not see the Daniel C. Beard award being abused. Also, most lodges may have large memberships, but in many, fewer than 10% actually attend the meetings. Those who regularly attend are informally known as the "active" members. The percentage of those Scouters active in Scouting and "active" in their lodge is probably very small.

 

YiS,

John

[emb021]

"This is interesting, SDE. Is the idea that it is almost some kind of "warm body award" where if one is a Mason in good standing and a Scouter in good standing, they get the award or is some judgement involved."

 

This aware is not a 'warm body award'.

 

The award is part of a class of awards called the "Community Organization Awards". There are about 8 or so of them.

 

While there are differences between each of the awards, most share 3 basic requirements:

 

1. be an active scouter

2. be an active member of the awarding organization (Masons, Elks, USPS, American Legion, APO, etc)

3. and most importantly, be doing work that strenghts the connection between scouting and that particular org.

 

 

I'm involved with the COA of my org, and the biggest reason we reject applications is they are missing that 3 point. There seems to be some who submit the award thinking its some kind of 'warm body award' (this guys a member of our a group and great scouter, so they get the award, right? sorry, but we don't see them doing any of the critical 'connection' work, so no).

 

 

[jmwalston]

I would view emb's assessment as correct. Some of the COA's specifically (in writing) encourage the Organization's members to further their connection and relationship with Scouting. The only one that doesn't is the DOD's Outstanding Volunteer Medal, as it is for services with all groups (and unfortunately may not be worn with the Scout uniform).

[AlabamaDan]

I found this website:

 

http://www.usscouts.org/awards/DCBeard.asp

 

So the nominee must be a Mason and Scouter who meets the requirements. The nominator must also be a Mason? Sounds like more than a honorary award to me. A brief look at the nomination form has a little more meat on it. http://www.freemason.com/forms/Beard_Forms.pdf

 

How's the Grand Lodge of PA involved? Is it only open to PA Mason Scouters?(This message has been edited by AlabamaDan)

[jmwalston]

It is open to any Mason, the GL of PA are the originators of the award. Petitions are forwarded to them, though I've gotten the impression that it is simply as they act as a clearing house and send them to the appriate Scout division for action. They only act on nominations within their jurisdiction.

 

As for the part of Masons nominating Masons, I don't know how else a nominaton would be forwarded to a Lodge. It isn't any more different than the nominating process for any of the COA's.

[Secret DE]

This award is far from a give me. The people I have seen nominiated for this award all all major scouters who are Vigial Honors OA members, Silver Beavers and District Award of Merit recipients. I have signed off on three since I have been a designee and all were big hitters in both the lodge and Scouts.

 

SDE

[jmwalston]

Of the 4 holders in my District that I know beyond a professional manner, only 1 was a "heavy hitter" in the sense of holding the Silver Beaver and other awards. He is also the Secretary of his Lodge. The others were Masons who had been steadfast supporters and workers in their Troops and in their Lodges. They were all highly thought of by their Lodges and Troops.