Recognizing outstanding youth

I agree that we must scrutinize the CSA and QVA much more. There is simply no quality control. However, to make them mandatory before a service award can be given is silly. The badge program is simply a means to an end and is entirely optional. Outstanding service can be given without a youth having earned a single badge.

I visited our Cub pack the other night and found that one of my Venturers had been helping out as an activity leader for the past 4-5 years for practically every meeting and camp. I knew he had been helping out, but I had realised it had been for such a length of time. Leaders have come and gone and he has been consistent (and no he doesn't have a parent as a leader). While he doesn't have a single Venturer badge, though I think he received his CSA, if any youth is deserving of recognition, I think he does.


Allan.

BalooTwo
If you're seeing too many lifers giving awards to lifers then change that. Nominate someone for an award. Volunteer to be on your council's Honours and Awards committee. The main problem I see is that nobody goes to the effort of actually nominating anybody. Councils don't do it...areas don't do it...award committees don't do it...nor should they. An award needs to come from an individual. A clarification...as area commissioner I do nominate people in my area if I know what they've been doing but with nearly 1,400 people in my area I simply have no way of knowing what's happening. The Group Commissioners should be the driving force behind most nominations.

Errol,
The new certificate is definitely an option. Interestingly...on the page that you provided the link for, the certificate appears to be for volunteers not for youth! However, I still believe, at a minimum, that the Certificate of Commendation should be opened up to all youth instead of just those 16 and up. Why the restriction? Can a 15 year old Venturer not perform outstanding service?

Garth

From what you describe he probably wouldn't merit a Medal of the Maple so unless he's 16 Allan there's nothing you can do for him (at least in the formal sense). That's the point behind my original posting. We need a way, like the adults have, to recognize youth with different levels of outstandingness.

Garth

If you're seeing too many lifers giving awards to lifers then change that. Nominate someone for an award.

I'll second that. We have had "discussions" in our group about people receiving awards who shouldn't have, and people who deserve something don't get anything. My response is that while we can complain about the people who shouldn't have received an award, we probably have only ourselves to blame if somebody didn't receive an award. We didn't make the effort to nominate them...


Allan.

Errol,
The new certificate is definitely an option. Interestingly...on the page that you provided the link for, the certificate appears to be for volunteers not for youth! However, I still believe, at a minimum, that the Certificate of Commendation should be opened up to all youth instead of just those 16 and up. Why the restriction? Can a 15 year old Venturer not perform outstanding service?
Garth

I would certainly consider that the Venturer mentioned by Allan above is a volunteer...anyway the certificate on the link I posted does NOT have an age/adult qualification that I could so why not????

If you're seeing too many lifers giving awards to lifers then change that. Nominate someone for an award.

I'll second that. We have had "discussions" in our group about people receiving awards who shouldn't have, and people who deserve something don't get anything. My response is that while we can complain about the people who shouldn't have received an award, we probably have only ourselves to blame if somebody didn't receive an award. We didn't make the effort to nominate them...
Allan.

If the complainers would just stop complaining about those they "feel" don't deserve the Award would only get off their a**** and recommend those that they think should get Awards, then the world would be a much happier place.

Whether or not you feel that someone does (not) deserve the Award; somebody else did and took the trouble to write them up, and the National/Council Award Committee agreed, otherwise the Award would not have been given. SO DO SOMETHING about your feelings, nominate somebody, take the trouble to write them up. I even got a Silver Wolf for somebody most deserving; nobody else thought about it...but he received it...a "simple" Scouter, not a Chief commissioner, Commissioner, etc. JUST A SCOUTER, but that's what we are supposed to be doing...I think

The Youth Forum for the Greater Toronto Council created an award, which sounds like it would suit your purposes quite well.

http://www.gtc.scouts.ca/gtc_resource.asp?resource=37

The award comes in bronze, silver and gold (level decided by the Youth Forum) and I think it is only a certificate. It is presented at the annual Youth Awards ceremony along with the QS, QV and MoMaple awards.

Why not suggest to your Council Youth Forum that they come up with something similar? If a couple of Councils adopt similar schemes, then maybe we can get Dylan to suggest it be a National scheme!

John

John,

That's a great idea. Do you know if youth can use their badge program service hours towards this award too? For example, can the 30 hours of leadership to others for the CSA count towards the 40 hours for this? The one thing I don't like about this is that it requires tracking a person's time. Youth might track their own time but to what purpose? To nominate themselves? I might know that a youth is involved in certain projects and might have a general idea of their effort but how do I know the details of exact dates and times? This award seems to be forward looking...ie, one would track the time and effort in order to earn the award rather than a youth just doing great things and having a person nominate them afterwards. Does that make sense?

Garth

Talking with our council awards person, he says there is a council youth award that would be appropriate for this situation. See attached document.


Allan.

Tracking volunteer hours is somewhat a matter of routine here in Ontario, as all students must have 40 hours of community service to graduate from grade 12. This is fairly easily accomplished in almost any decent Scout/Venturer program. Each school and/or school board seems to have invented their own documentation requirements so keeping our own records seems easiest

If the leaders are keeping records then spotting the outstanding kids is pretty easy.

John

I track the community service hours that my Ventures complete. While expect them to track their own (not that they do...) I want the records for my own edification and to ensure the high school sheets I sign off are correct.


Allan.

I am neither a commissioner, executive or Baden Powell himself. I am an ordinary member expressing my opinion. The defensive/agressive nature of responses is somewhat dis-heartening with this forum. Is any of this getting back upstairs? Or is it part of information blocking. If there are complainers, then there is a problem, and things have been done about it to no avail. Showing us what others are doing just appears as CYA. Having a youth dedicate 4 or 5 years to a Scouting program outside his group deserves recognition. Period. What is proposed to be changed. Is the excutive listening or just wringing their hands with maybes, sort ofs. possibly do thats. Recognition is given too freely for lifers yet, not enough for the youth. What will change. Turning the question back onto us is not the answer. Getting off my a** to do something has done little but get me nominated for something. So, what is to be done?

Allan/John,

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't know that Ontario had that requirement. Now that you've explained it, it does appear to be routine. However, does that mean that most youth earn the Voyageur Council Youth award? It seems a main part of it is recording the service the youth performs although the form does ask for exceptional service performed. Would you be able to describe just what is expected for a youth to get this award. From the outside looking in, and I don't mean to minimize the award, it seems to me that this award would be earned fairly routinely by any youth involved in a reasonably active scout or venturer program. Hence my question about whether service time for this award can be counted towards the CSA and/or QVA or vice versa. If so, it would appear that this is simply another 'program' award - like the D of E. By that I mean an award that can be earned simply by following a typical program. Please clarify if possible as perhaps I'm missing something.

If national doesn't, at a minimum, lower the age restriction for the Cert. of Com. then I'm going to work with my AYC's and see if they think our council should create an award similar to yours. My first impression though would be that any outstanding service performed towards this proposed new award be mutually exclusive from any other program awards. I am happy with the Medal of the Maple but feel that it isn't enough. I would equate it with the adult Medal for Good Service or perhaps the Medal of Merit (I haven't decided yet!) and feel that additional awards are required for lesser (and greater!) outstandingness! Also, what happens if a youth performs additional outstanding service after earning the Medal of the Maple? Can they get a second one? One of my former scouts, at just 13 years old, was among the first in my council to earn an MM award. What do I do if, over the next half decade, she performs further outstanding service?

Garth

In our Troop and Company we do a number of community service things. We clean up a local park Spring and Fall; we participate in the delivery of 40,000 Christmas parcels for the Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund; we plant trees in one river valley or another each Spring; we collect more food for the Area Hike for Hunger food drive than the rest of the Area combined. All of these things count for High School credit; none of these things counts towards an Award of Excellence.

To prompt me to recommend a youth for this award would require volunteer effort above and beyond these regular activities. For example, the Scout who was a Kim for six months and then stayed on as a Cub SIT for three years, passing up Troop camps to help at Cuborees and Kub Kar events or the youth who is a member of the Area Youth Forum and takes a leading role in organizing an Area event.

But that’s me. Like the adult awards, I see kids getting the award that make me wonder how and why. And I see unrewarded kids who don’t even know the awards exist.

John

More than ever I see the need for outstanding service awards opened up to youth. My council is about to present a Medal for Good Service to a 16 year old despite BP&P stating that the eligibility for this award is for adult volunteers. The youth already has a Medal of the Maple (in fact I nominated him for it!). I don't dispute that the youth deserves the recognition. He's a great young man who does a lot. I don't like the fact that the award is being given as an exception to the current rule though. I would like to see the rule changed so that the awards are open to youth.

Garth