Silver Beaver to an employee?

[KnotYourAverageScout]

Our council announced one of this year's recipients of the Silver Beaver award is an employee of the council.

Is that possible?

A lot of former Silver Beaver recipients seem to think it's not allowed and aren't happy about the announcement, but don't know what to do about it.

[ShootingSports]

Their nomination has to be based solely on what they have done as a volunteer. So, yes they can earn it. Just cant be because of what they have been paid to do.

[Eagle94-A1]

If memory serves, there is a 5 year period that professionals are ineligible after leaving the profession. Do not know if any restriction on non professional staff, ie. office staff, rangers, etc.

I do know of one SB recipient who was nominated before being employed by the council, but by the time of the awards ceremony, they were the camp ranger.

 

[NealOnWheels]

See application here https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/92-103.pdf

Nominations will not be considered for current or former professional Scouters within five (5) years of their leaving employment with Scouting America. Other council employees (part time or full time) are eligible to receive the Silver Beaver Award based on their volunteer service, not employed service.

 

[scoutldr]

I dunno, but in my career as a Federal manager, we were always taught that if we "suffer (require) OR permit" an employee to do work for the employer, it falls within the scope of employment and they must be compensated, according to the Fair Labor Standards Act.  This was highlighted during furloughs or shutdowns when we had dedicated employees volunteer to keep coming to work to be able to "keep up" and in, some cases, the workplace was their life and they had few other options.  So, by that standard anything the Professional does related to Scouting could be considered within the scope of their job, even if it's volunteering in their own kid's unit.  I don't see anything wrong with that, just that it would seem to violate the terms of the SB award.

 

[Tron]

In my council the SB is just another good-ole-boys club award. A few years ago a person got the SB who was not even position trained, never did anything other than make up his own non-sense, had to be removed from a committee due to incompetence. There is a very active volunteer scouter in my council who has a group of about 20 of us (this year, the number varies by year) trying to get him the SB for several years and we can't even get any feedback as to why he keeps being denied. And councils and national wonder why volunteers take their time and money and walk away from the program. 

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 minute ago, Tron said:

In my council the SB is just another good-ole-boys club award. A few years ago a person got the SB who was not even position trained, never did anything other than make up his own non-sense, had to be removed from a committee due to incompetence. There is a very active volunteer scouter in my council who has a group of about 20 of us (this year, the number varies by year) trying to get him the SB for several years and we can't even get any feedback as to why he keeps being denied. And councils and national wonder why volunteers take their time and money and walk away from the program. 

I served Scouting multiple decades without that recognition.  Later in life, I was blessed with success in the markets and large retirement pension, and so made a donation to our local council endowment.  Was awarded SB that same year.  Coincidence?