Printable Version

 Getting Started

The Silver Beaver Award is the highest award that a local council can bestow upon a registered volunteer for noteworthy service of exceptional character to youth. You are to be commended for wanting to take the effort to submit an application to recommend that particular volunteer for such a distinguished award.

However, at first glance, a Silver Beaver application looks like a monumental effort. It doesn’t have to be if you just take it just one step at a time. Some steps may include the following:

·         Pick a worthy candidate. There are many volunteers deserving of the Silver Beaver within our council. Pick someone that you admire and respect for his or her Scouting abilities, accomplishments and dedication. Please make sure this individual has received the District Award of Merit. Although being a recipient of the District Award of Merit not a requirement, you should spend the effort to submit your candidate for the District Award of Merit if they have not received it (its also good practice in researching important data).

·         Start preparing as early as possible. When submitting a candidate, you may start preparing about a year ahead of the due date. It’s extremely difficult to start getting everything together just a few weeks before the due date. Start a notebook accumulating all of that individual’s biographical and service information. You’ll have a far more complete application the sooner you start. Contact friends, unit members and family to gather information. Ask your district executive for a copy of last year’s blank application to start work.

·         Think about letters of recommendation. Start considering which people you like to ask to write letters of recommendation.

·         Ask the help of others. District Commissioners and Chairman can offer much direction and assistance. Discuss your candidate with them for their advice. Also, they can inform you if someone else is working on submitting that same candidate.

·         Applications are available at district roundtables, the council office and at: www.skcbsa.org

Biographical Data

Fill in as completely as possible. If you don’t know an exact date, try to approximate.

A. Record of Service to the Boy Scouts of America

One way is to organize by unit, district council, awards received, training received and if it applies, training staff experiences. The following examples are suggested:

·         Unit Service: offices held in a unit and tenure in them. Include the unit number.

·         District Service: committees served on and dates, offices held and dates.

·         Council Service: committees served and dates. Include training staffs, Order of the Arrow, etc.

·         Training Received: note training awards and dates received. Include Powderhorn, Wood Badge, commissioner training, etc.

·        Awards Received: note recognitions like adult religious awards, Vigil Honor, District Award of Merit.

B. Record of Service to Youth Outside of Scouting

Some areas to consider are church, school, and work activities. Some of the examples that have been noted on past applications include:

·         Church affiliations

·         School volunteers

·         PTO member’

·         Youth sports (little league, soccer)

C. Record of Community Involvement

This may be a very challenging category to complete. You may include any service as stated in the record of service to youth category if it applies. Some other examples that have been noted are:

·         Military and Civic service

·         Community volunteer

·         Fraternal or service club activities

·         Professional organizations

Letters of Recommendation   (Maximum of 6 per nomination; letters must be current)

Letters of recommendation may require extra planning because people that are asked to write letters often take a good deal of time to prepare just so they can write a quality letter. Also, people outside of Scouting such as religious and community organization leaders often write very good letters. Some helpful hints may include:

·         Sources of Letters. Consider people that personally know the Silver Beaver candidate. Many good letters can come from experienced Scouters, longtime friends and religious leaders. Don’t pass up a Scouting youth or a Scout’s parent in writing letters telling about how this individual affected their life.

·         Give people a copy of their biography. This will help anyone writing a letter to be consistent. Some people will leave something out just because they may have forgotten the exact details. This biography is also important to those outside of Scouting to get the terminology down.

·         Plan on getting at least 7 letters. It could be a big panic trying to get that 6^th letter in a hurry. You may pick the 6 best if you have extras. If your candidate is selected, give them the extra letters that were not included in the application.

·         Offer assistance to others by following up periodically to get you the letters in time. Not everyone is comfortable in writing letters or wants to submit a hand written letter. Feel free to type their letters and ask them to sign them.

·         Personal stories are usually quite touching. Many an experienced Scouter has been humbled by the many compliments and personal stories contained within these letters. These stories can have a great impact.

Submitting the Application (Deadline is 5:00 pm, November 1 at the Columbus Service Center)

Some helpful hints may include:

·         Type it or write as neatly as possible. After all that hard work, make sure it can be read.

·         Plan on submitting the application 2 or 3 weeks ahead of time.

·         Ask others for help if you need advice or are running out of time.

·         Most importantly, keep your fingers crossed. If the candidate you submitted doesn’t receive the Silver Beaver this year, don’t give up, try next year. Few candidates receive this prestigious award in the first try. Applications not selected will be returned to the nominator.

Please note that this guide is not intended to be a right or wrong, all-inclusive guide for submitting that special Silver Beaver candidate. Every Silver Beaver candidate is unique. Just consider the ideas mentioned as a source of ideas. Thank you for taking the time and effort to recognize that special volunteer.

Simon Kenton Council ● Boy Scouts of America

1901 E. Dublin-Granville Rd. ● P.O. Box 29207 ● Columbus, Ohio  43229

(614) 436-7200 ● (800) 433-4051 ● FAX: (614) 436-7917

E-mail: questions@skcbsa.org ● Web Site: www.skcbsa.org

Copyright © 2006 Simon Kenton Council, BSA