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Lower Good Service deadlines and processing

Chief Scout's Commendation for Good Service, Award for Merit, Bar to the Award for Merit and Silver Acorn deadlines and what happens with award decisions once submitted to UK Headquarters.

Awards covered in this process

Lower Good Service awards

  • The Chief Scout's Commendation for Good Service
  • The Award for Merit
  • The Bar to the Award for Merit
  • The Silver Acorn

The Process

Once an Award has been approved locally the details must be submitted to UK Headquarters for processing which will include the following 5 stages.

Stage 1: Submit award decisions via the Good Service award completion form

Stage 2: Suitability check by UK Headquarters

Stage 3: Criteria check by UK Headquarters (on 10% of award decision submissions)

Stage 4: Awards sent out for presentation

Stage 5: Awards uploaded to Compass (60 days after mail out)

Timeline

There are four award decision submission deadlines throughout the year for these awards.

All Good Service awards are sent out to County level (and above where relevant) unless otherwise specified.

All Silver Acorn award recipients will directly receive a congratulatory letter from the UK Chief Volunteer.

First Deadline

Submission deadline: 31 March
Awards dispatched: By 31 May
Silver Acorn congratulatory letter sent: By 30 June
Awards uploaded to Compass: By 31 July

Second Deadline

Submission deadline: 30 June
Awards dispatched: By 31 August
Silver Acorn congratulatory letter sent: By 30 September
Awards uploaded to Compass: By 31 October

Third Deadline

Submission deadline: 30 September
Awards dispatched: By 30 November
Silver Acorn congratulatory letter sent: By 31 December
Awards uploaded to Compass: By 31 January

Fourth Deadline


Submission deadline: 31 December
Awards dispatched: By 28/29 February
Silver Acorn congratulatory letter sent: By 31 March
Awards uploaded to Compass: By 30 April

Event invites and Roll of honour

Names of all Good Service award recipients approved and sent out during the calendar year (January - December) will be published in the Roll of honour in the year following the calendar year that the award is sent out.

We also aim for all Silver Acorn award recipients approved and sent out during the calendar year (January - December) to be invited to a suitable national event in the year following the calendar year that the award is sent out.

E.g. For an award decision submitted by 31 March 2021, mailed out in May 2021, and uploaded to Compass in July 2021, the award recipients name will feature in the Roll of honour published in 2022 and Silver Acorn invites will be for an event in 2022. For an award decision submitted by 31 December 2021, mailed out in February 2022, and uploaded to Compass in April 2022, the award recipients name will feature in the Roll of honour published in 2023 and Silver Acorn invites will be for an event in 2023.

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