NARSVPD’s Presidential Volunteer Service Awards (PVSA) Project

January 31 2008 Update 

 

PVSA Awards Program Extended

 

The National Association of RSVP Directors (NARSVPD) is pleased to announce that it will again pay for normal shipping and the cost of one complete PVSA award package (pin, certificate, letter from the President, and letter from the President’s Volunteer Council) at either the Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Lifetime level for each active RSVP volunteer.  Please see the revised procedures below.

 

1.      Registering as a Certifying Organization

 

(If you registered as a Certifying Organization previously, you do not need to register again, and you can skip to “Ordering Your Free Awards”, below). 

 

If you have not yet registered as a Certifying Organization, visit the President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) website at www.presidentialserviceawards.gov and register as a Certifying Organization.  After you have registered on-line, you will receive (via e-mail) your username and password in 3-5 business days.

 

A special note to RSVP directors whose sponsors administer more than one senior volunteer program:  If your sponsoring agency has more than one National Senior Service Corps program, you must register each one separately as a Certifying Organization to make sure that the appropriate National Directors Association is billed for awards ordered for each of the programs.  In other words, you must register once as a certifying organization for RSVP (and get a password) and then again as either SCP and/or FGP-and get a different password(s).  If you register for more than one program using the same director’s name and e-mail address, the Points of Light Foundation (POLF) system will generate a different username for each program registered.

 

2.      Ordering Your Free Awards

 

To refresh your memory:  the National Association of Retired Senior Volunteer Program Directors (NARSVPD) is a Leadership Organization for this project.  The Points of Light Foundation (POLF) is serving as the administrative arm for this project—it is POLF with whom you registered as a Certifying Organization, to whom you submit your awards order, and who fills and ships your order.

 

  • To order PVSA Awards and have NARSVPD pay for them, you must be registered as a Certifying Organization, you must have received your username and password, and your organization must be “linked” with NARSVPD on the POLF website. 

 

To determine whether your organization has been “linked” with NARSVPD, first log on to the online ordering system at www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/s/sc.  Once your homepage appears, look at the logo on the right side of the page – it should be the logo for RSVP.  This logo will also appear on the “Place an Order” page.  If the RSVP logo does not appear on your homepage, DO NOT place your order at this time. Send POLF an email immediately at pvsasupport@presidentialserviceawards.gov, providing your organization name and requesting that your organization be linked to NARSVPD.  POLF will send a reply message indicating that your organization has been appropriately linked.

 

  • Online ordering is easy! Go to the online ordering system at www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/s/sc, login, click on the “Order Awards” tab at the top of the page, and follow the instructions.

 

  • NARSVPD will pay normal shipping costs and the cost for one award – the highest award for which a volunteer is eligible – for each volunteer.  EXCEPTION:  for RSVP volunteers who are eligible for a Lifetime Award (have served 4,000 or more hours since enrolling in RSVP), you may order and NARSVPD will pay for one additional award level – either Gold, Silver or Bronze.  It is also possible to order more than one award for other volunteers who are NOT receiving the Lifetime Awards, but YOU WILL BE BILLED (AND YOU MUST PAY) FOR ANY ADDITIONAL AWARDS YOU ORDER FOR THOSE VOLUNTEERS IN EXCESS OF ONE AWARD.

 

  • Eligibility for each award is based on the cumulative total number of hours a volunteer has served from the date they enrolled in your program through the date you are ordering your awards.  Unfortunately, there has been some confusion about this previously, so make sure you determine each volunteer’s total hours from the date of his/her enrollment!

  • There are several Award levels that you can order based on the cumulative number of hours you are able to verify for each volunteer; they are:

 

Bronze Level                                           100 – 249 hours

Silver Level                                             250 to 499 hours

Gold Level                                              500 to 3,999 hours

Lifetime (Call to Service) Award             4,000 hours or more

 

NOTE:  POLF prefers that you list the actual number of hours served for each RSVP volunteer for whom you are ordering an award.  However, accessing detailed service records for multiple years for RSVP volunteers can be problematic.  If that is the case for you, you may estimate hours served but you should be able to justify your estimates in some way.

 

  • If you ordered awards last year, you may do so again this year.  However you may order only once by the ordering deadline of January 31, 2007, so please make sure your order is complete and includes all your volunteers before submitting it.

 

  • If you have 50 or more RSVP volunteers for whom you are ordering awards, you can submit a list of information to POLF instead of ordering on-line, but you must use the Excel spreadsheet which can be downloaded from the “order” page of the POLF website.  Complete all columns on the spreadsheet for all volunteers for whom you are ordering an award.  Also, remember to fill in the date by which you need your awards.

 

You can e-mail your list to pvsasupport@presidentialserviceawards.gov or fax to 202-729-8033.  Remember to include your name and program name and address in your e-mail or on the fax cover sheet.  NOTE:  It usually takes 4-6 weeks from the date of your order to process and deliver your awards; however, POLF might be able to accommodate a request for earlier delivery if you ask and are willing to pay the $25 “rush” fee yourself.

 

  • After submitting an order to POLF (either via the website or the Excel spreadsheet), you will receive an e-mail that summarizes your order and lists the names of all volunteers for whom awards were ordered and the award level for each volunteer.  This e-mail will ask you to proof the order for spelling errors, omissions, etc., and then respond to the e-mail with “this order is correct” or “this order contains errors” (along with a list of the mistakes that need to be corrected).  Your order will be held and will NOT be placed until you have proofed the order and responded to POLF.  Corrections to the list of awards after you have approved the order can be made, but only at your program’s expense.  POLF will absorb the cost of correcting any errors made by the POLF fulfillment house itself.

 

  • After you receive your award packets and pins, do not assume that the order has been filled correctly – check it.  Make sure all the awards you have ordered are included and that the name and type of award for each volunteer is correct.  E-mail POLF at pvsasupport@presidentialserviceawards.gov if you find any errors in your order.  If you receive no response from POLF in 1-2 days, please let your PVSA Coordinator know and she will try to expedite POLF’s response to you.

 

If you need any help with getting certified or ordering awards, feel free to contact Mary Louise Schweikert, National Coordinator, NARSVPD PVSA Project, at gschweik@sunlink.net or at 570.713.8800 (voice).      

 

Remember – the deadline for placing your order is January 31, 2008!

 
 

 

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