ARCOM Bulletin/MOVSM Conflict
Hello all, seeking some clarification and guidance on something that came up recently related to awards.
At start of the year with this commander, he said he would approve MOVSM for any soldier who does 115 or more certified volunteer service hours.
I have put in more than 170 hours of volunteer service this year and was expecting to be authorized that award.
I asked if I would be receiving that or if they needed any documentation from me and was informed that I could not receive it due to my previous NCOIC using my volunteer hours on an ARCOM bullet.
I do know you should not use the same bullet for two different impact awards/commendations but this one took me by surprise. Since it was a blanket-approved criteria put out by our commander, I am curious why this wasn’t brought up before specifically.
I'd like to add that MOVSM is just a memorandum. There is no formal 638 or certificate for approval. So if your commander has a standing policy it seems like you should be able to rate the award no problem. MOVSM also has no official hour requirement. The only hard rule about MOVSM is "(4) No more than one MOVSM will be awarded to any Servicemember." You aren't getting the same award for your hours. So, I don't see why this would conflict with ARCOM bullet.
You can add to the reg but you can’t take away. If the reg says you cannot be awarded twice for the same action then that is the rule.
Also pls make sure you weren’t paid in any way for this volunteer work. I have seen multiple times where soldiers are deemed ineligible because they had gotten paid. It’s not volunteer work if you receive compensation.
I absolutely was never paid for volunteer service hahaha
In fact I incur a lot of out of pocket expense to participate in my specific volunteer service
Ok. But if you were already awarded for this action via an ARCOM you cannot be award for the same action via MOVSM.
Thank you all for your input. I just made a new bullet and submitted to my new NCOIC and also had to fill out a few MOVSM request forms (MOVSM Checklist and recommendation form) as requested.
I am still confused about the situation since I’ve seen people receive both using their volunteer service. Also it seems the S1 is taking an aggressive role in screening everything going to the command team. So I guess this was something that is command-backed. I did bring up my concerns to my NCOIC and he is defaulting to S1 decision without much fight. We will see if they approve both or not
Where and how are you logging your volunteer hours?
And what reg is being used to show you cannot receive your reward if the hours were used on (much less someone else’s’/your previous NCOIC) award?
And who is referencing this reg?
Edit:
This just sounds all very weird that’s why
My hours are tracked on VMIS and certified by the volunteer organizations VMIS manager.
I suppose they are referring to AR 600-8-22 ch. 1-19 talking about duplicate awards.