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Alderman Lavert proposes city ‘challenge coin’ to recognize acts of service; staff directed to draft guidelines
Summary
Alderman Lavert proposed a small, token-based recognition program to honor residents, volunteers and staff for service or kindness; council generally supported the idea and directed staff to develop guidelines and cost estimates, with the coin’s unit cost estimated at about $8.
Alderman Lavert introduced a proposal May 18 for a modest community-recognition token—described as a “challenge coin”—to acknowledge residents, volunteers and staff whose actions improve the community.
Lavert said the coin would be a token of appreciation, with council members able to nominate recipients under three suggested categories: service, community and kindness. "It's a nice way for us to recognize residents, volunteers, and members of our community who make a meaningful contribution to our city of Lake Forest," she said.
Council members generally voiced support while raising questions about the program name, how broadly coins should be distributed, whether the city website should publish recipients and how to preserve the token’s value. One council member suggested a different name to avoid the connotation of the word “challenge.” Lavert said promotional recognition could include a monthly or quarterly publication of recipients and that coins would likely be “silver dollar” size and cost approximately $8 each.
The council directed staff to develop guidelines, costs and criteria for distribution and to circulate proposed parameters to the council for comment; if guidelines show broad consensus, staff indicated the program could be implemented administratively, otherwise the council would consider it at a future meeting.
