§ 217. General requirements of a service award program. No volunteer
fire department, volunteer fire company, fire district, fire protection
district, village, town or city, shall be required under this article to
provide service award benefits for its active volunteer firefighters.
Any service awards provided to an active volunteer firefighter under
this article shall be governed by the provisions of section two hundred
eighteen in the case of defined contribution plans, section two hundred
nineteen in the case of defined benefit plans and in either case by the
provisions of sections two hundred fourteen, two hundred fifteen, two
hundred sixteen and two hundred nineteen-a of this article. No service
award program may be provided under this article unless the following
requirements are met:

(a) An active volunteer firefighter must be eligible to participate in
any service award program provided under this article if the active
volunteer firefighter has reached the age of eighteen and has completed
at least one year of firefighting service. The sponsor of the service
award program may impose younger age or shorter length of service
requirements for participation in the service award program.

(b) A participant shall have a nonforfeitable right to a percentage of
a service award that is not less than the percentage determined under
the following table:
Years of Nonforfeitable
Firefighting Service Percentage
Less than 5 0
5 or more 100
Notwithstanding the preceding table, a participant shall have a one
hundred percent nonforfeitable right to his service award upon his
attainment of the entitlement age under the program. Each sponsor may
establish a percentage table that provides for a faster rate of becoming
nonforfeitable. Any amounts attributable to forfeiture of a
participant's service award shall be used to reduce contributions for
other service award program participants and shall not in any case be
used to increase benefits for other participants. The preceding shall
not preclude amendment of a service award program to provide for an
increase in benefits.

(c) A year of firefighting service shall be credited under a service
award program for each calendar year after establishment of the program
in which an active volunteer firefighter accumulates at least fifty
points. Points shall be granted in accordance with a system adopted by
the program sponsor. Such system shall provide that points shall be
granted for activities designated by the program sponsor, which
activities shall be selected from the following:

(i) Training courses -- twenty-five points maximum.

(A) Courses under twenty hours duration -- one point per hour, with a
maximum of five points.

(B) Courses of twenty to forty-five hours duration -- one point per
hour for each hour over initial twenty hours, with a maximum of ten
points.

(C) Courses over forty-five hours to one hundred hours duration --
fifteen points per course.

(D) Courses over one hundred hours duration -- twenty-five points per
course.

(ii) Drills -- twenty points maximum. One point per drill (minimum two
hour drill).

(iii) Sleep-in or stand-by -- twenty points maximum.

(A) Sleep-in -- one point each full night.

(B) Stand-by -- one point each. A stand-by is defined as line of duty
activity of the volunteer fire company, lasting for four hours, not
falling under one of the other categories.

(iv) Elected or appointed position (see definition) -- twenty-five
points maximum.

(A) Completion of one year term in an elected or appointed position.
If the term of office for a firefighter who has been elected or
appointed to a position in a fire company or fire department commences
during the month of May, the participant shall receive credit for the
full year notwithstanding the fact that the participant has not
completed one year in the elected or appointed position at the end of
the calendar year in which he or she was elected or appointed.

(B) An active volunteer firefighter elected to serve as a delegate to
a firefighters' convention shall also be eligible to receive one point
per meeting.

(v) Attendance at meetings -- twenty points maximum.

Attendance at any official meetings of the volunteer fire company --
one point per meeting.

(vi) Participation in department responses -- twenty-five points for
responding on the minimum number of calls, as outlined below:

(A) Total number of calls 0 500 1000 1500
volunteer fire company re- to to to and
sponds to annually other 500 1000 1500 up
than emergency rescue and
first aid squad calls (am-
bulance calls)
Minimum number of calls vol- 10% 7.5% 5% 2.5%
unteer firefighter must run
annually in order to receive
twenty-five points credit

(B) Total number of calls 0 500 1000 1500
emergency rescue and first to to to and
aid squad (ambulance) 500 1000 1500 up
Minimum number of calls vol- 10% 7.5% 5% 2.5%
unteer firefighter must run
annually in order to receive
twenty-five points credit

(vii) Miscellaneous activities -- maximum fifteen points.
Participation in inspections and other activities covered by the
volunteer firefighters' benefit law and not otherwise listed -- one
point per activity.

(viii) In the event that any active volunteer firefighter is either
totally and temporarily disabled, or partially and permanently disabled,
as certified by the workers' compensation board or other competent
authority approved by the sponsor of the service award program, and the
disability occurs during the course of service as a volunteer, while
actively engaged in providing line of duty services, as defined in
subdivision one of section five of the volunteer firefighters' benefit
law, the firefighter shall receive five points for each full month of
such disability.

(ix) Teaching fire prevention classes--five points maximum. An active
volunteer firefighter who at the direction of his company, district or
department, and for no remuneration, presents a public education class
on fire prevention to a school, not-for-profit corporation, or civic
organization organized and existing under the laws of this state or
authorized to conduct activities in this state--one point per class.

The program sponsor may designate less than all the activities
specified in this subdivision as activities for which points may be
earned.

(d) An active volunteer firefighter's service award program may
provide for the crediting of years of active firefighting service for
periods prior to the establishment of such program to a maximum of five
years of active firefighting service per participant but only to the
extent authorized pursuant to section two hundred sixteen of this
article.

(e) In order to provide credit for service prior to the establishment
of the service award program, each sponsor shall review its prior
membership rosters to determine the number of years credit for each
participant who is entitled to credit. In making the analysis, the
standards for active service set forth in subdivision (c) of this
section and adopted by the sponsor shall be used. Approval for such
prior service shall require certification by the president, secretary
and chief of the volunteer fire company. In the event an active
volunteer firefighter requests credit for service in more than one
volunteer fire company, each such company shall provide a certification
for the appropriate number of years.

(g) An active volunteer firefighter whose name does not appear on the
approved certified list or who is denied credit for service prior to the
establishment of the service award program shall have the right to
appeal within thirty days of posting of the list or within thirty days
of denial of past service credit. The appeal shall be in writing and
mailed to the clerk or secretary of the governing board of such
political subdivision, which shall investigate the appeal. The decision
of the authorities in control of each volunteer fire company shall be
subject to appropriate judicial review.

(h) An active volunteer firefighter's service award program may
designate that benefits thereunder may be paid in the form of a lump
sum, a life annuity with or without survivor benefits, period certain
annuities, or any other form provided under the program. All forms of
benefit payments shall be actuarially equivalent to each other. The
sponsor may limit the forms of benefit payment under a service award
program or impose conditions concerning the availability of such
benefits. Nothing in this subdivision shall require a sponsor of a
service award program to purchase annuity contracts from an insurance
company.

(i) A participant whose volunteer fire service is interrupted by
full-time extended obligatory military service or by a single voluntary
enlistment not to exceed four years in the armed forces of the United
States shall be considered on military leave. During such period of
military leave, the participant shall receive active volunteer service
credit of fifty points for each full year, prorated for service of less
than a year.

(j) All program assets shall be held in trust for the exclusive
purpose of providing benefits to participants and their beneficiaries or
for the purpose of defraying the reasonable expenses of the operation
and administration of the program. If the service award program and the
related trust are not tax qualified within the meaning of sections 401
and 501 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 (68A Stat 3, 26 U.S.C. 401
and 501), the trust referred to in this subdivision may provide that the
assets held thereunder may be subject to the claims of general
creditors, if any, of the sponsor or may contain such other terms and
provisions as are necessary to insure that the participation by an
active volunteer firefighter in the service award program does not
result in taxable income to such volunteer firefighter under any
provision of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.

(k) Every fiduciary of a service award program will be required to act
solely in the interest of the program's participants and beneficiaries.
Subject only to the provisions of the program document, a fiduciary may
accept, hold, invest in and retain any investment if purchased or
retained in the exercise of the degree of judgment and care, under the
circumstances then prevailing, which persons of prudence and
intelligence exercise in the management of their own affairs, not in
regard to speculation, but in regard to permanent disposition of their
funds, considering the probable income to be derived therefrom as well
as the probable safety of their capital.

(l) No service award provided under the program may be assigned or
alienated except to provide for the legally obligated support of minor
children or spouse.

(m) A participant who is convicted of the crime of arson in any degree
as defined in the penal law shall not be eligible to receive benefits
from a service award program and shall forfeit any and all rights he or
she may have had to past or future benefits pursuant to a service award
program.

(n) An active volunteer firefighters' service award program may
provide for the crediting of years of active firefighting service for
periods after an active volunteer firefighter has reached the
entitlement age and is receiving a service award.

(o) In the case of a state-administered service award program, the
state comptroller may promulgate rules and regulations prescribing
procedures and forms for the compilation and maintenance of records of
the points accumulated by each volunteer firefighter. Each fire company
participating in the state-administered program shall compile and
maintain such records in the manner prescribed.

(q) The program sponsor may make adjustments to the participation in
department responses point system category provided for in paragraph
(vi) of subdivision (c) of this section in the event that such program
sponsor adopts written emergency response protocols setting different
emergency response requirements for the fire department, fire companies,
squads and units thereof such that certain participants are not
permitted to respond and are restricted from responding to all
non-emergency rescue and first aid squad calls and/or all emergency
rescue and first aid squad calls. Such restrictions on response may
relate to determinations made by the district physician or department's
physician as to the duties that may be assigned to certain personnel. In
the event that the program sponsor adopts different response
requirements for different groups, participants in those groups shall be
required to respond to the minimum number of emergency calls assigned to
their group by applying the percentage provided for in paragraph (vi) of
subdivision (c) of this section. Notwithstanding the provisions of
section two hundred sixteen of this article, a point system amendment to
address written emergency response protocols may be adopted by the
affirmative vote of at least sixty percent of such governing board,
without referendum. Such amendment shall only take effect as of the
first day of January next succeeding the completion of the proceedings
required for adoption of the amendment and shall only apply
prospectively unless the new written emergency response protocol is
adopted in order to address a state disaster emergency, as such term is
defined in section twenty of the executive law, and applicable to the
county or counties in which the fire department operates, in which case
such amendment may be applied in the year adopted.