- Form
- #SP-7
- Due
- June 30
- Signed
- Program Director + Grand Knight
- Prepared by
- Program Director (data from pillar directors)
What SP-7 actually does
Fellow Program Director / DGK — SP-7 is the annual application for the Columbian Award, one of the three awards that together form Star Council. Filing it is how your council claims credit for the program activity it ran across the fraternal year.
Due June 30. Covers July 1 of the prior year through June 30 of the current year (the full fraternal year you just finished).
The target — what "winning Columbian" means
Two conditions, both required:
- 16 total program credits across the fraternal year.
- Minimum 4 credits in each of the four Faith in Action pillars (Faith, Family, Community, Life).
Miss either condition and the council doesn't win Columbian — which removes one leg of Star Council.
The 4-per-pillar floor is the condition that trips up most councils. 20 credits concentrated in Community with 2 in Life is a Columbian miss. 16 credits distributed evenly (4/4/4/4) is a Columbian win.
See Star Council Explained for how Columbian fits with Father McGivney and Founders'.
What counts as a credit
Credit values are tiered per current SP-7 instructions:
- Featured Programs that meet minimum requirements: 2 credits per event in their pillar.
- All other qualifying programs (non-featured, or featured programs that don't meet minimum requirements): 1 credit per event.
The Faith in Action Guidebook (kofc.org/faithinaction) designates which programs are Featured each year.
Qualifying criteria (typical):
- Council-sponsored (your council initiated, organized, or financially supported it — not just individual members attending a parish event).
- Conducted during the fraternal year being reported.
- Categorizable under one of the four pillars.
- Documented (date, location, attendance, pillar director sign-off).
What typically does NOT count:
- Business meetings (those are governance, not program).
- Social-only events with no service, faith, or family-formation component.
- Individual member activity without council sponsorship.
- Events that happened outside the fraternal year being reported.
The four-pillar breakdown
Faith (minimum 4 credits)
Common counting events: Holy Hour, Rosary Program, Into the Breach, Pilgrim Icon, parish Adoration hours your council runs, Lenten reflections, Advent prayer programs.
Family (minimum 4 credits)
Common counting events: Family Fully Alive events, Family of the Month recognition, family retreats, father-son/mother-daughter events, Good Friday Family Promotion, Consecration to the Holy Family.
Community (minimum 4 credits)
Common counting events: Coats for Kids, Habitat for Humanity, food drives, blood drives, Free Throw Championship, Soccer Challenge, parish festival staffing, disaster relief.
Life (minimum 4 credits)
Common counting events: March for Life participation, Silver Rose, Ultrasound Initiative fundraising, Novena for Life, Rosary for Life, pregnancy resource center support.
See Faith in Action Pillars for deeper detail on each.
Who signs and submits
Program Director (usually the DGK):
- Compiles credits from the four pillar directors.
- Fills SP-7.
- Signs as primary signatory.
Grand Knight:
- Reviews the compiled SP-7.
- Co-signs.
Financial Secretary:
- May cross-check that reported events match #1728 and #1295 records.
- Not a signatory but often the person who catches inconsistencies.
The running scoreboard approach
The single biggest SP-7 mistake: treating it as a June deliverable instead of a running scoreboard.
What works:
- Monthly credit logging. Every pillar director reports credits earned in the prior month to the Program Director at each officer meeting. Program Director keeps the running tally.
- Mid-year audit (January). Look at the scoreboard: are all four pillars at/above 8 credits (half-year target)? If not, schedule catch-up events for the weak pillar in February–April.
- April check-in. With 2–3 months to go, recount and plan. If you're at 3 credits in Life, you need to schedule 1+ more Life event before June 30.
- June compilation. Should be a 2-hour exercise, not a 2-week scramble, because the data was captured throughout the year.
What doesn't work:
- Asking pillar directors in June "what did we do this year?" They won't remember. Events get lost. Credits get missed.
- Claiming events that didn't have a pillar director on file. Supreme cross-references #365 — if Faith Director was vacant all year, Faith credits get scrutinized.
The #365 connection
SP-7 credits only count if your council had the relevant pillar director named on Form #365.
- If your Faith Director slot was vacant all year, Faith credits on SP-7 are on thin ice — Supreme can challenge them.
- If Faith Director was filled mid-year (say, October), credits from October onward are cleaner than credits from July–September.
- Strategy: fill #365 pillar slots on August 1 and don't leave them vacant. Even a placeholder "Faith Director" who's learning the role is stronger than a blank slot.
See Form #365 for the program personnel mechanics.
Common mistakes
- Claiming events without dates. Every credit needs a date within the fraternal year. Undated claims don't hold up.
- Claiming parish events as council events. If the parish ran it and your council just attended, that's not a council program. Claim council-sponsored events only.
- Double-counting across pillars. A council Rosary that also fed the poor isn't two credits — it's one. Pick the stronger pillar.
- Filing after June 30. Late SP-7 typically disqualifies for Columbian that year. Don't.
- Not reviewing with the GK before signing. The GK is the co-signer. Surprising them with the final SP-7 the week before filing leaves no room to fix issues.
What happens after you submit
Supreme reviews SP-7 submissions in July – September. Columbian Award determinations roll out to state councils, and state councils publish results to councils. Star Council determinations (which require Columbian plus Father McGivney and Founders') follow.
Banners and recognition materials are distributed in advance of the next state convention, typically spring of the following fraternal year.
One more thing
Councils that win Columbian are usually the councils whose Program Director kept the scoreboard running from July 1 instead of June 1. It's a year-long discipline dressed as a year-end form.
Track monthly. Audit mid-year. File by June 15, two weeks early. Become the council your state convention calls up for the banner. That's the whole play.
Source notes. Draws on Supreme Council Form SP-7 instructions (current tiered credit rule: Featured Programs meeting minimum requirements earn 2 credits; all others earn 1), Faith in Action program materials, the Grand Knight Handbook, and current Columbian Award criteria. Send feedback if anything's off.
Last reviewed: April 18, 2026. Fraternal year 2025–26.
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