White Stag Leadership Development Program

White Stag Leadership Development is a non-profit organization founded on the Monterey Peninsula, California, in 1958 by Dr. Béla H. Bánáthy. The youth-run program prepares and produces two week-long summer camps for other youth age 11-17 each summer using hands-on learning methods to teach eleven specific leadership competencies. Since its inception, it has operated continuously for more than 50 years entirely on a voluntary basis, with an estimated 20,000 youth having attended its camps.cite web
url = http://www.whitestag.org/index.html
title = Twenty Thousand Youth and Fifty Years
author = White Stag Leadership Development Academy
date = 2008-05-14
accessdate = 2008-07-30]

Rationale for developing leadership in youth

The White Stag program's origins are in Boy Scouting. Lord Baden-Powell established the principles of training junior leaders in the book "Scouting for Boys." He said that the Scoutmaster should select "a party of six to eight youth or bright boys, and carefully instruct them in the details of peace-Scouting." [cite book | last = Baden-Powell | first = Robert | title = Scouting For Boys | publisher = C. Arthur Pearson LTD | date = 1908/1957 | location = London | pages = 342-343 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0486457192]

Since the late 1950s, the Boy Scouts of America has repeatedly stated that the primary job of the Scoutmaster is to "train and guide boy leaders to run their troop." [cite book | title = Scoutmaster's Handbook | publisher = Boy Scouts of America | date = 1959 | location = New Brunswick, N.J.| pages = 31 ] In his master's thesis, Banathy wrote:

quote|Adults coming to a leadership development program are entering into a behavioral situation with deeply and rigidly established patterns which are difficult to change...

As leadership development efforts on the adult level often have been proved to be belated, leadership development should have started during the formative years of youth. It is during these years that opportunity is available for a long-term development of leadership behavior.

Bánáthy formulated the White Stag program to address the needs of youth from 11 to 17 years of age. He did this when defining leadership was still in its infancy and before researchers had clearly identified the specific needs of youth for leadership education.

Needs of youth for leadership education

A number of researchers have identified needs of youth for specific kinds of formative experiences. In a well-regarded study, Ferber, Pittman, and Marshall described five developmental priorities for youth: [cite book | title=State youth policy: Helping all youth to grow up fully prepared and fully engaged | author=Ferber, T. and Pittman, K., and Marshall, T. | date=2002 | publisher=The Forum for Youth Investment, Impact Strategies, Inc., Washington, D.C. | isbn=1-931902-11-9]

*Learning (developing positive basic and applied academic attitudes, skills, and behaviors)
*Thriving (developing physically healthy attitudes, skills, and behaviors)
*Connecting (developing positive social attitudes, skills, and behaviors)
*Working (developing positive vocational attitudes, skills, and behaviors)
*Leading (developing positive civic attitudes, skills, and behaviors)

Other studies have identified areas that help youth acquire the attitudes, skills, and knowledge required to be effective in society. These include: [cite web | url=http://www.nasetalliance.org/youthdev/research.htm|title=Youth Development & Youth Leadership|accessdate=2008-09-08|date=2005]

*Strong relationships with adults
*Training in mediation, conflict resolution, team dynamics, and project management
*New roles and responsibilities based on experiences and resources that provide opportunity for growth
*Teamwork and peer networking
*Opportunities to practice communication, negotiation, and refusal skills

The White Stag Leadership Development Program's methods address all of these areas.

Other youth leadership organizations

There are a number of youth organizations in the United States that provide programs to develop leadership in youth. However, they define leadership in widely varying ways and offer leadership programs with a variety of aims. These include:

Boys & Girls Clubs of America The Boys and Girls Club offers two small group leadership development clubs, the Torch Club and the Keystone Club, targeting youth 11-13 and 14-18 respectively. "Club programs and services promote and enhance the development of boys and girls by instilling a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging and influence." [ cite web|url=http://www.bgca.org/whoweare/ |title=Boys Girls Club of America Who we are |accessdate=2008-08-29 ]

Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation "HOBY’s flagship program, the Leadership Seminar, is designed for high school sophomores to recognize their leadership talents and apply them in becoming effective, ethical leaders in their home, schools, workplace and community." [ cite web|url=http://www.hobyreverb.org/events |title=Events HOBY Reverb|accessdate=2008-08-29 ]

National Youth Leadership Council NYLC provides academic-based programs and camps in the Wichita and Manhattan Kansas area to "help children develop a strong sense of character and achieve their unique potential, thereby infusing our communities with a more confident and capable group of future leaders." [ cite web|url=http://www.youthleadershipfoundation.org/AboutUs/ |title=About Us|accessdate=2008-08-29 ]

Youth Leadership Foundation [ [http://www.ylf.helpingkids.org Youth Leadership Foundation] ] Located in Washington, D.C., YLF's purpose is to "hone basic reading, writing, and comprehension skills to enable students to perform at grade-level or better." [cite web|url=http://www.ylf.helpingkids.org/mission.htm |title=Our Mission|accessdate=2008-08-29 ]

National Youth Leadership Forum NYLF provides career-related programs in eight cities across the United States focused on law, medicine, and national security. Their programs typically cost $2000, excluding travel, and target "the nation’s highest-achieving high school and university students." [cite web|url=http://www.nylf.org/overview.cfm |title=NYLF Overview|accessdate=2008-08-29]

Youth Leadership Foundation Inc. [ [http://www.ylfinc.org Youth Leadership Foundation Inc.] ] YLF Inc., located in Florida, puts on two three-day conferences to teach students "basic elements of leadership needed in the maintenance of a free society...basic concepts of the free enterprise systems...develop an awareness of those special aspects of leadership applicable to our national institutions...and develop leadership skill to enable students attending conferences to become citizens and the future leaders of their community." [cite web |title = About The Conferences | url = http://www.ylfinc.org/about_Conference.cfm | accessdate =2008-08-29]

None of these programs appear to have either defined or teach a specific set of leadership competencies. White Stag Leadership Development is distinctive because the youth plan and implement a leadership program for other youth, the multi-phase, multi-year organizational structure, of how it defines leadership, and the specific nature of its leadership competencies.

Organization and administration

The White Stag program is currently presented by two related non-profit groups in two different summer camps each year.

In Northern California, the non-profit White Stag Association [ [http://www.whitestagcrew122 White Stag Crew 122 ] ] sponsors three Venturing Crews, a Learning for Life group, and a Boy Scout Troop that plan and produce the summer camp program in Northern California, usually at Camp John Mensinger or Camp Hi-Sierra in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The youth and adult members of the Camp Mensinger program are registered in Venturing Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mount Diablo Silverado, and the Greater Yosemite Councils. All youth staff are active members of Scout Troops or Venturing Crews.

In Central California, the non-profit White Stag Leadership Development Academy [ [http://whitestag.org/about/program/white_stag_leadership_development_academy.htm White Stag Leadership Academy] ] sponsors a Learning for Life group, a Venturing Crew, and a Boy Scout Troop in the Monterey Bay Area Council. These youth plan and put on a program each summer in Central California, typically at Camp Cutter in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Most youth staff participants are currently members of Boy Scout or Girl Scout Troops. If a youth is not active in another Scouting unit, they are registered, depending on their age, in one of the units.

Both programs adhere to the Youth Protection Standards of the Boy Scouts of America, including background checks of all adult leaders. Both have drawn participants from other states, including Washington, Oregon, and Arizona.

Program phases and levels

Based on Bela Banathy's original work, the program is still organized into six development levelscite web
url = http://www.whitestagcrew122.org/
title = Program Phases
date = 2004-03-12
accessdate = 2008-07-16] . These are tailored to the needs of youth at specific ages and maturity levels. These levels are: [cite web | title = Organizational Structure | url = http://www.whitestag.org/follow/sb104.htm | date = | accessdate = 2008-09-02 | author = White Stag Leadership Academy]

Program Phase Structure

Phase	Phase 1 — Patrol Member Development	Phase 2 — Patrol Leader Development	Phase 3 — Troop Leader Development
Level	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Purpose: Teaches skills required for—	participating effectively in small groups.	leading small groups.	leader of a leadership team.
Candidate Participants	* For youth ages 11-12 (or have completed 5th grade)† * Participants learn basic camping and patrol member skills * Experience how to be a member of a small group * Includes a one-night backpacking trip	* For youth ages 12-14† * Participants learn the skills of a leader of a small group * Participants take turns acting as small group (patrol) leaders * Includes a two-night backpacking trip	* For youth ages 14-17† * Participants learn leadership of two or more small groups * Participants take turns acting as small group (patrol) leaders * One participant is chosen by youth staff each day to lead the entire troop * Includes a three-night backpacking trip
Level	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
Youth Staff Qualifications	* For youth age 14-15† * Senior Patrol Leaders * Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders * Patrol Leaders * Quartermaster, Evaluation	* For youth age 15-16† * Senior Patrol Leaders * Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders * Patrol Counselors * Quartermaster, Evaluation	* For youth age 16-20† * Senior Patrol Counselor * Assistant Senior Patrol Counselors * Patrol Counselors * Quartermaster, Evaluation
Adult Staff	Level 7 Phase Advisers (age 21+) Assistant Phase Advisers (age 18+)	Level 8 Phase Advisers (age 21+) Assistant Phase Advisers (age 18+)	Level 9 Phase Advisers (age 21+) Assistant Phase Advisers (age 18+)
	Post Advisers | Program Directors | Administrative | Operational Committees
Program & Support Staff	The Post Adviser must meet BSA Scout and Venturing Program requirements. Committees are composed of interested parents and alumni of all ages who fulfill critical support roles including registration, treasury, commissary, quartermaster, evaluation, medical and so forth, during the year and at summer camp.

† The age levels are not absolute, but for guidance in placing participants in the phase most suitable to their needs.

The youth staff develop each summer camp's program during the preceding nine months in a series of leadership development training and planning events. They are ultimately responsible for the entire leadership program's content.

Program Aims

The aims are the personal attributes that the program strives to help participants improve as they participate in the program. The White Stag program has four specific aims that are closely aligned with the aims of the Boy Scouts of America.cite web
url = http://www.scouting.org/Media/FactSheets/02-503.aspx
title = What Is Boy Scouting?
author = Boy Scouts of America
date = 2008
accessdate = 2008-07-23] with the addition of leadership development.

Character Development

We encourage people to do what is right, no matter what, and to serve themselves and others.

Personal Fitness

We encourage individuals to accept physical and mental challenges, to surpass their own expectations, expand their knowledge, skills and abilities, and strive for continuous personal improvement.

Leadership Development

We inspire individuals to engage life as an ongoing adventure, to challenge themselves, and to lead others to pursue excellence.

Citizenship Training

We help individuals to develop a positive attitude, influence those around them, join in and shape their community.

Program Values

The program has defined a set of values that govern how the program is implemented. They include:cite book |title = Rationale |author = Bill Roberts |date = 1974 ]

Outdoor learning

The outdoors environment provides a context for learning that is physically demanding and entirely different from that experienced everyday at home and in school. The outdoors stimulates new ways of thinking and approaching both task- and group-related problems. As participants learn they can exceed what they perceive to be their physical limits, they find their mental capacity also grows. We use the physical environment to tire the individual and open their minds to new ways of thinking. We do nothing indoors that can be done outdoors and encourage physical fitness through outdoor activities. Using the outdoors avoids the negative association of a standard classroom environment.

In addition, the program utilizes Scoutcraft skills to provide opportunities to practice leadership skills. Banathy commented:

Evaluation attitude

In his master's thesis, Banathy wrote:

Quote|Growth in leadership and improvement of leadership performance are dependent upon the leader's willingness to change, his ability to define the kind f change he needs and the experience of the particular change desired.

In this sequence, the leader's ability to define the kind of change he needs is predicated upon his competency to evaluate. Changes or learning in the desired direction can be brough about only by a continuous self-analysis and evaluation of goals and achievements. Learning to evaluate and analyze becomes, therefor, an objective of breat significance.

pirit and traditions

One of the distinctive characteristics of the program is a body of ceremonies, traditions, songs, code, and spirit-related activities. These include a re-telling of the White Stag Legendcite web
url = http://www.whitestag.org/about/legend/legend_print.html
title = The White Stag Legend
author = John Chiorini
date = 1979
accessdate = 2008-07-30] based on the white stag of Hungarian mythology.

Bela wrote,

Quote|The name of this leadership development design is WHITE STAG; it is also referred to as the White Stag method of leadership development.

At the time of the initiation of this leadership developmental process a stylized emblem of a white stag was designed as the program symbol. This symbol was used as the badge of the Fourth World Jamboree held in Hungary.

The White Stag Legend is used to inspire in the participants a desire for reflection, continuous self-improvement, and pursuit of higher aims and goals. The spirit and tradition activities are used to communicate specific vision and values that include characteristics of servant leadership, compassion, enthusiasm, kindness, and selflessness.

Since its inception, the White Stag program has evolved several ceremonies that use the symbolism of the White Stag to recognize individuals' progress and levels of achievement. They include Baden-Powell's farewell speech from the Fourth World Jamboree, and a recitation of the White Stag legend. These ceremonies are used to communicate the program's vision, values, and ethics. The program has also developed a number of traditions, for example, woggles, waist ropes, staves, berets, and patrol names.

The participant ceremonies typically include a initiatory neckerchief ceremony, a legend ceremony, a graduation neckerchief ceremony, and a final tri-phase graduation ceremony at the end of summer camp. The youth and adult staff may also participate in additional ceremonies at various times during the year. All of these borrow themes from the white stag of Hungarian mythology.

Patrol method

Baden-Powell wrote:

quote|The Patrol System is the one essential feature in which Scout training differs from that of all other organizations, and where the System is properly applied, it is absolutely bound to bring success. It cannot help itself! The formation of the boys into Patrols of from six to eight and training them as separate units each under its own responsible leader is the key to a good Troop. The Patrol is the unit of Scouting always, whether for work or for play, for discipline or for duty.Citation
author = Baden-Powell, Robert
year = 1943
publisher = The National Council Boy Scouts of Canada
title = Aids to Scoutmastership a Guidebook for Scoutmasters on the Theory of Scout Training
pages = 16]

Hands-on learning

The White Stag program emphasizes use of experiential learning activities in the context of outdoor education. These help participants retain what they learn about leadership generally and the eleven leadership competencies specifically. For example, participant teams can be challenged to build foot bridges, complete a hike, build a Tyrolean Traverse, cook a meal, or other practical challenges.cite book
title = Parameters of a New Design in Leadership Development
publisher = The Leadership Development Project
author = Bela Banathy
date = 1963
pages = 1-19 ]

Hurdle method

Banathy defined the Hurdle Method as:

The hurdle method is closely linked to hands-on learning.

Direct approach

Banathy asserted that:

quote|In conventional...leadership training programs, leadership learnings have not usually been defined as specific learning objectives, but as a by-product of other learnings or activities. This "indirect" way of training for leadership is what the White Stag Method challenges and transforms into the "direct approach."

The Direct Approach to leadership development is conceived as one having a specific terminal behavior defined as leadership learning objectives...

Banathy went on to define specific leadership behaviors and learnings, including the "leadership competencies".

Manager of Learning

Banathy initially defined Manager of Learning in part as the "Project Approach":

Quote|First, the leader-in-training is confronted with a leadership situation in which he is to act as a leader. In his attempt to act as a leader, he will internalize the need to have available some knowledges [sic] , skills or techniques.

Second, having internalized the need for learning because of the attempted action, the trainee enters a period of teaching or exposure...designed to teach skills, techniques and knowledges [sic] needed to cope with the situation...

Finally, having received instruction and having had proper practice, the leader-in-training engages again in an actual leadership performance, during which he will have a chance to compare his performance exhibited before nd after the instruction.

Leadership competencies

In his research for his master's thesis, Bela identified 80 characteristics of leadershipcite book
title = A Design for Leadership Development in Scouting
author = Bela Banathy
publisher = Monterey Bay Area Council
date = 1963
page = 25-29] . He condensed these into eleven leadership competencies which he then proposed be taught in a systematic process using six developmental levels tailored to the various needs of youth as they mature. These competencies are:

*Getting and Giving Information
*Understanding Group Needs and Characteristics
*Knowing and Understanding Group Resources
*Controlling the Group
*Counseling
*Setting the Example
*Problem-Solving
*Evaluation
*Sharing Leadership
*Representing the Group
*Manager of Learning

Infinity principal

According to Banathy, leadership development must be ongoing:

quote|Leadership behavior cannot be developed during a few weeks, not even during severalmonths. Essential leadership knowledge can be learned in some weeks; it will take months to learn leadership skills; it requires years to shape leadership behavior."Citation
author = Bánáthy, Bela
year = 1963
title = Parameters of a New Design in Leadership Development, A Project Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Education, San Jose State College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts]

Uniforming

A uniform displaying the White Stag logo is a visible reminder of the program's founding vision articulated by Baden-Powell at the conclusion of the 1933 World Jamboree. The uniform reminds the individual wearing it of their commitment to the program's values. It instills self-esteem in the person and pride in the program. It eliminates class and socio-economic distinctions. Wearing a uniform improves member's behavior and lessens the impact on a person's personal wardrobe.

Financial support

White Stag is a 501(c)3 non-profit and financially self-supporting. All participants, including youth and adult staff, pay fees to participate. Fees for participants attending the week-long summer camp at Rancho Alegre are $265 in 2008-09.

History

White Stag traces its direct roots to 1933 and Gödöllö, Hungary, and the Fourth World Scout Jamboree which three of its founders attended.

Origins in Hungary

At the 1933 World Scout Jamboree, a 14 year old Scout was kneeling by his campfire when three uniformed men rode up on horseback: Count Paul Teleki, the Chief Scout of Hungary and the Chief of Staff for the jamboree; General Kisbarnaki Ferenc Farkas, a general staff officer of the Royal Hungarian Army; and Baden-Powell, the British hero of the Boer War and Chief Scout of the World. The men introduced themselves to the Scout and inspected his camp. They complimented him on a job well done and rode on.cite web | title= White Stag History Since 1933 | url=http://whitestag.org/history/history.html |date= 1997|accessdate=2008-09-05|author=Alan Miyamoto, Fran Peterson] cite web | title=Bela's Story: Scouting in Hungary, 1925-1937 |url=http://www.pinetreeweb.com/bhb.htm| author=Lew Orans| accessdate=2008-08-15| date=1996-12-14]

Bánáthy also briefly met Joseph Szentkiralyi, another Hungarian Scout. Elsewhere during the Jamboree, Hungarian Scouter Paul Ferenc Sujan's camp was visited by Baden-Powell, who asked to taste some of his soup. American Maury Tripp attended the Jamboree from Saratoga, California. These three Scouts would later play an instrumental role in Bánáthy's life. At the conclusion of the Jamboree, these four young men were moved by the farewell speech of Baden-Powell, in which he challenged them:

quote|Each one of you wears the badge of the White Stag of Hungary. I want you to treasure that badge when you go from here and to remember that, like the Golden Arrow, it also has its message and its meaning for you.

The Hungarian hunters of old pursued the miraculous Stag, not because they expected to kill it, but because it led them on in the joy of the chase to new trails and fresh adventures, and so to capture happiness. You may look on that White Stag as the pure spirit of Scouting, springing forward and upward, ever leading you onward and upward to leap over difficulties, to face new adventures in your active pursuit of the higher aims of Scouting—aims which bring you happiness.

These aims are to do your duty wholeheartedly to God, to your country, and to your fellow man by carrying out the Scout Law. In that way you will, each one of you, help to bring about God's kingdom upon earth—the reign of peace and goodwill.

Therefore, before leaving you, I ask you Scouts this question—Will you do your best to make friendship with others and peace in the world? cite web
url = http://www.pinetreeweb.com/1933-wj4-news47.htm
title = Au Revoir" — Not Goodbye!
author = Lew Orans
date= 1998-10-02
accessdate = 2008-07-16]

This challenge and the myth of the White Stag it cites grew to become a source of inspiration to Bánáthy. He wrote,

In 1933, Bánáthy attended the regional patrol leader training week and in 1934 and 1935, the national spring leadership camp at Harshegy, Budapest. In 1934, he was awarded the best notebook prize of the national training camp and in 1935, he was invited to serve on the junior staff of the camp. The legend of the White Stag becomes an enduring symbol of challenge and opportunity for many others over the ensuing decades.

During World War II, Bánáthy was a junior officer of the Royal Hungarian Army. He became a faculty member of the Hungarian Royal Academy, served on the National Council of the Hungarian Scout Association, and became the voluntary national director for youth leadership development. In June 1951, Bánáthy arrived in Monterey, California to teach at at the Army Language School. There, almost 25 years after the 1933 Jamboree, Bánáthy met two other Hungarians and an American who had also attended the same Jamboree: Hungarians Joseph Szentkiralyi (later Americanized as Joseph St. Clair) and Paul Ferenc Sujan (whose stew was tasted by Baden Powell at that same Jamboree); and American Scouter F. Maurice Tripp.

Growth in the United States

Bánáthy had developed a passion for the idea of leadership development in boys. In Monterey, he became Chairman of the Leadership Training Committee of the Monterey Bay Area Council and founded a junior leader training program he christened the "White Stag Leadership Development Program." Borrowing on his experience at the 1933 World Jamboree, Bánáthy based much of the program's spirit and traditions on the white stag of Hungarian mythology. "Lord Baden-Powell was my personal idol and I long felt a commitment to give back to Scouting what I had received," Bela said.cite article | title=Special Leadership Camps Held at Pico Blanco | author = Helene H. Parsons | publisher = Monterey Peninsula Herald | date = 1977-09-04]

Bánáthy informally recruited one patrol of boys, including his own sons, and took them to summer camp in 1957 to test his idea. John Chiorini, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout, was working on the waterfront. "Béla came through camp with a patrol of six or seven boys and commandeered me to teach a class on camp craft. He said he was trying out some new ideas with this patrol," Chiorini reported "Béla listened intently as I presented and then he came up after and gave me some tips on teaching. He was a mentor to me from that point on."

During the summer of 1958, Bela organized two patrols of boys to take part. Chiorini was recruited to serve as Senior Patrol Leader. There wasn't much discussion of leadership competencies to start. Bánáthy seemed to have an internal sense of direction which not everyone understood. Chiorini said, "White Stag was all about creating an environment in which youth led youth. At the time, Scouting was not necessarily a boy-led program. I remember it was very clear in Béla’s mind what a boy-led Scouting program looked like. There was no question about who was in charge in White Stag. The boys were." Fran Peterson, a local Scouter who served on the National Engineering Service for the Boy Scouts of America, along with St. Clair, Sujan, and Tripp, helped Bánáthy develop the White Stag program. Some of them remained active with it into the 1970s.

During the summer of 1959, the first full-scale program was put on. Bánáthy served as Scoutmaster, Fran Petersen was Assistant Scoutmaster, along with eight other adult staff and 13 youth staff. The training troop consisted of 39 trainees from 24 troops. In the first two years of the program, emphasis was placed on training Patrol Leaders. [cite web | url= http://www.whitestag.org/history/history.html | title = White Stag History Since 1933 | publisher=White Stag Leadership Academy] Bela said, "I saw in these principles an opportunity to develop the White Stag program for my three Boy Scout sons as well as show my gratitude to this country and Scouting."

During the same year, Bánáthy continued his research on leadership and learned that the U.S. Army's Human Resources Research Office (HumRRO) at the Presidio of Monterey was conducting research into the leadership characteristics of non-commissioned officers. Bánáthy contacted research psychologist Paul Hood, Task Leader of Task NCO (Non-commissioned Officer), and began a fruitful collaboration. A HumRRO publication titled, "A Guide for the Infantry Squad Leader--What the Beginning Squad Leader Should Know About Human Relations" articulated a core set of leadership competencies.cite book | title=Leadership Climate for Trainee Leaders: The Army AIT Platoon | publisher=Human Resources Research Office, George Washington University, Alexandria, Virginia| author =Paul D. Hood| date=1963| url=http://www.stormingmedia.us/26/2698/0269826.html] Bánáthy found Hood's research enumerated characteristics of leadership that fit into his vision, and with Hood's strong encouragement, he decided to incorporate these skills into White Stag. Around this time Bánáthy focused his research and began to formalize it in a Master's Thesis at San Jose State University.

National Council takes notice

With the interest and support of the Monterey Bay Area Council executive staff and board, the program was continually tested and improved. Fran Peterson (member of the National Council's Engineering Service) and F. Maurice Tripp (a research scientist and member of the National Boy Scout Committee) brought the White Stag program to the National Council's attention. In 1962, Tripp formed and chaired an advisory board of educators, psychologists, management specialists, and members of the Scout professional staff.

In 1963, a nation-wide program was pilot-tested by the National Council, who arranged for a patrol of Scouts from the San Mateo County Council and a few boys from the Circle Ten Council in Dallas to attend White Stag summer camp at the Pico Blanco Boy Scout Reservation. The program was observed and evaluated by Ken Wells (Director of Research Service) and John Larsen (Staff Researcher). They liked what they saw and experienced.cite web |title = A History of the White Stag Leadership Development Program |url = http://www.pinetreeweb.com/staghist.htm |author= Joe St. Clair, Brian Phelps, Bela Banathy| date = 1996 | accessdate=2008-08-03]

As an outgrowth of this interest, Dr. Tripp gave a talk in 1963 at the Fifty-third Annual Meeting of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America on "Development of Leadership in Boy Leaders of Boys". [cite article |title = Excerpts from Talks Given at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the National Council |author = Maurice Tripp |date = May 23-24, 1963 |publisher = Boy Scouts of America, New York, NY]

In January 1964, Tripp organized a meeting to assess the success of the pilot-test at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, California. Attendees included representatives of the National and Monterey Bay Area Council:

National Council representatives

* Ellsworth Augustus (National Council President)
* Marshall Monroe (Assistant National Scout Executive)
* Bill Lawrence (National Director of Volunteer Training)
* Harold Hunt (National Council Vice President and Professor of Education at Harvard)
* Ken Wells (Director of Research Service)
* Jack Rhey (National Director of Professional Training)
* Bob Perin (National Training Representative)
* Walt Whidden (Region 12 Executive)

Monterey Bay Area Council representatives

* Tom Moore (Monterey Bay Area Council Executive)
* Dale Hirt (President of the Monterey Bay Area Council)
* John Barr (Chairman of the Department of Education at San Jose State University)
* Joe St. Clair (Chairman, Hungarian Department at the Army Language School on the Presidio and Training Committee Chairman)
* Fran Peterson (member of the White Stag Advisory Board, Scoutmaster in Chular, and member of the National Council's Engineering Service)
* Ralph Herring (member of the White Stag Committee)
* Ferris Bagley (a retired businessman with an interest in leadership development)
* Bela Banathy (Director of White Stag and Director of the East Europe and Middle East Division of the Army Language School)
* Paul Hood (Research Scientist at U.S. Army's Human Resources Research Office)
* Judson Stull, a local attorney with an interest in Scouting
* F. Maurice Tripp (Chairman, White Stag Advisory Committee, and member of the National Boy Scout Committee)

The purpose of the meeting was to acquaint the national council leadership with the new design for junior leader training, and to plan how to effectively incorporate the teaching of leadership skills within Scouting.

The National Council leadership approved adapting the White Stag program for nationwide use. Dr. John W. Larson, Director of Boy Scout Leader Training for the National Council, adapted the White Stag leadership development competencies and wrote the first syllabus for the adult Wood Badge program.cite web
url = http://www.threefirescouncil.org/Training/WB/tfc_wb_history.html
title = History of Wood Badge Training in the Three Fires Council
author = Three Fires Council
date = 2007-03-04
accessdate = 2008-08-01] cite web
url = http://pinetreeweb.com/TLD-1974.htm
title = Historical Background of Leadership Development: Troop Leader Development, 1974
author = Lew Orans
date = 1997-04-12
accessdate = 2008-07-22] .

In 1963, the San Mateo County Council sent Scouts to attend White Stag, and a total of 80 Scouts participated.

World Scouting publishes paper

The World Organization of the Scout Movement published the results of the Boy Scouts of America's research and testing of the White Stag approach to leadership development. Béla Bánáthy wrote a monograph "Leadership Development: World Scouting Reference Paper No. 1", which he presented in 1969 to a meeting of the World Scout Conference in Helsinki, Finland.cite web
title = Leadership Development - World Scouting Reference Papers, No. 1.
url = http://pinetreeweb.com/learning.htm
author = Béla H. Bánáthy
date = May, 1969
publisher = Boy Scouts World Bureau
accessdate = 2008-07-05] He advocated leadership development by design in Scouting based on the leadership competencies of White Stag.

In 1972, Salvador Fernández Beltrán, Deputy Secretary of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, visited the program during the summer program at Pico Blanco Scout Reservation.

Funding for continuing the experiment in the junior leader training program and evaluating its results were obtained by the Boy Scouts from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, who underwrote continued tests of the junior leader instructor training program at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico and the Schiff Scout Reservation in New Jersey.

quote|They "requested that this program be evaluated by an outside source; hence the Management Analysis Center of Cambridge, Mass., was contracted to make an independent analysis of this experience by interviewing participants, staff members, and parents to determine Scouts' attitudes toward understanding the different aspects of leadership before and after they had completed this program."

"In their report, the Management Analysis Center indicated that the educational methods being used in leadership development are consistent with both the current state of knowledge concerning the conditions under which people learn most effectively and within the current practice in the best leadership development programs available to managers in both public and private organizations."cite book | title=Troop Leadership Development Staff Guide | publisher=Boy Scouts of America | date=1974]

Adapted for use in U.S. Wood Badge

According to Bánáthy, "The Wood Badge program first was laboratory tested at the Schiff Scout Reservation in New Jersey and at Philmont in New Mexico in 1967. Modified versions of the White Stag leadership competencies were an essential part of Wood Badge. Following the program's revision it was field tested in five councils during 1968."cite book
title = Report on a Leadership Development Experiment |author = Bela Banathy |publisher = Monterey Bay Area Council |date = 1964 ] . Among these was an experimental Wood Badge course in Monterey in 1968. Joe St. Clair served as Scoutmaster, Bánáthy was course adviser, and Fran Petersen was Senior Patrol Leader. John Larson, National Director of Education, was also present. In a unique application not since reproduced, all attendees were asked to bring their entire troops to a single week of summer camp, allowing the Wood Badge staff to use the summer camp as an application for Wood Badge.cite web| url=http://www.whitestag.org/history/founders/white-stag-founders.htm| title=The Four Founders of White Stag|author=Bill Roberts|accessdate=2008-10-05|date=2005] The course was further pilot-tested in 1971 at Philmont.citation|date=1972 |periodical=Scouting Magazine |title = Miracle on Maxwell Mesa |publisher=Boy Scouts of America|first= Dick |last=Pryce |publication-date= Jan/Feb 1972|page=6] The leadership competencies remained an essential part of Wood Badge through the 1990s,cite web |url = http://www.woodbadge.org/BoyScout/wblsskill.htm |title = The Leadership Skills Presented at Wood Badge |author = Mike Bernard |date = 2002-11-22 |accessdate = 2008-07-23 ] when there was a shift in emphasis to unit meetings using the troop camping activity as a delivery model.

In 2003, the Wood Badge program, re-christened as "Wood Badge for the 21st Century", was initially designed to incorporate a participatory leadership model originally based on situational leadership.cite web | title = The Wood Badge Home Page | url = http://www.woodbadge.org/BoyScout/wblsskill.htm | author = Lew Orans | date = May 19, 2004 | accessdate = 2008-07-23] cite web |url = http://www.scouting.org/Media/FactSheets/02-539.aspx |title = Wood Badge |author = Boy Scouts of America |accessdate = 2008-07-16 ] . Due to the costs of royalty fees, the program was then modified to emphasize the stages of team development based on the principles described by Bruce Tuckman in 1965 as forming-storming-norming-performing. Thus "Wood Badge for the 21st Century", at one time based on the White Stag leadership competencies conceived of during the 1960s and 1970s, was 30 years later updated and based on generic group leadership concepts from the 1960s.

Modified for use in junior leader training

Modified versions of the leadership competencies of White Stag were included in the final "Troop Leadership Development Staff Guide" written by John W. Larson. In 1973, this new junior leader training program was implemented nationwide, emphasizing for the first time teaching leadership skills over scoutcraft skills, and giving credit to White Stag for its origins.

The program incorporated for the first time eleven specific competencies of leadership. Prior junior leader training programs had focused primarily on Scoutcraft skills. The primary difference between the national JLT program and the White Stag program was the removal of the spirit and traditions associated with the white stag of Hungarian mythology and changes to terminology used to refer to the leadership competencies.

In 1993, another revision was issued titled "Junior Leader Training Conference." The leadership competencies introduced in the 1974 TLD program were dramatically changed, including deleting a great deal of material previously described as Manager of Learning and re-naming it Effective Teaching. This change moved the focus from the learner to the teacher, contradicting Banathy's focus on the learner that he found so essential to his concept of youth leadership development in his master's thesis.

Until 2004, the "Junior Leader Training Conference Staff Guide" continued to present modified versions of the eleven leadership competencies conceived by Bela Banathy and still being presented by the White Stag program.cite book |title = Junior Leader Training Conference Staff Guide (#34533A) |author = Boy Scouts of America | publisher=Boy Scouts of America | ISBN=0-8395-4533-9| date = 1995-2003 ] After Wood Badge was updated in 2003, parallel changes were subsequently implemented that affected junior leader training. A junior leadership training Task Force was assembled during 2003-04 and undertook revisions to that program to bring it closer in alignment to the Wood Badge program. Their efforts resulted in the National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) program. The new manual emphasizes that it is "national" program and strongly discourages any variation from the minute-by-minute agenda. NYLT uses eleven specific mnemonics to help participants remember course content, and strives to mirror the patterns of troop meetings.cite book |title = National Youth Leadership Training Staff Guide Syllabus (#34490) | ISBN=0-8395-4490-1|author = Boy Scouts of America | publisher=Boy Scouts of America | date = 2004 ] It utilizes video and Microsoft PowerPoint slides, requiring computers and video projectors to communicate much of the essential content.

Recent history

The White Stag program continued to present the Monterey Bay Area Council's official junior leader training program through the early 1970s, and again from 1994 to 2004. In 1975, Bill Roberts, the Phase III Director, invited the first Explorer girls age 14-18 to take part in the program and adult women to serve on adult staff, becoming the first coeducational leadership development program in the Boy Scouts of America. Committed to training youth of all ages in a manner reflecting the real world, where both sexes must work together, the next year White Stag invited girls age 11-13 to participate as well.

The co-ed program did not sit well with the Monterey Bay Area Council, and they elected to replace White Stag with the nationally-mandated adaptation of White Stag, as contained in the 1974 syllabus "Troop Leadership Development Staff Guide." The adult volunteer leaders of White Stag moved the program to Santa Cruz and rented Skylark Ranch Resident Camp from the Girl Scouts of Santa Clara County for two years. In subsequent years, they moved the summer program to San Mateo County Council's Camp Cutter in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and later, at different times, to Marin Council's Camp Marin-Sierra and Yosemite Council's Camp Mensinger in the California Sierra Nevada Mountains. They stopped attracting youth from the Monterey Bay Area as well.

In 1993, the Monterey Bay Area Council's Council Junior Leader Training Chairman Steve Cardinalli offered to run the Council's junior leader training program using the White Stag methods. This proposal was readily accepted by the Council Executive. White Stag adult alumni of the now San Francisco Bay Area-based program who lived in the Monterey Peninsula area recruited a youth staff who planned and presented the White Stag program at Pico Blanco Boy Scout Reservation in 1994. This Monterey-based program continued to present the council's junior leader training program until 2005, when a new Council Executive decided once again to adopt the National Youth Leadership Training program. The adult leadership of the Monterey White Stag group moved the program to Camp Cutter in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Participation each year has continued to increase, with 133 candidate participants attending in 2008, up from 70 in 2006.

During 2004, White Stag Program Director Steve Cardinalli and former Director John Connelly founded a comparable program for the Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast Council. It had three phases and nine levels, identical to the White Stag program. It was held at Cutter Boy Scout Reservation for two years. The Girl Scouts then assumed leadership of the program and renamed it Artimus (after the Goddess of women in childbirth), and have continued to run it as a resident camp for girls 10-17 each summer. [cite web | url=http://www.gsomb.org/files/gsccc_realignment_news1.pdf|title= Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast Realignment News| date=2007-03|accessdate=2008-10-05]

Both the Northern and Central California White Stag organizations continue to develop and present week-long summer camps for youth by youth, led by a corps of volunteer adults, observing their 50th anniversary in 2008.

Other White Stag programs

Two junior leader training programs in the Crossroads of America Council in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Hoosier Trails Council in Bloomington, Indiana also use the name "White Stag". These programs are not affiliated with the White Stag Leadership Development Program in California. The two Indiana councils' programs utilize the national council's National Youth Leadership Training curriculum. [cite web|title =White stag Information |url=http://hoosiertrailsbsa.org/whitestag.htm | publisher=Hoosier Trails Council, Boy Scouts of America| accessdate=2008-08-13] [cite web |title=Training Course Descriptions | url=http://www.crossroadsbsa.org/FunctionsofScouting/Training/CourseDescriptions/tabid/136/Default.aspx#whitestag | publisher=Crossroads of America Council, Boy Scouts of America|accessdate=2008-08-13]

References

See also

* White stag
* Béla A. Bánáthy
* Magyar Cserkészszövetség

External links

* [http://whitestag.org/| White Stag Leadership Development]
* [http://whitestag.org/about/program/white_stag_leadership_development_academy.htm White Stag Leadership Academy]
* [http://www.whitestagcrew122 White Stag Crew 122 ]