White Stag Wilderness Youth Leadership Camp functions as three training troops. We utilize the size and shape of a Scout troop because it’s easily recognizable to candidates and adult leaders alike.
For each troop, one for each phase or level (I, II, and III) each includes a group of patrols. The size of each patrol is important so there are enough candidates to perform the functions during camp week, not so many that some won’t get a turn to lead. An even number of candidates is important so that the buddy system can be employed. So that leaves 6 candidates in a patrol as a magic number. 4 is on the small side, and 8 is too many. That leaves six.
Each troop needs enough patrols for the youth staff to work with. Sometimes we will double youth staff members to support one patrol. Other times only one youth staff member will be assigned to a patrol. On level One, a youth staff member is called a Patrol Leader (or PL for short). On level 2 and 3, the youth staff are generally called Patrol Counselors (or PC’s). That’s because a Patrol Counselor is not an active member of the patrol’s function, but a counselor. We’ll discuss more in detail later.
A training troop can support as many as 8 patrols, and sometimes much more. A troop with only two patrols is on the small size and senior meetings (or troop leader meetings) too streamlined or one sided depending who has the idea or agenda. We try to recruit enough campers to produce a training troop for each phase that matches the capacity of the youth staff. That would tend to be around 6 to 7 patrols per training troop. That would mean that camp could accommodate between 36 to 42 candidates per training troop (or phase).
From past experience level 1 has more candidates than level 2. That level 2 has more candidates than level 3. So you would tend to see the level one troop to have the most patrols, and level three having the fewest patrols. Level two troop would be somewhere in-between. That could change year to year depending upon how we recruit and what the demand is for each camp phase (or level).
Space is always reserved for adult volunteers who have their own candidates attending camp. We always have a large need for adult volunteers to provide support services in the kitchen, administration, quartermaster, and for those qualified as rangers.
A training troop that is tool large affects the overall performance of the whole camp week. With too many candidates, adult leaders, and youth staff loose a level of personal interaction. Too much time is spent keeping the activities on schedule, and activities become more time consuming. Overall it becomes difficult for candidates to know one another in a large training troop.
Some ideas have been introduced to create multiple training troops for each level or phase. This might be viable with the obvious condition of finding an additional set of trained and willing adult and youth staff. Then you have the operational situation of two separate troops vying for the same resources, material, and support. Realistically, it creates more headaches, and dilutes the White Stag experience.
That brings us back to smaller is better for all involved. 100 candidates give or take. Often demand is greater than our capacity.
On level one, the youth staff is on level 4. If there is sufficient youth staff, one will be given a title of Senior Patrol Leader (SPL), another Assistant Senior Patrol Leader (ASPL), and others yet Quartermaster. There may be cases where some youth staff may be assigned to become a Junior Assistant Scoutmaster (JASM). There may be more than one Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, with a separation of duties. You can see a hierarchy of leadership functions.
On level two and three, the youth staff is on level 5, and 6. In this case, the candidates share the responsibility each day of being a senior patrol leader (SPL), assistant senior patrol leader (ASPL), and so forth. On the youth staff when available, there may be a Senior Patrol Counselor (SPC), Assistant Senior Patrol Counselor (ASPC), and Quartermaster. Operations hub around the ability of the Quartermaster. This responsibility is often overlooked, but is important for a properly operating camp week. Think of a Quartermaster as the Chief Operations Officer, or Director of Operations for an organization.
The counselor title for youth staff identifies them as mentors, or individuals to provide counsel to the candidates. It takes patience for a counselor because it becomes easy to just come out and say what should be done. A White Stag method is to provide appropriate questions to allow the candidate(s) to reflect back onto task or issue at hand. It’s deceptively simple, and it turns out rewarding and memorable for the candidate who engages in this type of thinking.
The youth staff positions rarely change during camp week, and based upon candidate registration will define how many support staff individuals will be needed as opposed to being a counselor. It is odd that as registration increases, the number of available support staff decreases when it should be increasing. That’s because each patrol requires at least one patrol counselor. In rare instances, adult staff may be called upon to fill in the vacancies, or youth staff from other levels engaged.