Pathfindersonline

Florida Pathfinders have a conference website that they can check for updates and information. The Pathfinder store is also available online, if you want to purchase jsut about anything pathfinder related. We do things a little differently in Florida, and the website helps explain it all. The web address is http://www.floridapathfinders.com

Iris Hillmon
(Lay) Florida Pathfinder Director

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Kelvin Santana
Director
Forest City Spanish Pathfinder Club

Altamonte Springs, FL

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Kelvin Santana
Director
Forest City Spanish Pathfinder Club

Altamonte Springs, FL

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I am new to the FL Conf., but have been working with Pathfinders for almost 5 years and was myself a Pathfinder in Southeastern Conf. (the other conference in FL). I’ve read the requirements for the Pioneers and Navigators and just thought that it was overkill, and it what about when they are at a union or division level event. While all the other Guides are in the 10th grade ours are in the 12th. That’s a BIG difference. I can’t understand why all the other conferences have made the regular program work for them and FL Conf. can’t. Different isn’t always better.

One of the reasons I think that the kids aren't interested in the MG program because it is not as structured as the other classes and is not considered a cool thing to do or be apart of. If we pushed MGIT the same way we push Varsity and/or TLT, the Pathfinders would find it more appealing. Both of the additional classes (Pioneers and Navigator) and the TLT program are made to be apart of the Pathfinder program whether it is during class time at a regular club meeting or at staff meetings. With the MG program, the kids are pretty much on their own, and that's not what they come to Pathfinders for. They come to hang out with their friends, and therefore they should be working on the MG together with their friends during the same class time that the other Pathfinders would be working on their classes. If we just hand them a list of requirements and tell them to work on it, they won’t want to. In our conference (from what I can see so far) it is hard to complete your MG because not only have they added more requirements than the NAD, but you are on your own and there is not much help at the conference level to help with the seminars and other required honors outside of the MG weekend, which from what I can tell from the calendar only happens once a year. In my district of the Southeastern Conf. there has not been a MG class, which is taught at the district level and is mandatory for MGITs, that has been completed from Induction to Investiture since my Pathfinder leaders did it. This is no benefit to our kids who, unless highly motivated, are easily discouraged and/or tempted spend their time doing other things.

Another downfall to making them wait to complete the MG is that once they graduate from high school and enter college or any other level of post secondary education, they will not have time for it. I graduated high school in 2000 and am still working on my MG today. I've been in college since the summer after graduation and am now working on my Masters. I already have a bunch of textbooks to read in order to pass class and really don't have the time to read Education or the Pathfinder Story. I also am a wife and mother and have a job, which doesn’t give me much free time either. If we want our kids to complete the MG and Pathfinder program we have to make it enticing and simple, and we have to give them the opportunity to get it done before they have more responsibilities on their plate.

I understood your post just fine. I can tell by the tone of your writing that you have a passion for pathfinders, and I was glad to hear that also. I agree that it is hard to get kids to join the club. We all try our hardest, but in the end, it's going to be the Holy Spirit and a desire that will keep them in the clubs. We just here to be the tools.

I know that the extra 2 levels are not for everyone. But it has been helping a lot here in Florida. I was/am part of the generation where all the teens left the clubs. It was after this mass exodus that the 2 extra levels were added, and we've notice that the current generation has stayed. If you like, you are more than welcomed to use the two levels--Pioneer & Navigator--in your area/club. We have all the corresponding uniform insignia to go w/ it, so that it's a legitimate level (i.e.-pocket tab, pin, chevron, etc.) in which pathfinders can be invested. You'll see it on the Florida Conference Pathfinder website: http://www.floridapathfinders.com

Hope this helps. Keep praying & working hard for this blessed ministry.
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Iris Hillmon
(Lay) Florida eTracker/Varsity Pathfinder Director

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Pathfindersonline.org Website Administrator
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Jim Thomas
The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

We have a club in Southwest Virginia and we have been using the Florida Pathfinder Class Levels for several years now. I will be teaching the Pioneer Level next year. I like the new levels and we need to do everything we can to keep our young people involved.

I had a somewhat difficult time with my classes during high school. I might not have been able to take the extra levels and might even have dropped out of pathfinders had I had two more class levels to complete. As it was, our club was having a rough time with the TLT program while I was going through it. I have found that most of out teens aren't interested in classwork in general by the time they are finished with Voyager or Guide.

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"Jesus answered, 'Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.' " John 13:8b

I appreciate your honesty. I like hearing both sides of the arguement. I agree that some kids would feel the same way you did about extra classes. They might look at them more as a burden and not even want to be in Pathfinders. However, I do have to say that in Florida, we've found the opposite to be true. We've found that most 10th graders were overwhelmed with thinking that they would have to start on the Master Guide program the next year. They viewed the MG program as an "adult" program and would drop out of Pathfinders after Guide to avoid going directly into the MG program. I do agree with you, however, that not every teen may want to do the two additional classes.

We're halfway through our second year of using Pioneer and Navigator. One of our teens completed her MG work last year while working on Pioneer, so if a person is driven, Pioneer and MG are not mutually exclusive.

Next year our Navigator class will work on Guide. We have a couple of Voyagers this year who will be given the option next year of working on Guide with the (slightly) older teens, or working on Pioneer.

These classes have worked well for us, and we could not be more pleased.

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Jim Thomas
The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

I've been the director of the same club in the FL Conf. and have had to turn down two PFs who asked to be in the MG program instead of their level. I told them that they could work on it in addition to their level work because the extra curricular activities require them to be "actively working on their level". Neither one of them stayed in the club, and I personally feel that they were discouraged. One of my PFs came from the Virgin Islands and was about to be a Guide when he moved here and found out that he would be kind of demoted to a Pioneer, and despite trying to put him in a leadership role, he just lost interest.

At our church, despite having the two add'l levels we still have a problem with retaining our high schoolers in PFs because of school and their newly acquired jobs. They don't care about honors or being invested at that age. They just want to hang out. I really think that the MG program facillitates that. I invision it as almost llike Sabbath School (which the kids love at my church) with group discussions on communication and leadership skills and on the books that we've read. This is just at my church, though. If there are active Pioneers and Navigators in your club, great. I just don't know what to do about the lack of desire for them in my club when we are apart of the conference that sort of mandates it.

To be totally honest... i think that it sounds good... but at what point do those teens that needed the extra time to mature learn responsibility or take leadership? That to me is the real downfall, because without leadership training(used in both MG and TLT), they are simply thrusted into leadership without any knowledge... thats just my opinion for what its worth. So good, but slightly bad, idea

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OUTDOORS ROCK!!!

Explorer Counselor
Master Guide

I'm super excited about possibly trying out the Pioneer and Navigator levels with our teens this or next year!
As someone who went through the entire program myself (Friend-Master Guide) and who now has returned to that club as staff for the past 2+ years, I feel I have a unique perspective from "both" sides.
By the time I was in 10th grade, there was only one other classmate in our club; the following 2 years it was just me. While I don't know if more would have stayed if we had had these extra levels then, I do think (and remember!) that the MG requirements can feel rather overwhelming and I would have appreciated a chance to "ease into" it a bit more. I really hope these levels catch on!

Can anyone help me find the "Florida Voyager Reading Requirements" and "Bible Reading Requirements for the Florida Voyager level" (and the same for Guide level)? I have not been able to find those online anywhere.

Thanks!!

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-- Conquistadores, ¡al cielo!

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-- Conquistadores, ¡al cielo!

The link is not working for me.

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"Jesus answered, 'Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.' " John 13:8b

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-- Conquistadores, ¡al cielo!

It's fine now. I'm enjoying my venture through the updated site.

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"Jesus answered, 'Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.' " John 13:8b