Games for the club meeting

There are thirty minutes left before the meeting ends. Class instruction ran late, the yard is full, and a crowd of Pathfinders is staring at you, waiting for something to happen. What comes out of your mouth is: “let's play dodgeball.” Again. Third time this month.

It's not a lack of willingness, it's a lack of a game bank. The Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual, from the South American Division, places recreation on the list of basic elements of every regular meeting — and in the daily program it presents as an example, it occupies the last block of the morning, at 10:50 a.m., under the responsibility of the Associate Director. In other words: those final minutes are not leftover time. They are official program, and someone has a first and last name as the person responsible for them.

This guide delivers what's usually missing from the counselor's folder: a table of games with time, materials, space, and age range, the way the manual asks you to record each game, and the short list of what can never make the cut. If you want the whole morning minute by minute, check out the club meeting itinerary. If you want to understand why play shapes people, read games and recreation.

⏱️How much playtime fits into the meeting?

The Administrative Manual lists the basic elements of every meeting: citizenship with ideals and anthem, devotional, drill, Bible class, unit corner, class and honor instruction, recreation, and closing. Recreation is right there, on the same level as the others. It's not whatever is left over when there's time.

The manual also describes the regular meeting as being Sunday mornings, from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and states plainly that these times are neither fixed nor rigid — they're what's recommended so the program fits. What it doesn't allow is for the official program to be compromised. In other words: your club can meet at a different time, but the blocks stay the same.

In the daily program that appears as an example in the planning chapter, recreation comes in at 10:50 a.m., after class instruction, and only closing comes after it — and the closing row appears in the manual's table with no time listed. From recreation to the recommended end time there are 40 minutes, part of which closing eats up. Hence this guide's practical math: about half an hour of playtime. The manual doesn't set that number — the inference is ours, and every club adjusts it.

Source: Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual (South American Division), Planning and Club Program chapters. Accessed on 12/07/2026.

🎯Which games fit in 30 minutes?

First, the honest truth: no official document publishes a closed list of games. The two games named in the Administrative Manual's example are dodgeball and capture the flag, and the materials column in that example calls for only a ball, chalk, and a branch. The table below is this outlet's practical suggestion, built in the format the manual itself instructs you to use: name, time, materials, and number of participants.

Before choosing, subtract the friction. Explaining the rule, forming teams, and getting back into formation eats up about 10 minutes of the block. A 30-minute game, in real life, is 20 minutes of the ball actually rolling. That's why the time column below is already playing time — add 10 and see if it fits.

Practical suggestion from Desbravai, in the planning format the Administrative Manual (SAD) calls for. Dodgeball and Capture the Flag are the only games named in the manual's example; the rest are common-knowledge games. <strong>Time, materials, space, and age range are this outlet's estimates, not official data</strong> — adapt them to your club's space and reality.

📝How do you write up a game the way the manual asks?

This is the part almost nobody does, and it changes everything. When it covers planning events, the Administrative Manual sets the bar: you need to give the activity a name, describe exactly how it happens, list the materials, state how many Pathfinders are involved, and explain how it will be evaluated. The quality test is beautifully simple — anyone, even someone from outside your club, should be able to pick up that sheet and understand what needs to be done.

The manual even provides a ready-made event template, with fields for participants, time (the sample event lasts 5 minutes), description, scoring, instructions for the judge, and support team. Copy that structure for the meeting's games:

• Game name — so you can repeat it and so Pathfinders can request it by name.
• Participants — the whole unit, the whole club, or pairs.
• Time — playing time, not block time.
• Materials — who brings them and where the money comes from.
• Description — the rules, written beforehand, not improvised in the yard.
• Evaluation — scoring, or none, if it's cooperative.
• Person in charge and support team — who runs it and who supervises.

One tip straight from the manual itself: add a complicating factor. The text points out that Pathfinders don't like easy things, and gives the perfect example — instead of a knot-tying race on dry land, a knot-tying race in the water. It works for almost anything: a relay with the unit holding hands, a treasure hunt with coded clues, knots and lashings tied with your non-dominant hand.

Read alsoUnit Corner→

🛡️What games are absolutely off the table?

This isn't a matter of the counselor's opinion — it's written policy. The abuse-prevention chapter of the Administrative Manual defines emotional abuse as any communication, verbal or nonverbal, that harms a child or teenager — degrading, belittling, using derogatory names, and humiliating language are all on the list. So the forfeit that exposes someone, the nickname that sticks, and the game that singles out the “class loser” aren't just tasteless. They cross the line the manual drew.

In the drill chapter the standard is equally clear: the instructor may not ridicule or belittle anyone, let alone make a Pathfinder who missed a command pay with physical punishment. Push-ups as punishment, then, are off the table — even when they come dressed up as a game.

On physical risk, the manual's most direct statement is in the camping chapter: recreation time must also be planned and directed, especially with regard to the Pathfinders' safety. The manual doesn't repeat that line in the regular-meeting chapter — but the standard is the same, and it applies to Sunday's yard too. And there's one more layer: since 2010, annual insurance has no longer been optional in the South American Division, covering personal accidents in club activities duly authorized by the local Church Committee. It's worth reading the child protection at the club guide alongside this one.

Quick check before you blow the whistle:

• A game that eliminates players in the first minute and leaves someone sitting out for 20 minutes watching.
• Forfeits, physical punishment, or anything that turns into an embarrassing video in the parents' group chat.
• Rough contact with no rule agreed on beforehand: tripping, shoving, shoulder-checking.
• An activity with no defined person in charge — in the manual's example, recreation has an owner: the Associate Director.
• A game you've never tested, with materials you've never checked.

🕊️And on Saturday, can you play?

You can — and the manual itself accounts for it. In the camping schedule it publishes as an example, Saturday afternoon has a block called Sabbath recreation, at 2:00 p.m., under the instructors' responsibility. In other words, Saturday isn't a day without recreation; it's a day of recreation with a different character.

What changes by policy is very specific: it is forbidden for any Pathfinder Club to hold or promote drill instruction, practice, or competitions during Sabbath hours. So the crazy-commands game from the table above stays for Sunday. The manual also notes that many clubs hold their regular meeting on Saturday afternoon — never during the youth worship service — with Bible class, the Bible year contest, a missionary honor, or class requirements.

What the manual doesn't do is publish a list of which games suit Saturday. That choice belongs to the club's leadership together with the chaplain, following the local church's custom and the guidance of your Association or Mission. In practice, most clubs trade balls, scoreboards, and noise for hikes, nature activities, Bible games, and cooperative team-building exercises — but that's custom, not written rule. Check with your board before changing your club's pattern.

🔁How do you avoid repeating the same game all year?

The manual anticipates exactly your problem. When it discusses the unit corner, it says recreational and sports activities are the ones Pathfinders enjoy most and should therefore be part of that time — but they need to be planned by the counselor, so they don't repeat at every meeting and the program doesn't lose focus. Tournaments between units, with clearly defined rules, come up in the text as an excellent option.

The manual even suggests a role for this within the unit — optional, on the list of “other functions” a club may establish depending on need and the Pathfinders' skills: the recreation coordinator, responsible for recreation in the corner together with the counselor, putting together championships and bringing in new ideas and challenges. It's a Pathfinder role, not an adult one, and roles like this need approval from the Club Executive Committee — it's one of the best ways to give real leadership to a 14-year-old. If your club doesn't use roles like this yet, start with the unit system.

The manual calls for planning at three levels — annual, monthly, and daily — with the daily program laid out in a table of time, activities, materials, and person in charge. A simple rotation takes care of the rest:

Rotation suggested by Desbravai. It's not policy: the Administrative Manual requires recreation to be planned and varied, but it doesn't define a game calendar.

⚖️What's policy and what does your club decide?

What's written into policy (Administrative Manual, SAD): recreation is a basic element of every meeting; the unit corner runs a minimum of 30 to 40 minutes and can never be skipped; drill practices last no more than 30 minutes and are prohibited during Sabbath hours; recreation must be planned and directed, with attention to safety; humiliating, name-calling, or physically punishing is abuse; annual insurance is mandatory.

What varies and who decides: which games are included, exactly how many minutes, whether there's an annual scoreboard between units, whether the meeting is Sunday morning or Saturday afternoon, and what kind of recreation happens on Saturday. That's a decision for the Club Executive Committee, together with the leadership and the local church, within the guidance of your Association or Mission. Official changes to requirements, uniforms, and activities are issued through OMD, the Pathfinder Ministry Guidance — the document in which the South American Division publishes updates. It's worth checking the list before making any decision based on an older edition of the manual.

Why this exists: the manual defines the club as an educational-recreational program and states that recreation, like everything done at the club, has a purpose. There's also a valuable piece of guidance in the discipline chapter: during recreation time, plan cooperative games and games with rules, and go over those rules with the group before and after. When a Pathfinder helps build the rule, they stop being policed by it and start owning it. That's why half an hour of well-directed play solves more discipline problems than half an hour of lecturing.

One necessary note before wrapping up: member registration and Annual Insurance are handled in the SGC, the South American Division's Club Management System — enrolling members in the system is what triggers the coverage request. No notebook, spreadsheet, or support app replaces that. Auxiliary tools are for what the official system doesn't cover, like storing your game bank and meeting planning. Registration and insurance, always in the SGC.