Every unit wants to know how many points it scored. And almost no club can explain how it got that number. The most common cause is a mistaken belief that circulates in counselor groups: that there's no official table and each club makes up its own. There is one. It's printed at the bottom of the same page where the Administrative Manual publishes the unit evaluation sheet, and almost nobody scrolls down that far.
This article shows the official table item by item, with page and source, and then does the part it really doesn't do: a sample month calculated Pathfinder by Pathfinder, the average instead of sum rule (which is what keeps a big unit from always winning), and a four-step tiebreaker. These last three things are Desbravai's model, not the standard — and the text flags it every time the line switches sides.
If your club is still building the foundation — who's the counselor, who's the captain, who hands in what — it's worth reading the unit system first. Here we assume the units already exist and what's missing is the scoreboard.
What does the standard require you to score — and what does it leave for the club to decide?
What the standard says. The Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual, 2020 edition of the South American Division (SAD), publishes the ready-made sheet: it's Form D — Unit Evaluation Sheet, on page 215. The header shows Unit, Counselor, Month/year; the columns are Date, Punctuality, Uniform, Materials, Discipline, Bible Reading, Community Help, Dues, and Total; and the first two rows already come labeled, captain and secretary. At the bottom of the same page there's a key numbered 1 through 7 with the value of each item and a color-coded ranking bracket. That's the key the next section reproduces. A detail from the manual itself that confuses a lot of people: in the body text (p. 74) this sheet is called “Form E,” while the table of contents and the appendix list it as Form D. Here we use the appendix's naming, which is where the sheet is actually printed.
Who fills it out, who receives it, who follows up. The manual splits this task three ways. The unit secretary keeps each Pathfinder's weekly evaluation sheet up to date, and the text asks for just one thing: honesty in the marks (p. 75). The counselor hands in each Pathfinder's completed sheet to the club secretariat every month (p. 74). And the club secretary logs points and demerits on the permanent record sheet and, with the unit sheets in hand, alerts the director when someone starts missing meetings or arriving late frequently (p. 79). The right moment to mark it is the Unit Corner, which the manual describes as the best time to work on the club's merit system (p. 125). This whole set-up is the reason the sheet exists in the first place — we'll come back to it further down.
What varies, and who decides. Having the table printed doesn't turn the rest into a standard. The manual says each club must determine the guidelines by which members will be evaluated (p. 74) and that each club must adopt its own discipline system according to its reality, with the merit system being the best way to motivate Pathfinders (p. 79). The final word isn't the counselor's or the secretary's: it's the Executive Committee's — made up of the director, the associate directors, the secretary, and the district pastor or elder (p. 82) — whose job is to propose the merit system and rule on the forms of recognition (p. 83). In practice: you already have the sheet's values ready-made; what needs to go into the minutes is the surrounding framework — how to handle an excused absence, how the unit ranking is built, and what the club awards at year's end.
Why the sheet exists. The manual makes it explicit on page 79: it's there to spot who's disappearing and let the director build a special attention plan together with the counselor. It's not there to crown a champion. Keep that in mind; it's what separates a merit system from a sour competition.
What's the official point table — and how much does it add up to?
Below is the key printed at the bottom of Form D, on page 215 of the Administrative Manual. The values are those of the official document, with no adaptation on our part. The total per Pathfinder, in each meeting, is 125 points.
| Criterion (sheet column) | Options and points, as listed on the sheet | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Punctuality | Present on time 20 · Late (up to 15m) 10 · Absent 0 | 20 |
| 2. Uniform | In order 10 · Incomplete 5 · No uniform 0 | 10 |
| 3. Materials | Complete 10 · Incomplete 5 · No materials 0 | 10 |
| 4. Discipline | No incident during the meeting 20 · Incident 0 | 20 |
| 5. Bible reading | Up to date 30 · Up to 1 week behind 10 · Behind 0 | 30 |
| 6. Community help | Helped someone in need, during the current week, 20 | 20 |
| 7. Dues | Paid on time 15 · Late 0 | 15 |
| Total | Ceiling per Pathfinder in each meeting | 125 |
The same key includes the color-coded ranking, which is what goes on the bulletin board without turning into a fight over decimals:
| Bracket | Color |
|---|---|
| 100 to 125 | Green |
| 75 to 99 | Yellow |
| Below 75 | Red |
Two readings almost nobody makes of this table.
- The heaviest item is Bible reading (30). It's worth more than punctuality and more than discipline. That's not by accident: the sheet was designed to drive devotional life, not appearance. Anyone who builds the Unit Corner around nothing but uniform and punctuality is scoring backwards from what the form says.
- Uniform and materials are worth 10 each. Added together, they're worth less than Bible reading alone. That tends to surprise the counselor who spends half the meeting checking scarves.
What the official sheet doesn't settle — and this is where the Desbravai model begins. From here on, nothing is Division standard: these are suggestions to bring to the Executive Committee and record in the minutes.
- Excused absence. The sheet doesn't distinguish someone who gave notice from someone who just vanished: absent zeroes out punctuality, uniform, materials, and discipline. What's left is Bible reading (30), community help (20), and dues (15) — a 65-point ceiling for that meeting. If the club thinks that's too harsh, the honest alternative is to disregard the meeting with the excused absence and average only the meetings where the Pathfinder was present. Pick one of the two and don't change it midyear.
- Discipline is all or nothing (20 or 0). Precisely because of that, agree in advance with the unit on what counts as the “incident” that zeroes out the item, write it on a poster, and don't improvise in the heat of the meeting.
- Uniform is evaluated against the Uniform Regulation (the RUD, from the South American Division's Pathfinder Ministry), not the counselor's taste. Before marking “incomplete,” check what the regulation actually requires for that item.
- Class advancement isn't on the sheet. If you want to encourage it, treat it as a monthly collective bonus outside the 125 — for example, up to 10 points added to the unit's average when everyone advanced at least one requirement on their class card that month. Make it clear in the minutes that it's a collective bonus, so nobody thinks their neighbor scored points on the sly.
- Changing the values is possible, but it has a cost. The manual requires each club to set its own evaluation guidelines, so adapting is legitimate. But from the moment you change a number, the table becomes your club's and not the form's — and that needs to be in writing, because it's the first thing a parent will ask about.
What does a full month look like, calculated from start to finish?
Fictional example, made only so you can check the math against the official values. Unit Cerrado Falcon, 6 Pathfinders, July with 4 meetings. We'll start with one person — Ana — to show her month meeting by meeting.
| Criterion | Meeting 1 | Meeting 2 | Meeting 3 (absent, excused) | Meeting 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Punctuality | 20 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
| Uniform | 10 | 5 | 0 | 10 |
| Materials | 10 | 10 | 0 | 5 |
| Discipline | 20 | 20 | 0 | 20 |
| Bible reading | 30 | 10 | 30 | 10 |
| Community help | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Dues | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Meeting total | 125 | 90 | 65 | 100 |
| Ranking | Green | Yellow | Red | Green |
Ana's month: 125 + 90 + 65 + 100 = 380, divided by 4 meetings = 95.0 — yellow. Notice what the sheet already captured without anyone needing to lecture her: she arrived late and missing part of her uniform at the second meeting, missed the third but kept up her reading, help, and dues, and came back green at the fourth. That's the picture the counselor brings to the conversation — and it's what the club secretary uses to alert the director when things start to slip.
| Pathfinder | Month average |
|---|---|
| Ana | 95.0 |
| Beatriz | 112.5 |
| Camila | 104.3 |
| Duda | 118.8 |
| Elis | 79.0 |
| Fernanda | 98.5 |
| Sum | 608.1 |
| Unit score (average of 6) | 101.4 · green |
Unit score = 608.1 ÷ 6 = 101.4. That's the number that goes on the bulletin board, in the Regular Committee's minutes, and on the year's chart. And it's that number — not the sum — that makes the ranking fair, for the reason explained in the next section. One note of honesty: the per-unit average and the color applied to the unit are our own interpretation. The official sheet ranks the Pathfinder, not the unit.
Read alsoUnit Logbook and Attendance SheetAverage or sum? The decision that avoids the monthly fight
Add them up and the bigger unit always wins, without having done anything better. Look at what happens between Cerrado Falcon (6 Pathfinders) and Cerrado Toucan (7 Pathfinders), in the same month:
| Unit | Members | Point total | Average (score) | Who wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cerrado Falcon | 6 | 608.1 | 101.4 | Wins by average |
| Cerrado Toucan | 7 | 701.4 | 100.2 | Wins by sum |
The golden rule: the unit's score is the members' average, always to one decimal place. That neutralizes group size (the manual requires each unit to have 6 to 8 Pathfinders, so a size difference is normal and permanent) and settles the month when two Pathfinders are traveling. Only add up points when measuring something that belongs to the whole unit — pennant, folder, camporee participation.
Tiebreaker rule, in four steps. This is also a model, not a standard. Write it in the minutes before the first month, not after the tie:
| Step | Criterion | Why in that order |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Highest average in punctuality | It's the column that tracks absence and lateness — the data point the manual says to watch |
| 2nd | Highest average in discipline | Measures how well members get along, which is what the unit exists to teach |
| 3rd | Greatest class card advancement in the month | Rewards what's left once the club is over |
| 4th | Tie stands: both units win | Nobody dies from a tie, and it sends a great message |
What not to do — and the manual backs this up.
- Don't post individual scores on the bulletin board. The sheet is individual, the public scoreboard belongs to the unit. The manual itself raises the question of whether correcting a Pathfinder should be public and answers it by pointing to the principle of love for one's neighbor (p. 23); and it calls for special care not to put shy teenagers in an embarrassing spotlight (p. 39).
- Don't turn a deduction into punishment. Corporal punishment is banned in any club (p. 61), and the manual, in a passage on bullying, advises avoiding excessively severe punishments because they breed anger and resentment (p. 49). A lost point can be recovered the following week; humiliation can't.
- Be careful with dues. They're worth 15 points on the official sheet and are binary: on time or late. Before you hold that against a child, remember the adjustment the manual calls for is in the amount, not in the child: dues should match the members' financial reality and, in a low-income area, should be symbolic (p. 90). That conversation belongs to the board and the parents, never the counselor in front of the unit.
- Don't let the score replace the conversation. Red two times in a row is a signal to call home — reread positive discipline in the club before reacting on impulse.
Where do you log this: paper, spreadsheet, or SGC?
The official path exists, and it's inside the SGC. The Club Management System, online since January 26, 2015, brings together member registration, medical records, classes, honors, units, treasury, annual insurance, and reports. That's where the Unit Corner lives, with its own login for the counselor inside the Encontre um Clube portal. The official page for that access confirms the essentials — it's a login area, and “the requested data is entered directly by the Club” — and the 5-star score criterion requires “100% of active members with data filled in on the Unit Corner Report on the Encontre um Clube Portal, through the Counselor's access.”
Where we stop asserting. The module's internal screen isn't public: there's no open official page documenting which fields the club enters, whether points can be set per question, or how the system organizes periods. Third-party tutorials circulate claiming yes, but none of them is an official source, so we won't pass that off as fact. You check the real step-by-step in your director login, and the interface changes from time to time.
In practice, the routine is this: the Form D table is the content, and the SGC is the place. If you don't have access yet, start with what the SGC is and how to log in, and coordinate with whoever handles the club secretariat.
Being honest about tools. The SGC is irreplaceable and has no competitor: it's where member registration, medical records, annual insurance, the reports the Association reads, and the club's score calculation all live. No app — Desbravai included — does any of that, nor should it: registration and insurance are the Church's and the Field's responsibility. Support systems handle the unit's day-to-day; the official scoreboard and record stay in the SGC. If anyone promises to replace the SGC, be skeptical.
What if the club has no internet at the meeting site? Print Form D, mark it by hand during the Unit Corner, and enter it into the system that same night. What doesn't work is entering it from memory at the end of the month: then the score turns into a guess, and a guess is exactly what causes fights.
Is this the same thing as the 5-star club? No, and the difference matters
These are two different scoreboards. Unit scoring evaluates Pathfinders inside your club, with Form D's 125-point table. The 5-star score evaluates the whole club based on how well the secretariat and treasury are organized inside the SGC, with points set by the SAD — worth up to 1,000 points, and the current rules were updated on January 1, 2024.
| Point bracket | Ranking |
|---|---|
| Above 800 | 5 stars |
| 500 to 799 | 4 stars |
| 300 to 499 | 3 stars |
| 150 to 299 | 2 stars |
| 0 to 149 | 1 star |
The score's 15 criteria, with each one's ceiling, are: annual insurance (150), Unit Corner (150), Field Ranking (150), class cards (100), medical record (75), activity calendar (50), treasury (50), record updates (50), membership agreements (50), secretary access (50), asset inventory (25), documents (25), honors (25), classes (25), and club data (25). Notice the second one on the list: keeping the Unit Corner report filled in for 100% of active members is worth up to 150 points for the club — it's the criterion that directly links the counselor's work to the club's star rating.
And the stated goal. The official ranking page itself states that the goal isn't to promote competition between clubs, but for each club to pursue excellence in its own organization. That line is worth copying into your minutes: the internal unit ranking serves the same purpose. In a check made in July 2026, the real-time dashboard showed just over 2,000 5-star clubs in 2026 — the counter combines Pathfinders and Adventurers and changes throughout the day, so we won't pin down a fixed number. The page also states that after October 15, a club no longer loses the status it earned that year.
How do you roll this out in your club as soon as next month?
Week 1 — bring it to the Executive Committee. Print page 215 of the manual and bring the decisions that are still missing: excused absences, ranking by average, tiebreakers, recognition. Ask for approval in the minutes. Without that step, the system doesn't belong to the club: it belongs to the counselor who made it up, and it falls apart at the first friction with a parent.
Week 2 — explain it to the units before it takes effect. Each counselor presents the table at the Unit Corner, agrees on what counts as the incident that zeroes out discipline, and writes it on a unit poster. A rule nobody knows doesn't teach anyone; it only irritates them.
Week 3 — run a trial month without a ranking. Mark the sheet normally, but don't announce standings. It's there to calibrate: if everyone's green the first month, the marking is probably too loose; if nobody gets out of red, the problem is the meeting's program, not the kids.
Week 4 — publish the score, not the podium. Announce each unit's score and color and the club's average, always taking care to mention what improved. Reward by bracket (every green unit wins), not just first place — that way the last-place unit still has a reason to keep playing. Close the year with a collective award; the club's highest individual distinction has its own path, the Insignia of Excellence, nominated by the Regional Committee and selected by the Executive Committee, awarded once a year (p. 83 and 145).
The final test. Three months later, ask one question at the board meeting: did any child start showing up again because of the sheet's follow-up? If the answer is yes, the system is doing what the manual asked. If the only thing that changed was the mood between units, redo the framework.