Every club director knows that squeeze. Registration opens, the children arrive, and you look around and don't have enough adults to lead the units. Then comes the temptation: grab any volunteer, push two units onto the same counselor, or take on one more group yourself. None of those exits holds the club together for long.
Recruiting counselors is not luck or charisma — it's a process. And it's the most important process of your leadership, because the counselor is the one who has the most direct contact with the Pathfinder. He is the one the child remembers twenty years later, for better or for worse.
This guide combines what the South American Division (SAD) norm says about who can be a counselor with what practice teaches about where to find these people, how to invite, and how not to lose them mid-year. Each stage comes with the name of who decides. Data verified on 07/23/2026 in the official sources listed at the end.
Why is the counselor the piece you can't get wrong?
Before you go out looking for people, understand what you're looking for. The counselor is the leader of a unit — the group of Pathfinders into which the club is divided. And it is, by far, the role with the most contact with the child.
The Administrative Manual of the Pathfinder Club (2020 edition, SAD) organizes the club into units of, preferably, six to eight Pathfinders, each with a counselor at the head. The logic is simple: a small group allows order, discipline, and, above all, individual attention. That's why the counselor carries so much weight. The director runs the club from a distance; the counselor is the one who sits with the child at camp, who notices they arrived sad, who follows up on the class requirement.
Hence the golden rule of recruitment: quality over quantity. It's better to open the year with three well-run units than with six units handed over to whoever showed up. An unprepared or absent counselor does more damage than one unit fewer, because the child carries the disappointment home — and sometimes doesn't come back.
Keep this number to size up your recruitment: a unit of six to eight, one counselor for each, and a man for the boys' units, a woman for the girls'. If you have forty children enrolled, you need five to seven counselors — not two exhausted heroes.
Where the director starts: prayer, pastor, and board
Here is the most common mistake: the director decides alone who will be a counselor and only afterward informs the church. The official path is the reverse.
The SAD guidance for building the team begins before the names. First you pray, asking for direction — it seems obvious, but it's the stage most people skip. Then you consult the district pastor, who, in the words of the official material, "should be a motivator of the Clubs in his district." And the step that closes it all: it is the church board that appoints the staff, and it needs to be involved in choosing the leaders.
In practice, this becomes a clean flow with no friction later. You, the director, raise the names you have already prayed over and talked through; take the list to the pastor and the board; the board appoints them officially. When the counselor is appointed by the church, and not just "invited by the director," they enter with backing — and you don't stand alone if you need to follow up or replace someone later.
There's a quiet gain on this path: the board knows the life of the church. It knows who is under discipline, who has a history that advises against working with minors, who is walking steadily. Passing the names through the board is not bureaucracy — it's the first layer of protection for the children of your club.
Where to look for real counselors?
The answer no one likes to hear: the best counselors almost never volunteer — they are invited. Whoever raises their hand on their own is sometimes excellent, but the director who only waits for volunteers builds a fragile club. You have three veins to mine.
1. Inside the club itself. This is the most underrated source. The older Pathfinders, the guides, and those in the leadership classes are the natural reserve. From age 16, the young person can already serve as an associate counselor — the unit's assistant, almost always a leader in training who learns in practice alongside a more experienced counselor. This is how the club manufactures its own leaders instead of depending only on outsiders.
2. In the church, among the adults. The official guidance is direct about the profile: look for "committed people, of legal age, with a dynamic spirit and who love working with juniors." Look beyond the usual suspects. That brother who is a scout, who knows first aid, who plays an instrument, who knows plants or knots — hobbies and skills that interest the child are gold. The adult doesn't need to know everything about Pathfinders; that is learned. He needs to enjoy young people.
3. Among the parents. The father and mother who already drop off and pick up their child every week are candidates many directors ignore, for fear of seeming like they're "demanding." Many are just waiting for the invitation. A baptized father, of legal age and willing, becomes counselor of the boys' unit naturally — and gains a new bond with his own child.
| Where to look | Who is usually there | How to make use of them |
|---|---|---|
| Inside the club | Guides, youth in the leadership classes (16+) | Invite as associate counselor and train in practice |
| Church adults | Members with useful hobbies and skills | Make use of the specific gift; the rest is trained |
| Pathfinders' parents | Baptized parents who already attend | Invite personally; many are just waiting to be asked |
| Former Pathfinders in the church | Adults who went through the club and left | Reactivate the fond memory; explain how much they're missed |
How to make the invitation without getting a no?
The way you invite decides half the answer. And the classic mistake is the generic invitation: that announcement from the pulpit — "anyone who wants to help in the club, see the staff." That almost never brings in anyone good, because it doesn't speak to any person in particular.
The invitation that works is personal, individual, and specific. You call the person by name, say why you thought of them — "you have a patience with teenagers that I don't have" — and make a concrete request. Compare:
- Weak: "We're needing people in the club, don't you want to help?"
- Strong: "I have a unit of six boys aged 11 and 12. I saw how you lead the youth group and I want you as their counselor. It's every Saturday afternoon and one camp per quarter. Are you up for talking it over?"
Notice what the strong invitation delivers: the name of the role, the size of the group, the time it will cost, and what is expected. The most common cause of a counselor who quits in March is having said "yes" without knowing what they were getting into. An honest invitation, one that doesn't hide the effort, selects better than any interview.
Two courtesies that increase the "yes": let the person think it over (don't demand an answer on the spot) and offer a smaller step for those who hesitate. Whoever is afraid of taking on a whole unit can start as an associate counselor, alongside someone experienced, and grow from there. No one is required to start carrying the world.
Read alsoAnnual club planningWhat requirements must the counselor meet?
Here enters the part that is written norm, and it's worth knowing precisely so you don't invite someone who can't take it on — nor block someone who can. This is a topic of three layers: what's on paper, what varies from club to club, and the principle behind it.
What the norm writes. The lead counselor of a unit must be a baptized member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, of legal age, and of the same sex as the unit — a man for the boys' units, a woman for the girls'. Beyond that, they must be in agreement with the principles of the Church and willing to take part regularly in the club's activities.
What varies — and who decides. Age is the point that confuses the most. Leadership roles in the unit can be exercised from age 16, but in the figure of the associate counselor, the assistant in training — not as the lead counselor alone. Some Field coordinations ask, in practice, that the counselor have the Basic Course or a leadership class in progress. Whoever defines the final arrangement is the director with the church board, within the guidance of your Conference or Mission. If your Field requires something more, it's a legitimate local decision, not an invention.
The principle. The requirement to be baptized, an adult, and of the same sex is not a formality: the counselor is a spiritual and behavioral reference for the child, in intimate situations such as camping and travel. The rule exists to protect the minor and give the family security. Once the why is understood, it stops seeming like rigidity.
| Lead counselor requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Baptized member | Of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, in full fellowship |
| Of legal age | Adult lead; a 16+ youth serves as associate counselor |
| Same sex as the unit | A man in the boys' units, a woman in the girls' |
| Aligned with the Church's principles | Compatible conduct; passes through the church board |
| Regular presence | Willingness to be at the activities, not just on paper |
You recruited. Now, how to train?
Inviting without training is the recipe for frustration. The counselor comes in excited, doesn't know what to do on the first Saturday, feels incompetent, and disappears. Training is not a luxury — it's what holds the person.
The official training has a name: Basic Training Course for the Staff, of at least six hours, conducted by the Pathfinder Ministry. The SAD guidance is emphatic: it is essential that the entire leadership take part — and that includes the newly arrived counselor. This course gives the common ground: what the club is, how the unit works, safety, first steps.
But the training that forms the most happens inside the club, in the unit system. It's the method by which the new leader learns in practice, under the guidance of someone experienced. That's why the associate counselor is so valuable: they spend a year alongside a lead counselor, see how a group is led, and the following year take over with experience. Forming a leader is slow on purpose.
For those who want to go further, there's the track of the leadership classes. The Leader class begins at a full 16 years of age, but the investiture only comes at 18; it requires the completion of all the regular classes, a written recommendation from the church board, and the Basic Course. It's the path of someone who will make leadership a life project, not just cover a Saturday. Investing your young people in that track is how the club guarantees counselors for the next ten years.
An honest reminder about nomenclature: in some regions people speak of "leaders in training" or TLT for the teenagers in formation. What the SAD makes official and you can require are the Basic Course, the unit system, and the leadership classes. Use those three — the rest is the name each Field gives to the same path.
How to avoid leadership dropout?
Recruiting is half the work. The other half — the one almost no one plans for — is not losing whom you recruited. And here an uncomfortable truth: most counselors don't leave for lack of faith or love for the children. They leave from exhaustion, overload, and loneliness.
There is no SAD norm that establishes "how to retain a counselor" — that's management, it's the director's care. But the experience of clubs that hold on to their team points to a few things that work:
- Share the load. Never leave a counselor covering two units or doing the work of three. The associate exists for that: two adults per unit gives slack to miss a Saturday without the group being orphaned.
- Recognize in public. A thank-you from the director in front of the club, the name mentioned in the church bulletin, a card at year's end. People who feel seen stay.
- Don't overload the volunteer with what is yours. Paperwork, insurance, event registration, dues collection — that belongs to the secretariat and the leadership, not the counselor. He already gives the Saturday and the heart; don't push the bureaucracy onto him.
- Spiritually feed the one who feeds the children. A service just for the staff, a leaders' retreat once a year, a moment of prayer before the meeting. The counselor who only serves and is never served dries up.
- Prepare the exit before it arrives. Every counselor one day leaves — moves cities, gets married, has a child. If you always had an associate beside them, the unit doesn't collapse. Planned succession is the opposite of panic in February.
Notice the common thread: retaining is the same thing as caring. The club that treats the counselor as a disposable resource recruits from scratch every year. The one that treats them as a person keeps the team — and the stable team is what keeps the children.
Who decides what in recruitment?
Much confusion in recruitment comes from taking the right step with the wrong person. This is the ruler of who decides each thing:
| Stage | Who decides / leads | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Raise and invite names of possible counselors | Director, after prayer and conversation | The director's role of building the team |
| Support and motivate the club and the staff | District pastor | Official SAD guidance |
| Officially appoint the staff and the leaders | Church board | Founding a Club (adventistas.org) |
| Define the internal arrangement of units and counselors | Director with the staff | Administrative Manual (2020 ed.) |
| Deliver the Basic Training Course | Pathfinder Ministry of the Conference/Mission | Basic Training Course for the Staff |
| Approve and invest in the leadership classes | Field/Union bodies, according to the class | Leadership class requirements (SAD) |
The sentence that sums it all up: the director invites, the church board appoints, the pastor supports, and the Field trains and invests. When each stage passes through whoever has authority over it, the counselor enters firmly and you don't stand alone when it's time to sustain — or, if needed, replace.
And a piece of advice from someone who has seen recruitment go wrong: keep a record. A list of the names appointed by the board, with the date, avoids the scene of discovering in the middle of a camp that no one formally approved that adult who is sleeping in the tent with the children.