Every now and then it comes up in the club chat: "we need to climb the Ranking", "we're short on SGC points", "the Region asked for the report". And almost always the next question follows: what report is that, and who exactly are we reporting to?
It is worth separating two things right away. One is reporting inward — the secretary marking attendance, the treasurer keeping receipts, the scoring between units on Saturday. The other is reporting outward: what the club shows the Conference or Mission (the "Field", in the language of the movement) about how it is organized. This article is about the second one.
And here is the fact that clears up half the questions: today this outward reporting is not a sheet of paper handed in at the end of the month. It is filling in the SGC, the Club Management System of the South American Division (SAD), and the grade that comes out of it is the Ranking. Data verified on 07/22/2026 from the official sources listed at the end.
Who does the club report to, and through what?
The club is not an island. It sits under a structure, and that structure has six rungs, from the largest to the smallest: South American Division, Union, Field (the Conference or Mission), Region, District, and the club's directorate. That is exactly the list of the six access levels of the SGC, the SAD's official system. Each level sees and is responsible for a slice of the data.
The one who anchors the data at the base is the club. The SAD's official communication is direct when listing what the directorate needs to enter in the system: member registrations, medical forms, Classes, Honors, Units, assets, agenda, documents, treasury data, Annual Insurance, the "filling in of online reports (Ranking)", and online event registrations.
Notice the term in parentheses: online reports (Ranking). It is the official material itself that puts the two words together. In other words: the club's reporting to the Field, today, is the Ranking. You do not fill in a report and, separately, earn a grade; filling in the system correctly, over the course of the year, is what generates the grade.
This is different from the scoring between units, which is an internal contest within the club, Saturday to Saturday, that each club organizes its own way. And it is also different from the role of club secretary, who is the one who, in practice, keeps much of this data up to date. Here the focus is on what goes up to the Conference.
How does the SGC Ranking work today?
The Ranking is a management grade. The official club classification page describes the criterion in one sentence: clubs are assessed "by the management and organization of their secretary's and treasurer's work in the Club Management System". Translating: you do not score for being a lively club or for winning the camporee games — you score for being organized within the system.
The count goes from 0 to 1000 points, and the total turns into stars:
| Score for the year | Classification |
|---|---|
| Above 800 points | 5 stars |
| From 500 to 799 points | 4 stars |
| From 300 to 499 points | 3 stars |
| From 150 to 299 points | 2 stars |
| From 0 to 149 points | 1 star |
That is where the famous "five-star club" comes from: it is not a trophy someone hands over, it is the band for anyone who passed 800 points in the SGC. The SAD even publishes the Ranking in real time, with the list of the year's 5-star clubs, on a page open to anyone.
An honest detail about the rules: they are not carved in stone. The official page itself notes that the current version was "updated on January 01, 2024". Weights and criteria can be adjusted from one season to the next. So treat the numbers in this article as today's snapshot, and confirm the year's table on the official classification page before setting a scoring target.
What actually earns points in the Ranking?
The official classification page splits the 1000 points into about 15 assessed items. You do not need to memorize them all — you need to know where the heavyweights are, because that is where a star is won or lost. This is the snapshot verified on 07/22/2026:
| Item assessed in the SGC | Maximum weight |
|---|---|
| Members' annual insurance | up to 150 |
| Field Ranking (events and participation logged) | up to 150 |
| Units' corner ranking | up to 150 |
| Class cards | up to 100 |
| Medical forms | up to 75 |
| Activity calendar | up to 50 |
| Treasury (accounts payable and receivable) | up to 50 |
| Updated registrations | up to 50 |
| Consent forms | up to 50 |
| Secretary access | up to 50 |
| Honors | up to 25 |
| Classes | up to 25 |
| Assets (inventory) | up to 25 |
| Documentation | up to 25 |
| Club data | up to 25 |
| Total | 1000 |
Look at the top of the table. Annual insurance alone is worth up to 150 points — almost enough to pull the club out of the 1-star band. It is not just Ranking paperwork: it is the real protection of every child in every activity. Medical forms add another 75, and class cards, another 100. Just those three items, done well, can already be worth a third of the maximum grade.
Translated into practical priority: insure everyone, fill in every medical form, keep the class cards logged. Whoever does that is already close to 3 or 4 stars with no magic. Details like the asset inventory (25) and documentation (25) close out the count up top, but they are not where you start.
A caveat about the two 150-point items called "ranking": one of them involves organizing the units' corner and the internal contest, a subject we cover separately in unit scoring. Here it only matters to know that it exists and feeds the club's grade in the SGC.
Read alsoPathfinder SGC: the definitive guideWhen does it close, and why can't you leave it for December?
The Ranking is a scoreboard that runs all year. Every piece of data logged on time earns points; every pending item that drags on drops the grade. And there is a milestone many directorates only find out about too late: the closing of the SGC Ranking score happens on the last business day of the year. After that, the picture is taken — whatever did not make it in no longer counts for that cycle.
That is why the worst possible strategy is the December sprint. Medical forms for 30 children, insurance for everyone, overdue class cards, and the asset inventory all in the last week become an impossible bottleneck — and any typo in that rush costs a point that does not come back. An organized club does not "do the Ranking": it maintains the Ranking, a little each month.
This is where the old idea of a "monthly report" comes in with a new meaning. Instead of a form sent at the end of the month, think of a monthly review routine: once a month, the secretary and the treasurer open the SGC and check what changed — new members to register and insure, pending medical forms, the month's accounts, activities to log on the calendar. Thirty minutes a month spare you the December agony.
If your club wants a rhythm, here is a simple suggestion, not a rule: first week of the month, the secretary pair opens the system, goes through the list, resolves what can be done on the spot, and notes what depends on others. Whoever treats the Ranking as a habit reaches November without scares.
And that "monthly report"? The three layers
Many people grew up hearing about the "club's monthly report", and it really does exist in many places. But you have to separate three layers so as not to confuse tradition with rule.
1. The written official rule. What the SAD standardized for every club in the Division as outward reporting is the filling in of the SGC and the Ranking that results from it. That is what is in the official communication and on the classification page. There is not, in the official sources we consulted up to 07/22/2026, a single, nationwide monthly form, with a submission date, that every SAD club must send outside the SGC.
2. The practice that varies — and who decides. Many Regions and Fields do ask for a periodic club report: number of members, the month's activities, parent meetings, missionary action, attendance. It is common, it is healthy, and it helps the Region keep track. But the format, the frequency, and the channel of that report are defined locally — by the Region or by your Field's Pathfinder Coordination, not by a Division rule. If your Region asks for a monthly report in a particular template, follow its template; it is the authority on that.
3. The educational principle. At bottom, both the Ranking and any report exist for the same reason: a club that keeps records is a club that cares. Knowing how many children are insured, which ones have a medical form, who is behind in a class — that is not paperwork, it is the difference between a directorate that sees every Pathfinder and one that loses people along the way without noticing.
The practical rule: the SGC/Ranking is mandatory and the same for everyone; the report in your own template is whatever your Region asks for. When in doubt about what to submit and when, ask the Region in writing and keep the answer.
Who fills it in at the club and who checks above?
Within the club, the work is done in pairs. The secretary is responsible for most of the entries — registrations, members, classes, honors, medical forms, and documents. The treasurer handles the financial side — the accounts payable and receivable that also score. The leadership follows up and holds people accountable. None of this works if it rests on one person's shoulders the night before the close.
Above the club, the checking climbs the SGC's rungs. The District follows the clubs in its district; the Region, those in its region; the Field (Conference or Mission), all of its own. Each level sees the data in its scope, and that is why wrong data at the club turns into a query from above: everyone sees the same base.
There is also a specific role for unblocking system questions. OMD 019/2023, of August 10, 2023, created the figure of the SGC Coordinator: each Field may appoint, at its discretion, a general coordinator who serves Pathfinders and Adventurers and has the role of "advising the Field's MDA secretary" and "assisting the local clubs with the system's demands". In practice, it is the person to look for when the SGC freezes, a registration will not close, or a score seems wrong. Find out who your Field's coordinator is before you need them in a hurry.
A note about tools: the SGC is the official record, and no other platform replaces it for the Conference. Tools that support the club's day-to-day — including Desbravai — help the directorate get organized, but validation, insurance, and the Ranking grade still live in the SGC. Always.
Why does the Conference insist on this so much?
From afar, the Ranking looks like a cold demand: points, stars, deadlines. Up close, it is the opposite. Each item in the table has a name and a face behind it.
Annual insurance is worth a lot because it protects a real child at a real camp. The medical form carries weight because, in a fall or an allergy crisis, it is what tells the first responder what to do. Class cards count because they tell the story of each Pathfinder's growth. A logged calendar carries weight because a club that plans is a club that does not improvise its members' safety. The Ranking, in the end, is the Conference asking: is this club taking good care of the people who entrusted their children to it?
That is also why the grade measures organization, not shine. A club can have the best band and the most tuned drum corps and still be at 1 star — because half the children are uninsured. And a small club, with no resources, can be 5 stars for doing the basics with care. The star does not reward the prettiest club; it rewards the most careful one.
See the Ranking this way and it stops being bureaucracy. It becomes a checklist of care — the way the movement found to make sure no Pathfinder becomes a forgotten number in a spreadsheet. Keeping the SGC up to date is, at heart, a quiet way of loving every child in the club.