Oregon Conference Pathfinders' Teen Leadership Development Program as a Model for the North American Division
Authors:   ,   Andrews University, Wood Tracy 
Published: June 2023

Problem The Pathfinder Teen Leadership Training (TLT) program was introduced in 1994 in the North American Division. Although the TLT Manual had gone through three revisions, there had never been any staff training or conference-level leader training resources developed. Because the TLT program was an NAD Pathfinder curriculum, it was imperative that the components of the Conference-level Leadership Skills Development Program be consistent throughout the division. The problem was that there were no developed processes or guidelines that conferences could follow to develop their TLT conference-sponsored program from the TLT Manual. The Oregon Conference had developed a TLT academic credit option where TLTs were receiving secondary education elective credit for participating in TLT ministry and other conferences were interested in learning how to provide this for their teens. This created a need for a standardized training program for TLTs as well as for conference staff. Method The Oregon Conference invited inquiring conference Pathfinder directors to attend their TLT Convention so they could model how the conference provided conference-sponsored TLT training. Over the course of the project, conference Pathfinder leaders from ten conferences who attended the Oregon Conference TLT training events were invited to participate because they had already shown an interest in developing their own conference-sponsored TLT program. Because there was no conference-sponsored NAD model for conferences to replicate, this project developed many TLT staff training resources. Results Pathfinder directors and coordinators who attended the Oregon Conference TLT Conventions were given TLT staff resources to begin creating their own conferencesponsored TLT training conventions. The TLT Manual (2011 edition) was revised by editing and adding club-staff and conference-level training components and processes. Then TLT staff training resources were developed using the revised TLT Manual as the primary source material. These included handouts, workshop training outlines, and stepby- step procedures used by staff and teens. Also, 14 short videos were produced to assist in training staff on how to implement the TLT requirements. In addition, five online staff training courses were developed, incorporating the videos and the staff resources. All these resources were posted on the NAD TLT webpage so that they are immediately accessible. Conclusion Some conferences that did not have a conference-sponsored TLT program are now providing TLT training using the revised TLT Manual and resources as their primary source materials. Other conferences continue to work toward developing their conference-sponsored TLT academic credit option. Pathfinder staff are using the online staff-training courses that integrate all the resources that have been developed. Therefore, this project filled a great need in Pathfinder ministry and the resources will continue to be used to develop teen leaders throughout the North American Division.