About the White Stag Web Site

When was the last time as you were camping that someone woke you in the middle of the night, took your flashlight, told you not to talk—and to follow them to points unknown for reasons they would not explain? And you trusted them?

That was one of my very first experiences as a 14 year old attending White Stag in 1971. I later became Program Director and assembled a variety of materials into two books that described Junior Leader Training as implemented by the White Stag program: Follow the White Stag and Resources for Leadership. This web site is an outgrowth of those two books with the desire to promote hands-on learning of leadership skills.

Most of our modern, civilized world is stripped of the shaping moments found in the White Stag Leadership Development Program^TM . Even if an individual belongs to a Boy or Girl Scout troop, a church, synagogue, temple, or other social group, it is unlikely that they have had the kinds of experiences found in White Stag^TM.

During one week of summer camp, the White Stag program's impact on a youth's emotional or intellectual capabilities is necessarily limited. That is why the program's spirit and traditions are so extremely important. They affect individuals emotionally, securing in their hearts a desire to become better people.

The program's spirit and traditions help us positively influence people spiritually and emotionally. It's that experience, in addition to the exposure to the leadership competencies, that causes individuals to return again and again to follow the White Stag. And with that repeated exposure individuals begin to integrate the leadership competencies into their personal lives.

Lord Robert Baden-Powell

Each one of you wears the badge of the White Stag... I want you to treasure that badge when you go from here and remember that it has its message and meaning for you.

Hunters of old pursued the miraculous stag, not because they expected to kill it, but because it led them on in the joy of the chase to new trials and fresh adventures, and to capture happiness. You may look on that White Stag as the true spirit of Scouting, springing forward and upward, ever leading you onward and upward to leap over difficulties, to face new adventures in your active pursuit of the higher aims of Scouting--aims which bring you happiness.

These aims are to do you duty to God, to your country, and to your fellow man by carrying out the Scout Law In that way, each of you will help to bring about God's Kingdom upon earth--the reign of peace and good will.

The pursuit of the mythical White Stag is never ending. As humans, we can never achieve perfection, never know all there is about leadership. The arrow topped by the infinity sign on the cover of this book indicates the never-ending process of leadership development, of moving towards the ideal in pursuing the White Stag. This symbol was first used by Béla Bénéthy on the cover of the original description of the White Stag program in 1963.

This web site documents the the traditions, aims, principles, content, and techniques (or operating principles) of the White Stag program.

This web site is the original work of Brian Phelps. Whitestag.org is published by PhelpsTek. Our postal address is 6050 Garnica Court, Stockton, CA 95215. All original work © 1986—. See our Legal Notice.