White Stag Association

The White Stag Leadership Association is a 501(c)3 non-profit foundation. Its membership is open to anyone with an interest in developing leadership skills in youth. It traces its roots back to 1958, whe the White Stag Steering Committe was first organized. The Association was incoporated in 1982 to help preserve and protect the White Stag program. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or on the basis of past or current association with similar origanizations.

The Association is entirely volunteer run. It provides year-round leadership education for up to 50 youth staff. The youth staff in turn plan and produce a week-long summer camp in several locations programs each year for up to 100 youth.

White Stag Association Vision

Since its founding, the Association has been committed to, in cooperation with youth organizations, to support programs that will develop young people's continued growth as responsible members and leaders in their organizations and in their communities.

Leadership Contact Information

• Larry Challis, Program Director.
• Wayne Veatch, Association President.

Program Name

The White Stag Leadership Development Program in California is served by the non-profit White Stag Association.

There are other organizations outside the San Francisco Bay Area and Sierra Nevada that refer to themselves as "White Stag" but are unrelated to us and do not adhere to the same standards of open membership and do not practice the same methodologies and techniques.

Facts & Stats

White Stag was founded on the Monterey Peninsula in 1958 by Béla Heinrich Bánáthy, a Hungarian emigre, an influential professor of systems theory, and a widely-read and respected scholar and author. With no outside support and entirely volunteer-led, the program has served more than 21,000 youth since its inception.

The program is a Chartered Partner of the Boy Scouts of America and sponsors a Venture Crew. All participants are registered in one of our Scouting programs. All of our programs are coeducational and operate in keeping with the principals of the Boy Scouts of America, including two-deep leadership.

Protected Marks

The White Stag Leadership Development program is a unique program and participants develop a strong relationship with it and to our symbols. The White Stag Association does not permit other groups or organizations to use our symbols inappropriately or claim to represent White Stag when they do not. For details, see Identity and Branding.