Navigators on Understanding (ages 11-13)


The Navigator Program

Navigators learn leadership by accepting responsibilities within the patrol and learning to work together as a team. Navigators learn to lead themselves and deliver curriculum to younger boys in the Woodlands Trail program under the leadership and oversight of the Trailmaster and Trailguides. Navigators also learn leadership through service projects and helping others.

Advancement focuses on mastering a series of required and elective Trail Badge (skill sets and knowledge) and service hours. Ranks represent a growing ability to operate in the outdoors comfortably, safely, and confidently. The skills and knowledge learned advancing in rank form the foundation for Trailman Adventure, Character, and Leadership.

Ideally, Navigators complete nine Trail Badges in 18 months (which allows them to cover the skills twice if they are in the program from ages 11 - 13.

NAVIGATOR AWARDS


RECRUIT TRAILMAN 

Joining Rank: 
  • Attend Leadership Conference
  • Memorize Trail Life: Oath, Motto, Handshake, Salute, Sign
  • Recite the Pledge of Allegiance
  • Learn to properly fold the USA Flag

ABLE TRAILMAN

  • Earn the Recruit Rank
  • Attend Leadership Conference
  • Complete at least 3 Required Trail Badges
  • plus Elective Badges (for total combination of 7 badges)
  • Complete 15 hours of service for each year
  • Troop meeting attendance & participation requirements
  • Advancement Conference and Board of Review

READY TRAILMAN

  • Earn the Able Trailman Rank
  • Attend Leadership Conference
  • Complete all 9 Required Trail Badges plus a total of 5 elective badges (includes those completed while working towards Able Trailman)
  • Complete 15 hours of service for each year
  • Hold a Troop Leadership position for at least 6 months since becoming an Able Trailman
  • Troop meeting attendance & participation requirements
  • Faith building activity option
  • Advancement Conference and Board of Review

Navigator Required Trail Badges

        

The Trailman's Handbook for Navigators and Adventurers

Instruction, Information and Inspiration!

The core of the program for both groups is detailed in The Trailman's Handbook. It is available for sale in the Trail Life USA Store. It contains the joining requirements, Rank Advancements for Navigators, Awards for Adventurers and all Trail Badge Requirements for the required Trail Badges for each level. Written in a style sure to capture the Trailman's interest, it is filled with useful information, instruction, and inspiration.

For Fathers of Trailmen and Adult Leadership

Fathers mentor their son in discipleship, leadership, and character as men of faith along with the Adult Leadership of the Troop. The Navigator and Adventurer Leader Guide equips Navigator and Adventurer leaders and parents in delivering and supporting the Christ-centered program of Trail Life USA. It is available for sale in the Trail Life USA Store.

SPECIAL AWARDS

Special awards are provided for completion of certain activities, projects, or accomplishments. Special awards are named for the purpose for which they are given.

Worthy Life Award

The most important special award within the Woodlands Trail program centers on faith. This award is titled the Worthy Life Award. Requirements are different for different age groups. The award is earned once within each age group, with the badge for the award changing as the boy advances to the next age group.

Navigators Understanding

Navigators (ages 11 to 13 years old) become competent in the outdoor program through learning nine required Trail Badges and participating in the outdoor program progressing from Recruit to Able to Ready status.

Navigators participate in an outdoor program with hiking, camping, and other activities. They are in more of a learning mode, developing their core skills with adequate supervision and easing gracefully into camping by patrols. As they climb through the ranks of Recruit Trailman, Able Trailman, and Ready Trailman, they will lay a safe and comfortable foundation for the challenges of being a Navigator and moving on to become an Adventurer.

SIX PROGRAM EMPHASES

Program emphases are “big ideas” that run through our program because our movement considers them indispensable to helping boys become great Christian men.
  1. Wisdom – The skill of putting knowledge to proper use. Facts are like tools—they do their best work in the hands of a master craftsman. 
  2. Teamwork – The way people working together can to do more than working alone.
  3. Heritage – The parts of present opportunities and future goals that were made in the past. Americans have a rich heritage built with courage and curiosity, sacrifice and spirituality. 
  4. Leadership – Giving the gift of guidance to others. True leadership begins when the arrogance of power gives way to a sense of responsibility. 
  5. Character – The four selves: self-respect, self-control, self-reliance, and self-worth. They are the four poles of the tent—let one fall and the tent sags, let two fall and the tent collapses. 
  6. Faith – Belief in God that provides the inner strength and confidence that leads to righteous actions based on biblical truth, regardless of temptations or circumstances.

THREE AIMS

The three aims are what Trail Life hopes to achieve in the lives of boys through use of the nine program methods guided by the six program emphases.
  1. Character – Character may be defined as the Four Selves, namely self-respect, self-control, self-reliance and self-worth. Character is related to the word characteristic, which is not at all surprising; character gives each person a perspective on the God who made us all in his image. 
  2. Fitness – There are four elements of fitness; mental, emotional, moral and physical. All four benefit from a good diet, exercise and plenty of rest. But is this equally true of moral fitness? Consider the harm feeding on pornography can do. And how much exercise do your morals get when you put difficult decisions off on others! Your morals do not get enough rest when you fail to recognize leadership in others and delegate responsibility as needed. 
  3. Citizenship – To be a good citizen, you must live in the past, present and future. The Past is Heritage, which includes such important elements as the Image of God within you, the Bible, and great thinkers and leaders who struggled through the centuries to equip you to live a free and purposeful life. The present is Opportunity, which is your ability to shape the here and now through your actions. The Future is a course you chart through the decisions you make today using your Vision. You are a citizen of your family, your community, your Troop, your state, your nation, your world, and most importantly the Body of Christ.
Each of these three aims is covered in a chapter of the Trailman Handbook. You’re urged to read these chapters for a more in-depth understanding. These three aims were not chosen at random; character is the desire to move, fitness is the energy needed, and citizenship is the plotted course.

NINE METHODS

The methods of Trail Life USA work well together because they return boys to an environment where comfort or misery, safety or danger, and success or failure depend on skills they can master. It is an environment where fathers can teach their sons skills that are still relevant. The Trail Life is one of the last refuges of capable self-reliance where boys can learn important lessons about life through experiential learning. Our nine methods are:
  1. Patrols – A patrol is a group where every boy can play an important role, make friends, and learn the connection between preparation and success. A patrol is a small family within the larger family of the Troop.
  2. Leadership – When boys realize that a leader gives the gift of guidance, they will give it without arrogance and receive it with gratitude. Boys learn that they not only are called upon to lead others but to also lead themselves. Self-control is the first great leadership skill. 
  3. Advancement – The recognition of personal and practical growth to reward past performance and predict future success. 
  4. Adult Association – Trail Leaders are the greatest role models in the world. They give freely of themselves to help great boys become great men through purposeful fun.
  5. Outdoors – Blessed with equal measures of beauty and challenge, peace and excitement, God’s great out-of-doors offers uniquely fulfilling experiences for all. It is an environment that encourages the sharing of skills and heritage. 
  6. Uniforms – The uniform and standard (staff) display the goodwill of Trail Life USA to the community. They represent the family bonds of the Trail Life and are a canvass upon which boys tell the story of their unique achievements, interests and goals. 
  7. Opportunity – Placing young people in an exciting and challenging environment lets them make discoveries about the world and themselves that cannot be learned any other way. We cannot guarantee what you’ll find or when you’ll find it, but if you don’t get out and look, we guarantee that you’ll never find it.
  8. Standards – The Trailman Oath and Trailman Motto clearly state what is expected of a Trailman in thought, word and deed. 
  9. Spiritual Development – The ultimate health and safety issue that we can address is protecting the image of God within us. Spirituality is the key to a fully-realized manhood.