What Your Outpost Did This Week.

There is a lot you can use a hair dryer for when then main user is not around. I personally have zero use for one but it removes sticky things really well.

Well I have been playing a running game with my rangers call "stump the teacher." They have to come up with questions from or about the Bible that I can't answer (the rule is that if I get it wrong they need to have the right answer). If I lose they get a point, if I win I get a point. If they boys can beat me by 20 or more points I promised them a Pizza party at my expense.

I gave them most of the night to get ahead of me since I didn't have time that week to prepare a lesson properly. It didn't go too well for them. I went from being behind by 4 points to ahead by 10.

Now I am not playing this game to win, my goal is that it will be hard enough that the boys need to actually spend time looking at their Bibles to come up with hard questions for me. It has been effective for some of them so far. Lately I have been getting questions like "What was the name given to Solomon by God?" Wow I was amazed when a 4th grade kid came up with that question and didn't even have a Bible in front of him while asking it.

Good idea; using competition and a "carrot" as incentive.

One of my favorite techniques is "Peer Pressure". I've had boys who didn't want to do their memorization for Ranger Recruit. I never pushed them, but when the other boys made Recruit, they were awarded their R/R T-Shirts and fitted for uniforms, and a big public deal was made of it in the meeting.

Within 2 weeks, all of the other boys insured that they had their requirements fulfilled.

Good idea Claymore. Withholding merit badge or advancement level would work too since one must be recruit to go above that.

OOH, I never WITHHOLD anything from the boys.

I put it right there in front of them and say, "Don't you want this? Here it is. It's not hard to do; Billy's got his."

I always tell the kid hat HE is responsible for whatever happens in the Ranger Room.

Ok I have never heard of Ranger Recruit before, is that something that is outpost specific for you? or is it another of the ranger advancements that are lost on our somewhat young group of leaders?

I guess that I used an outdated term.  The new book lists them as "New Member Requirements".

I was using a politically incorrect and archaic military name from the old days for the requirements, so I guess that I will update and change my vocabulary................
...........................................................................

............................................................................

............................................................................

................................................................NAW!

I will also admit that we have not necessarily been doing things "by the book" so I actually don't know about the new member requirements either.

OK

This is out of the Adventure Ranger Handbook (2004). It is the same for Discovery Rangers, except the Age Requirement:

Be in at least the sixth grade.

Complete the Royal Ranger Charter Form.

Complete the Outpost Medical Information and Parents' Medical Waiver.

Recite the Pledge to the United States Flag.

Recite the Pledge to the Christian Flag.

Recite the Royal Ranger Pledge.

Recite the Four Red Points of the Royal Ranger Emblem.

Recite the Four Gold Points of the Royal Ranger Emblem.

Recite the Eight Blue Points of the Royal Ranger Emblem.

Recite the Royal Ranger Motto.

With your Parent or Guardian, complete the Exercises in the Pamphlet Preventing Child and Substance Abuse, a Parent's Guide.

Participate in a Recruit Interview.

Thats basically what I meant Claymore was recruit is prereq for everything else after.

I see where you are coming from, Dan.

But when my guys make "Recruit", they get issued their Black T-Shirt, with the R/R Emblem. So when 'most everyone else is in uniform, and they are the only 1 (or 2) birds facing the wrong way on the power line, they want to earn their shirts, too.

I find that, with my boys, having the "status" is not as important as having the "insignia of the status".

Thats a good idea.

That's a difference between Rangers and the other kids/youth groups at our church. Rangers do not get a T-shirt or insignia by "just showing up", they have to "earn" it.

I had a boy about 5 years ago, who came from a dysfunctional family, and was being raised by his grandfather. When he had started to outgrow his first R/R T-shirt, his grandfather told him to donate it back to the church for the program.

The boy had absolute fits and refused. He kept repeating, "No! I EARNED that shirt!".

Now that is pride for your achievements in the Program.

Woohoo, wish more of this generation understood hardwork for what you get instead of free stuff.

Ranger Derby Crafting with a great turn out and even the National Director and his boss and two of his bosses sons. We all did good. It was good to see them enjoying Rangers on the front lines.
Pictures and report. If you get a red warning screen don't worry
its safe just hit the detail button and then the link to visit the site.
http://readyrangers.tzo.com/2016RangerDerbyCrafting/2016RangerDerbyCrafting.htm

Looks like fun. We are in the planning stage to build cars and run a derby. My new neighbour is a Scout leader and has access to a derby track that he said we could use. It's going to be a blast!

It's good that "rival" youth organizations can work together. When I completely remodeled our church office building's walk-out basement for Rangers, a Boy Scout troop started using it as well.

Took the outpost to the annual Battle of Aiken War of Northern Aggression reenactment this weekend. We camped there Friday night and helped direct parking for the event this morning. The boys had a good time.

[img][/img]

Great job!

I believe that there's a merit that they can get "Community Service" credit toward, for helping with parking.

Dan or Mark may be able to shed more light.

Tonight, I was downstairs doing preliminary repairs to the flag for the Church; the end was tattered.

I marked it, and sewed a piece of 500 pound binding tape parallel to the tattered seam.

Tomorrow for the meeting: cut off the tattered material, roll the seam over the nylon binding webbing, and each boy will run the machine to sew the seam down (about the width of two stripes for each boy).

I have a Project for tomorrow's Meeting, and the Church Flag gets repaired.



(Army Parachute Repair/Rigger School: Your Tax Dollars at Work.)

Can you post a pic of the flag?

I've got pictures of the boys sewing it (left the camera in the Ranger Room).

I didn't take any "before" photos of the flag, though.

I must say that it came out pretty good. The worst thing that happened was that one of the 8-year-olds bunched the seam up a bit, and there was a 1/2-inch pucker in the seam.

I was going to take the seam out and re-do it (being a parachute rigger, I'm a perfectionist about repairs) but then I thought, "It's going to be atop a 50-foot flag pole. Nobody is going to notice a 1/2-inch pucker in the outside seam.".

Another thing that we did in this week's meeting.............

The Wife had hard-boiled some eggs, and they had been in the refrigerator for a while, and it was time to use them up (she had boiled something-like 20 eggs, and I was getting tired of boiled eggs).

So I took in the remaining eggs and one fresh egg. I picked up a boiled egg and a fresh egg, and asked if the boys could tell which one was cooked, without damaging or breaking an egg.

The trick is to place the two eggs on the table and spin them. The boiled egg will spin for 20 seconds. The fresh one will make about 2 wobbly turns and stop.

I cracked the eggs open to prove which was which. At the end of class, the boys walked out with boiled eggs (they all wanted them), and I went home and cooked up a scrambled egg with the fresh one.

Some commanders are just natural-born "egg-heads."

RANGER DERBY MANIA!

Setup for the big race tommarrow. Outpost level racing.

Taking pictures!

Mark Jones