Meeting Rules

Hi All,

God Bless! hope everyone is doing good.

As you all know I am fairly a newbie with the Royal Rangers program.

One of my first goals was to get uniforms for all the boys, which by the grace of God and thanks to our church we were able to accomplish.

After a while the boys from our local church stopped coming to the program. Though I was running as we should. The big thing now is that God has been bring the boy from the community and they are all into it but have no bible fundamentals, no Jesus experience no discipleship, etc. This kids are rough and I don't want to give them archery lessons or tool craft afraid that they might do something appropriate.

Now the boys from the community come to our church every week, and we've noticed that we don't have a set of rules for them. Does anyone here has a format of rules that they can share?

it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex

While I have not experienced this first-hand, a Commander from an Urban Outpost had mentioned something that may be pertinent to your situation.  I believe that he was from Birmingham or Huntsville.

He said that they opened Royal Rangers up as a Mission Outreach to bring in non-churched kids.  He said that the non-churched kids were from "the Hood", and were almost all black.  The kids from church families were middle-class and of different races, but mostly white.

He stated that the non-churched kids had almost a "gang" mentality and immediately established a pecking order.  The kids from the church did not know how to handle this, were intimidated, and were reluctant to come to the meetings.

Their solution was to have Rangers on two nights.  The church kids had Rangers on Wednesdays, when their parents were there.

Since the parents of the non-churched kids didn't come, anyway, they had them on a different night.  They also modified their Program of Instruction, so that the kids from church had a more traditional meeting, while the boys from outside the church had a program that they called "Urban Rangers".

I know that in a Perfect World, the Urban Kids would get Saved and bring their families to church, but really........... how much have you seen this happen: percentage-wise?

While I realize that this would necessitate more work for those willing to be commanders (maybe every commander doesn't have to do both meetings), it may cut down on frustration and problems.

Maybe something to make this more mentally palatable is to think of it as a separate Mission Field; not just an outgrowth of Rangers.  This might also help in keeping the knives, bows and tomahawks away from those who may be a threat (lock them up in the Team Box when the rougher kids are there).

Personally, I don't like to restrict or punish the entire Outpost, because some kids have not been taught responsibility in their home environments.

Hope this helps.  Maybe someone else located closer to the City Environment can cast some additional light.

For the most part I don't have a clear set of rules either. However I recently picked up an idea from someone's post on this forum. Now in order to get in trouble the boys must break one of the 8 blue points, and when they do get in trouble for something I point out which of the blue points it is they have broken.

These rules server two purposes. First they give you some form of basic guidelines that can pretty much be applies to any and all types of poor behavior. Second it keeps the boys thinking about those 8 blue points. I try to make everything we do in our class point back to the points on the ranger emblem. I really believe that if our goal is to help raise boys into men that it starts with those basic principles.

rogeZ wrote: Now in order to get in trouble the boys must break one of the 8 blue points

Makes a lot of sense. Why reinvent the wheel?

Violation of OBEDIENT = F.F.I.

Fail to Follow Instructions

(That was the fastest way to get a Demerit in the III Corps NCO Academy)

I have used this set of rules for 6 or 7 years now

1. No talking when a Commander is talking.

2. Keep your hands & feet to yourself! That includes your stuff.

3. Royal Rangers are courteous-They are polite, kind and thoughtful.   We use words to lift up, not tear down

4. Royal Rangers are Clean-keep it clean, especially your speech!

5. We do not touch other peoples stuff without their permission! (ESPECIALLY Bibles)

6. No running!!! (unless we are playing a game!)

7 Have fun!

Whenever I read off the rules to the Rangers(when there are new Rangers or as a refresher when needed) I usually mumble the last one "something about fun"  & the Rangers have fun correcting me

Me: #7 something about fun
Rangers: That's not it!!
Me: what is then?
Rangers: HAVE FUN!  (yelled loudly)

Thank you all for your input, very helpful.

God bless you all!

We've had 2 sets of rules. For the AR and ER I run by the Code. I can get anything under Courteous, Obedient, and Spiritual.

Beyond that, and especially for the little guys.
1. When a Cmdr. is talking, you are not.
2. When a Cmdr. is talking, you are listening.
3. (funny statement is intended), Keep your hand, toes, elbows, nose, and everything else, to yourself.