ROTY and Patrol of excellence

Hey guys. Ranger of the year and patrol of excellence.... are they effective tools at motivating the boys to be active rangers? What works and what doesn't work?

ROTY was a good program that kept all the outposts working on the same stuff each year. It brought out the Ranger Boys with the most knowledge and skills. With the new programs focus on "Life long servant leaders" it doesn't give the ROTY program or even the Ranger program a niche or a leading like we had in the past.

Being all things to all people has it's draw backs. Rangers once was a "Church boyscout program with a focus on Jesus Christ" that identified it as a Christian Scouting program.

Today's Rangers could be A DRAMA outpost. A Mechanic outpost. A Athletic Outpost. A Scouting program. A what ever you want it to be outpost.

Just keep in mind if we don't focus on the Scouting and camping program...they most likely wont be coming to Camporama.

One side it's a plus. One side it's a minus. In College I was taught to be successful you need to have a niche. ROTY gave us a niche. We taught a specific set of skills that could be tested. Not true today.

Mark Jones
p.s. I liked the old program better and I really enjoyed the ROTY program.

While we don't have the Official ROTY Program,

We do our own "Ranger of the Quarter". This is patterned after the "Soldier of the Quarter" program that we had in the Army. It is to recognize the boy who has been the hardest-working and most consistent in the Outpost (or Patrol).

Weekly, at roll-call, I assign points to the boys:
Attendance = 20 points
In Uniform (to include wearing an issued Ranger T-Shirt) = 5 points
Notebook & Pen/Pencil = 5 points
(We formerly did having their Bible, but then the boys just left them in the Ranger Room)
Offering (any amount) = 5 points
Finish earning a Merit that week = 20 points
Bring a guest = 10 points (maximum of 30 points for bringing the same guest)

I have all of the boys' names printed on my weekly Lesson Plan, and so tally their points behind their names:
Billy Smith: A=20, U=5, O=5, G=10, Total 40 Points

Most Churches have little Sunday School Attendance Books with room for the kids' names and their weekly attendance. So instead of marking "A"(bsent) or "P"(resent), I mark their points in the box behind their names for that week. That way, the boys can readily see their standing in the competition.

At the end of the quarter, the top Ranger receives a special Ranger Hat or T-Shirt in a recognition ceremony.

I have definitely noticed that the boys are better at bringing in their offerings.

I have also expanded the Door Prize Drawings. For the first drawing, we put in the "chips" from only the boys who came to the meeting in uniform. I draw from this bowl of chips, and the boy with that chip number is the winner.

Then, I put in all of the rest of the chips (except for the boy who won the Uniform Drawing), and have a second drawing for a door prize winner. This has been successful in getting more boys to show up in uniform. (If you come in Uniform, then you get two kicks at the cat.)

Last week, only one boy came wearing his Uniform Shirt. I asked him what his chances were of winning the door prize. He said, "100%".

I still had the formality of him putting his chip in the bowl. I asked if there was anyone else in uniform that I was missing. Since no one else was in uniform & could put a chip in, I drew the chip from the one boy in uniform as the winner of the first door prize.

When we were doing Ranger of the Year we used this form instead of inputting all the points in Ranger Navigator. The boys filled this out each meeting in patrol corners. Were not doing it anymore with out ROTY. It's a good way to do a Ranger Buck program.
http://readyrangers.tzo.com/quarterlypointform.pdf