LEAD conference 2014

It's exciting to think about how things could go. Maybe they'll finish the DR Bible Merit lessons too...

Good luck on those orange merits...

I'd like to see a trimming of the merits and give us guides for some of the silver merits. If they must keep leadership merits reduce it to 3 required instead of 4. Add some real skills to the core required merits and bring back ROTY. Next Camporama have a more down to earth worship team and a little less theatrics. A real Royal Rangers style camporama tee shirt would be good. I use my cor12 tees for workouts. They don't even say Royal Rangers or have the emblem anywhere.

Bring back the national camps for men.

Well, I imagine that they may have a few "Talent Scouts" looking at sites like this one.

Let's try to look Positive, and maybe they'll take something Constructive from this.

Ok umm the glass is partially filled...   

There are some nuggets of wisdom in this thread from 10 years ago, so I’m giving it a bump.

I want to give this thread a "bump".

There is way too much good information here.

It IS a bit of Ancient History, as it goes way back to when JoeCool and Chris were commanders - but a lot of good analysis by the first-level leaders on what they saw as unresolved problems.

I think that current opinions might be interesting.

It is a good thread, harking back to when many of us were still optimistic about the program.

All aircraft have engineered maximums. For example, try to exceed the designed altitude and you risk falling out of the sky. Even with an abundance of resources, you will still hit that ceiling. And trying to become an all-mission capable aircraft generally results in one that is not very good at anything.

Is that why Royal Rangers became a less attractive product for most of its customers (the Church) to invest in?

joecool wrote:

(Aircraft analogy, indicating that "they" tried to make Rangers "all things to all people".)

Is that why Royal Rangers became a less attractive product for most of its customers (the Church) to invest in?

I do not believe so, in itself.

Trying to give flexibility to work with modern boys who do not understand the fundamentals of morality and godly leadership, is not a BAD thing, but dismantling a healthy organization in order to achieve that purpose IS.

We have all acknowledged that there are factors that were out of our control: COVID and constant entertainment of video games being the primary two.

I heard a man who was a National Muzzleloading Rifle Association Instructor-Trainer state that he had been a Royal Ranger Commander for years. His words to me were, ".....I could handle the changes under the Mariott Administration, but not THIS fella (Doug Marsh)...."

What's going to happen to a program, where you take something that is LOVED by its first-line workers, and completely revamp it (despite their objections), until a third of these leaders leave.

Then, at the LEAD Conference, the Regional and District Leaders are instructed to get rid of the old non-compliant Commanders who remain (maybe another third of the Commanders) and are being verbal by giving Headquarters grief, and not being good sheep under the new shepherd.

That leaves the one-third who are "Yes-Men" (and this is not meant disrespectfully to those who went along with the new program). The BIGGEST depleting resource that the Royal Rangers need, in order to function, is First-Line Leaders, Commanders. If you have devoted Commanders, they can run an outpost on less money, or they will come up with the money on their own, but if you do not have the Commanders on the Front-Line, you do not have the skeleton for the rest of the body.

And so when, along with COVID and Videogames, you forced out another 1/3 of the supporters of the Program, what do you THINK is going to happen? A body with a soft skeleton will collapse on itself.

("Oh, no problem. We'll just require the Outposts to purchase all new uniforms & merit patches, pay for on-line access to their manuals & books over & over each year, and have them sell this Snake-Oil Hand Sanitizer, and that will solve ALL of our problems.......")

And, now I am going to SAY it.  I AM hard on Headquarters.

Why?  Because their job (because their very existence) is to SUPPORT the first-echelon level, where the boys are.  Not to create some Whoop-Dee-Doo program where everyone is required to purchase a book that was written by the Boss.

The Royal Rangers was set up under a military-style set-up that was composed of Patrols organized into Outposts, and it was made this way because it is easy to understand, it works, and it gives the boys and leaders a sense of unity.

In an organization like this, Commanders and their subordinates need to exercise (modified) Military Leadership.  This means watching out for your men, and even putting their welfare above your own, if necessary.

"...and even putting their welfare above your own, if necessary."  In the military, when I was a Sergeant, and the cooks brought food out to the Field, the privates ate first.  We ate what was left - if there was anything left.  Did the National Staff ever make sure that the "troops" ate, before THEY did?  (Asking for a friend.)

And maybe THAT is why they wanted to see commanders like me leave!

Claymore wrote:And, now I am going to SAY it.  I AM hard on Headquarters...And maybe THAT is why they wanted to see commanders like me leave!

And yet, you're still there (albeit in that over-priced pajama-top uniform). You still have a mission given to you by an authority much, much higher than the one in Springfield. I'd still be hanging in there, too, if this ministry hadn't been yanked out from underneath me by an authority much, much lower than the one in Springfield. Even my wife has no idea how much I miss Royal Rangers, even after nearly a decade. My eyes are a bit moist right now. If we still had an outpost, they'd eventually have to give me a title and retire me, like they did with Fred McMurray in Follow Me, Boys. Reach, Teach and Keep is the mission statement, and can be adopted by other ministries. But NOTHING did it better than what Johnnie Barnes was led to create.

This is a good thread.

Miss some of the voices that were active in this conversation.

I wonder if Marks prediction came true?

AS far as I am concerned. Doug Marsh had a curious variant of the King Midas touch during his tenure as National Commander.

I call it the King Feces touch: everything he touched turned to crap.

His effect on Royal Rangers is especially telling here in Michigan.
When I left Royal Rangers in 2016 we had 31 outposts in Michigan. Today we have 6

THAT is the legacy of Doug Marsh  (My opinion)

Now I can't blame all of that loss on him. Our governor's  extreme covid lockdowns killed a number of churches.
So some of those outposts could have lost due to lockdown destruction.

To me the most telling loss is Kalamazoo First Assembly of God. One of the most active outposts in Michigan.
The church is still there, but they dont have Rangers anymore. Cant blame it on a leadership change, as they have had the same senior Pastor since 2009.

Doug Marsh's contempt for the people who volunteer thier time to this ministry, the never ending "spirit led" changes & the drive for profit have led to disaster for Royal Rangers.

He lied time & time agian, saying that Rangers is growing again. When some of us pointed out that the Ranger stats over on the AG stats page told a different story: those stats were removed & have never returned (I  checked recently)

He told people at LEAD (2012?) that a lot of Commanders needed to "get on board or get off the bus"
When I heard that on the LEAD recording & broadcasted it on another forum, I was called a liar by a National staff member & a District Commander.  They said he never said that.
The next day the LEAD audio recording for that year was moved to the AG passsport site & password protected so no one could hear that. It is still locked up to this day.
A lot of us did get off the bus (not all by choice)

Doug Marsh brought in a culture of dishonesty at the top & a drive for profit.

I could go on for a good hour about all of the lies & dishonesty from the Marsh administration. But most of you already know, so I will refrain.



Doug Marsh was a poison pill for Royal Rangers.

joecool wrote:

Claymore wrote:And, now I am going to SAY it.  I AM hard on Headquarters...And maybe THAT is why they wanted to see commanders like me leave!

And yet, you're still there (albeit in that over-priced pajama-top uniform).

I never HAVE and I never SHALL wear that French Painter's Smock.

I'm still mad at the Army for taking away my Paratrooper Khakis. I'm not going to let some non-combat pup take away what's left.