Getting & Keeping Quality Leaders

RRCmdrBennett wrote:

Was told Wed my DR cmdr who is filling in for the RK cmdr is leaving us after June when we shut down for summer. Only hope is RK cmdr will return in Fall.

Dan brings up a subject that I think we have all seen occur.  We have a difficult time finding quality leaders, more difficulty getting them trained, and even more difficulty in keeping them in the Program for more than a year or two.

Obviously, constructive input from everyone is welcome.  But I would be especially interested in hearing the "Voices of Experience", like Mark and Bruce on this Topic.

I started as a Ranger Commander over 20 years ago, and I've been active in the Program for about half of that time.  

Of about 10 Ranger Leaders that I have seen leave, here is a rough breakdown of their reasons for leaving the Program:

3 stated that they couldn't handle the stress & frenzy of working with the boys (mostly Discovery Ranger Age).

2 moved out of the area.

2 said that their own boys are out of the Program, and they are finished doing their part.

1 stayed for a couple of years, but his wife was complaining that he should be with her on Wednesday nights.

1 left because his wife wanted to go to the church across town, where she could be in the be in the Drama/Dance/Performance group.

1 left because he was angry about dissatisfaction that the Congregation had with a pastor.

and

I left the program in Milwaukee, because a mother and grandmother started complaining that they didn't like the "lack of organization" in the Program, when all of the other Leaders quit, and I was left with twenty-some boys from Straight-Arrows to Trailblazers with no support.

I also spoke with 3 former High-Ranking Leaders who said that they were in the Program under the Barnes' Administration, that they were able to handle the "Marriott" Administration, but that they couldn't take the "Marsh" Administration.  They left, and (at least 2 of 3) are working with other boys' ministries.

Now I've just described the Disease and its Symptoms.  What do you think is the Prevention and Antidote?

I don't think that there is anything that can be done about the last 3 leaders mentioned.  It's not meant as a "Criticism", but it may be seen as a "Factor".

Great topic to tackle. In 30-plus years of Rangers, I've lost track of how many men were in for a season or two and moved on. The reasons were probably in line with what you've already stated, Claymore. The "why" is usually easy to understand, and we probably sympathize with many. We could have been a casualty, too. Any commander with a few hashmarks on his sleeve can testify to being close to bailing out a time or two in the past.

I don't look down on a man who dropped out. Hey, in these times, any man that steps up is a rarity. Just within your own church body, figure the percentage of men that serve in your outpost. One thing that I have noticed, though, is that enduring outposts usually are supported by the men's ministry group. But those groups seem to be fading away.

These days, senior commanders are often on their own in trying to recruit and retain men. I can tell you that commanders who stick with it over the long haul are usually those who have gone through training, and have a sense of the big picture. We don't always get to see the fruit of our labors, and weeding the orchard is no fun at all. But we work through it.

We are volunteers, in turn helped by other volunteers. If they aren't continually stroked by our appreciation, and reminded of the future fruits, they'll walk away before their time. Speaking of which, this is long enough for now. More thoughts later.

That's VERY close to my conclusion.

An answer to a Test Question in an early manual for Ranger Basics was, "The key to a successful Royal Ranger Outpost is...." (Answer: "The support of the Pastor").

I think that the "Pastor" and "Men's Ministries" answers are parallel.

I guess that there will always be attrition of Leaders (just like Service Members in the Military).  But we need to Support and Retain as many Quality Personnel as Possible.  So "Retention" would probably be best-filled by the Men's Ministries, while "Recruitment" by a good Pastor is indispensable.  There is nothing like having a Pastor "Hawking from the Pulpit" every 3 months about how marvelous the Royal Ranger Program is, and how much the Church needs Top-Notch Men to work with these boys.

In typing this, I think that I see part of our problem.  I believe that some Pastors and Church Members just view our involvement in Rangers as "fun" (like being in a skeet club).  They may not view it as a "Ministry" that takes a lot of hard work.

Bummer. You made me realize that there's been no pulpit hawking in my 10+ years here. The closest thing to men's ministries has been a monthly breakfast with a guest speaker from within the group. I was given the opportunity once and talked about RR. Enthusiastic verbal response, but it never translated into action.

People are motivated by what they love, not by what they know. There are a lot of things that I know I should do, but I'm limited by what personally motivates me. (Or is it what I'm personally called to do?) A person has to be open to the Holy Spirit's call and make himself available.

Once you've got that volunteer, you have to cultivate the soil that leads to a deeper commitment. The kind that gets you through the rough patches. Some thoughts on keeping them around:
- Spend "off-duty" time with your commanders.
- Men like getting awards just as much as the boys. Give them opportunity to qualify for medal recognition.
- Do your best to control the de-motivating factors (rowdy boys, time away from home, etc.)
- Preach and enforce balance...1) God 2) Family 3) Rangers...I saw a district-level Super Commander get divorced.
- Give them breaks, especially if your program is year-round.
- Keep asking for suggestions, even if they never contribute an original idea.
- Give them the occasional taste of being in charge of something for the whole outpost.
- Treat them all the same. The GMA-factory commander is no more valuable than your RK commander.
- Don't ask too much of them. Sacrifice is in our DNA, not necessarily theirs (yet).
- If you have to, provide unofficial "off the grid" training for your commanders. Something is better than nothing.
- Pray for them.

Bingo!

I am going to use the "Military Parallel", because it is so relevant.

RECRUITING and RETENTION.

You're correct about appreciating a Leader, even if he is only with the Program for a couple of years.  Some leaders are going to "cycle" through, when they have finished their basic commitment.

We probably shouldn't look down on a R/R Leader for only being with the Program for a couple of years any more than we would look down on a person for only doing one Tour in the Marine Corps.

But we need a "Retention" system to encourage men, who can handle the job to stay, and we need a "Recruiting" system to replace the inevitable attrition, due to relocation, wives, health, etc.

If not, you see the "Death Spiral" like the situation that Chris M has described at his Outpost.  He had 4 or 5 other leaders, they all left, and now the entire Program is being carried by him and his wife, with only about 5 or 6 years of experience.  That's a heavy burden for one family to bear, and will eventually lead to "burnout" and the collapse of the entire Program.

I agree with almost all that has been said here. If they have a heart for it they will stay with it. Some men are life long Rangers. Others are not.

The only thing that I have found that keeps them returning is a lot of grace. A great deal of thanks guys. Each one doing what they want to do and saying thanks for it.

As far a success. Take a calendar and plan a event once a month. Some months more. Work your meetings around that event and go and do.

IF Rangers was only a Wed or Sunday night 1.5 hour event that would not keep my attention for very long. Boys become your friends when your out doing things with them. In the classroom not so much. '

I praise God when he sends what looks like a chunk of coal my way and I find a man or woman with a heart for rangers and God works on that ole chunk of coal and they turn into a diamond after a few years.

The stars rarely stick around for more than a month or two..too much work and not enough praise. GRIN!

Ask God for good help and go and do with what you are given. If we wait for it all to be just perfect we will never leave the doors of the church.

Ask and trust God for it. He has come through every time for me. Sure there are some lean times...but even those times can be a blessing.

Mark Jones

All Good & Relevant Points, Mark.

Now, what can the Church, and we as staff (I hate the thought of being "staff") do to make the other R/R Leaders remain with the Ministry?

I'm going to throw out a few ideas:

Bruce already mentioned being liberal about giving awards to Leaders.  The Outpost has the authority to issue some medals on their own Authority.  A formal recognition with a 3-Paragraph Citation giving the reason for the award, and it only costs the Outpost $15.99.

And how about putting in the Church Bulletin when a new Volunteer joins the R/R Staff, or a Leader completes a District-Level Course, or does a Special Event for the Boys?

Our Army Reserve Division took 1 week-end per year for Family Day.  Here, the wives and kids of members were given a tour of the facilities.  Hamburgers & hot dogs were served.  Wives information was updated for Insurance & Survivor Benefits.  Kids were allowed to crawl on top of tanks, etc.  So possibly a "Family Day" cookout sponsored by the R/R Council or Men's Ministries, or whatever would work.

We also had a Formal Uniformed Dinner Dance once per year for the Sergeants & Officers and their spouses.  It wasn't free, but the Division did it at "Cost".  My wife still talks about going to those events 20 years ago.  It gave Husbands & Wives a chance to enjoy the company of their piers (how often do wives see their spouses leave to strut in uniform with the guys, while they are left at home?).  

Now, I've "primed the pump".

Dan, Chris, Tom, Arcliner, Phillip, Simeon, what else do y'all think might work?

Good topic Claymore. 

I can usually tell if they'll stick around for long by the little things. Things like attendance, follow thru, even wearing uniform consistently, and time for events. 

One cmdr became a deacon and thought they'd require him elsewhere on Wed nights. I worked with my sr cmdr back in MD he and his OPC'man were both deacons and involved in Royal Rangers fulltime. 

This recent one leaving doesn't attend Sun PM services because he needs to get to bed early to drive a half hour to work. He works a 9-5 office job. He cites moving closer to work as a reason to quit Wed nights. My dad used to get up 5am to get ready for mail delivery and he taught Straight Arrows from '80-'86. 

Like Mark said its a heart issue. Not meaning they are sinful for quitting but Self gets in the way. Other times its home life their wives nag them about doing two camp-outs and a PWD a year. I can relate to that battle firsthand. Even when I scalled back it was till complaints. 

I had a heart for sectional staff. Our leader and staff haven't met f2f in over a tear except for derby for which I wasn't present. We need put those big lofty ideas and hype into action and I haven't seen it. 

Feels like a generational thing too. We're always too "busy" to help out. I lose sleep.  I have to work over on my birthday (gf post pic of steak dinner on fb...), my deacon duties will take me away (did he ask if it would?). 

I have had Royal Rangers in the blood since 4 yrs old. Even during the 10 yr break after HS I always remembered and missed it. I've been a leader for 10 years now. I feel recent changes could one end us all

Get'em on the payroll, offer benefits, and a retirement plan...   

I do like the idea of a cookout family day. We need Mens ministry to plug us too more than once in many moons. The EEE training isn't doing it, hype doesn't do it, and guilt only works for so long. I never use guilt trips. I don't fight it if they are set on leaving. 

Every year in my old outpost we got a citation for special recognition. Never got a medal/ribbon but the paper and was presented during yearly congregational cofa. The medal/ribbon was up to the leaders to buy and wear if they wanted.

I enjoy a gift card on occasion. It's a nice gesture and is appreciated.

Our outpost pays for a hotel room at the Commander and Spouse retreat but I have never been to it as my wife is not interested in it and it's only 20 miles from our house so ... I can't see wasting the money for it.

Pizza at the leaders meetings does a good job of getting them to show up. A door prize gift card at the leaders meetings as well goes a ways.

I bought a couple of my sectional staff members a cot from my operating funds as a thanks for all their years of helping out.

Giving personal gifts are a nice touch. I learned this form our District Director whom is a good friend and well liked all around our District. He is thoughtful and kind and is a hard worker.

Mark Jones

All good points.

Dan mentioned that they gave the certificates, and the Leaders could purchase their own Ribbons or Medals.

But what is $2.99 or $15.99 if it saves the Church/Outpost from having to send a New Replacement to $200.00 worth of Ranger Orientation Training?

Sometimes, we (Churches) can be Penny-Wise and Pound-Foolish.

Here I have issued medal, ribbon, and certificate. I did the pastors medal presentation with a free vest during cofa. I surprise my pastor. I asked him to take off his jacket to wear the vest so I could pin it on him.

The new leaders service medals are RR2.0 where you get more credit for doing other ministries its not worth it.

I'm lucky. My co- Sr Cmdr is a lifer. Been in it since he was 5. I have 2 other Cmdrs who have been with me for 3+ years and have son's involved. We are working on expansion though. We currently have 2 assistants, 1 paired with me and 1 with the lifer so for illness, etc, we have ready stand ins.

We've always given recognition to the cmdrs at year end ceremonies + FCF memberships. I hadn't thought of training levels but we will now.

Our Pastor is former Ranger and is a big supporter of the ministry and Manhood in general, so that helps a lot.

On Recruiting, I would start with the men in your boy's life. Fathers, (hopefully), etc.

Something our church does is a ministry fair. Every ministry sets up a stand to talk about what they do, sign up member and volunteers. They get their table with their display board and markers. Rangers usually sets up outside with a teepee and a fire, and either uniforms or FCF outfits. Who do you think makes the impression.

I don't mean to sound cliché, but I find so sin in selling the ministry, when you are being honest. Scripture itself said "Well done my good and faithful servant" for such activities.

For Retention,
Start small and progress up.
For the first month, a new Commander is General Help. Get to know the boys, they get to know you, and get to know the program.
I have a brief booklet I have every new Cmdr start out with, and recently I've followed it up with Raising a Modern Day Knight. I'm slowly building a Outpost Library of such books.
As they acclimate, then they start increasing their roll. Running games, in charge of projects. What are their skill sets?

Ask for input, there's a joke, "None of us is as dumb as all of us", but there is a lot more life experience with more people. Old hat to you may be new to us. I've brought a lot of my old country church I grew up at into the city church I serve in and it goes over well.

That being said, for the Rangers, I've always said a Cmdr is a Cmdr, is a Cmdr. I don't care if a particular Cmdr is the one you work with on Wed or not. They are still a Cmdr and you respect that.

It's kind-of an Affirmation to see that Tom's Outpost is actually employing the Principles of Recruitment and Retention of Leaders, and they seem to be in Better-Than-Average shape.

Congratulations to Tom, your Pastor, and your Staff.

(Huh?  This stuff works!)   

Our outpost has 20 active leaders. We have a leaders meeting about every 2 months. Big events have a extra planning meeting.

We have given out at some of our COA over 400 merit/advancements/patches.

Outpost pays for any training we want to take... (we have been through the WCO at least 3 times) Several National Staff are active in our outpost.

We attend almost every District - Sectional event. We host over a dozen multi outpost events for our geo area churches... there is 70 AG churches in our Springfield Sections.

We are blessed. Yet the Commanders have to have a heart for Rangers.... even with all the blessings and support from out outpost budget life leaders are perhaps a 1/3 of our outpost. The rest come and go we have a turn around of about 5 leaders in a years time. I keep the records so that is pretty close.

Mark Jones

The other AG church in town had a succession of senior commanders, none of which served for more than a year or two. They got tons of pastoral support and a bucket load of money. They cancelled RR a few years ago. Why? What happened? There was a lack of being called to this ministry by God. The leaders were only caretakers, and it eventually ended up with the undertaker.

With the commanders in my outpost, I've been blessed not with quantity, but quality. Rangers is their personal ministry and they're faithful. I've also consistently had dads that hang out and lend a helping hand when needed. One of them is a Catholic and police officer. The other night, after a particularly trying time with the Discovery group   , I turned to him and said "Is there a full moon out tonight?" He took that as a cue and read the riot act to the boys.

God sends help in different packages. Be alert and use them.

I guess I live in a different outpost world than the rest of you guys.

Our AR Commander left in June 2011 because he didn't want to deal with the new program. I still haven't replaced him. Its been just Christi & I since then. I heard two of the Ranger parents talk about how we needed help in RR, yet 2 years on, still no help.   

I truly believe it comes back to having a supportive pastor. RR and AHG are the flagship ministries at our church and the support follows suit. We also don't treat them as "in house" ministries. I would say that 50-60% of our kids are from other churches, and 3 of the 8 leaders are from another church as well. We don't make attending OUR church a requirement to attend or work in the ministry. We make sure their hearts are in alignment with the ministry. For us RR and AHG is a community outreach, not a babysitting session while mom and dad are in "big church". That's why we've never scheduled our outpost meetings to coincide with any other meeting time.

I'm open to kids attending Wed Royal Rangers even if they attend another church. The 2nd half of my ranger career as as boy was spent being dropped off for Royal Rangers at my old A/G church and my parents attending CoG of Cleveland, TN. We attended there on Sundays as a family but my sister and I went to Royal Rangers and M'ettes in the A/G church. 

The issue I'm wondering is you said leaders from other churches run your ministries too?  Are they from other denominations that share core beliefs?  Do they go through background checks?  In my old outpost we had one leader who attended another A/G church but helped in our Royal Rangers outpost on Wed. His church was mostly older folks. 

It doesn't surprise me when parents or others say we need help but are always too "busy" to help on Wed nights or at an event.

Of course we know these people. They just happen to go to different churches (one being my dad).

There's a difference between being open to others coming and creating a situation where they can. If we had RR on Wed nights we would MAYBE have one or two of our kids from other churches. But that's the kind of thing that the Sr pastor has to be cool with. A lot of pastors want something while he's preaching so the kids can go to it. Some pastors just might not want people doing ministry when he's not around. All comes back to pastoral support.

Good points, Phillip.

Does the Pastor see Rangers as a Ministry, or as a Wednesday Night Babysitting Service? (Not your Pastor, personally. Just a Rhetorical Question.)

ccm2361 wrote: 2 years on, still no help.   

At a large breakfast gathering of men, I shared about Rangers. Ended by asking them if they had a personal hobby or skill that they would like to show the boys some night. I had a dozen sign up and I put them into the schedule. Many of their skills happened to be RR merits. I didn't get any full-timers from this recruiting effort, but something was better than nothing. Give it a shot. You got nothing to lose.

O-U-T-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G idea.

You know, I had a former Commander, who does competitions in Dutch Oven Cooking. He makes the best Peach Cobbler in the Tri-State Area.

I'm sure that he wouldn't mind coming back for another demonstration.

(Moments like this REALLY make this site a Gem of Info.)

ccm2361 wrote:yet 2 years on, still no help.   

if God raptures me to Mi, I'll volunteer