Advancement Trail

I need a little tutelage on the advancement trail. We just haven't made the advancement trail a very high priority, but I think we are getting to the point where we need to because of the rangers we've got.

I understand that DR's can do AR skill merits and they will count towards that ranger's trail once he becomes an AR, and likewise as he progresses up the age ladder. My question is if an AR can use a DR skill merit for his advancement trail, or if an ER can use an AR skill merit for his advancement trail.

We have boys who are just coming into RR that have never done DR merits, and some boys who haven't even done AR merits. The issue I'm seeing is that the most fundamental skill merits are the DR merits, and then the AR merits are a continuation. It just seems a shame if a boy wanted to, for instance, try to get up the advancement trail in AR, but miss out on some of the core merits from back in DR.

So what do you guys suggest?

Y'all don't leave me hanging now.... I've got a commander's meeting tomorrow and I need to have these things figured out!

Phillip Gross wrote:I understand that DR's can do AR skill merits and they will count towards that ranger's trail once he becomes an AR, and likewise as he progresses up the age ladder. My question is if an AR can use a DR skill merit for his advancement trail, or if an ER can use an AR skill merit for his advancement trail.

DR's can use DR Blue skill merits or AR Green merits for advancement
AR's cans use AR Green merits or ER Silver merits for advancement

Phillip Gross wrote:We have boys who are just coming into RR that have never done DR merits, and some boys who haven't even done AR merits. The issue I'm seeing is that the most fundamental skill merits are the DR merits, and then the AR merits are a continuation. It just seems a shame if a boy wanted to, for instance, try to get up the advancement trail in AR, but miss out on some of the core merits from back in DR.

AR's can work on the DR trail at the same time & earn DR advancements too. You can go back 1 age group for catching up.

hope that helps

But AR's can't use DR merits to count towards their trail. Just to clarify. So a boy who comes in to RR at an older age can of course go back to learn merits, but it's just for his own personal knowledge instead of for any advancement? Of course, other than those DR merits that are prerequisites to an AR merit?

AR can earn DR GEA medal too as well as GMA.

Thank you for taking time with me on the phone today, Dan. The commander's meeting went well this afternoon and I'm excited about this coming year!

I'd just like to say how much I appreciate you guys. I had called Mark the other day and left him a voicemail about this topic. I found out today that he had quite a busy weekend, but called me today to chat about advancements and ask how the backpacking trip went. It honestly means a lot that you guys are willing to take your time and give it to those in need. Once again, y'all prove to be a great resource of knowledge and friendship.

Just think if the body of Christ as a whole adopted this kind of mentality and was willing to reach out and help each other instead of back bite and point fingers!

Thank you again guys for your time, both on and off of this forum.

That's what its all about

I don't know where I would be without the advice of these guys back when I was a rookie Commander

Who says you are higher than a rookie???

RRCmdrBennett wrote:AR can earn DR GEA medal too as well as GMA.

Can ER drop back and earn the GMA? I may have an ER or two that would like to give it the gusto and see what they can achieve.

If they can't get the GMA, what is there to achieve for a high schooler who hasn't been in rangers very long?

DR > RK, AR > DR, and ER > AR

USually ER is where most boys earn GMA.

So when a boy drops back to do a merit from a younger group, those merits will count towards the younger group's advancement trail, which a boy is still allowed to earn, but not his current trail.

So if an ER is working on his GMA, that's fine and good, but those merits don't count towards E1, E2, E3? So how do Bible merits come into play? Can the ER still do ER Bible merits while doing AR skill merits in order to achieve the GMA?

Yes, ER boy can make up usually on his own time the brown lessons. Add two alternative lessons suc as Youth or Sun School its only 6 brown lessons.

Note too that a DR can earn an AR green and has a choice to apply it to GEA or bank it for the GMA later. An Uber DR could do both trails at once.

Might sound funny that we've been an outpost for over three years and I still didn't totally get the whole advancement trail system, but we just didn't pay much attention to it to begin with. We were kind of doing our own thing for awhile. Some things were pretty good, and we're continuing those things, but others haven't worked out so well and we're adjusting. But I'm finally getting a handle on everything, which is nice.

Ya. It might sound odd but I found out the other day I was not up on the latest changes. So your not alone. Just think in 25 years you to can say... "well it might sound odd but I found out the other day I was not up on the latest changes."

We went for almost 25 years with almost change to a whole new system every 4 years. I think they need to fire the change guy and get their money back and go back to the JB methods.

It works. RTK folks for Christ. It worked well.

No focus on merits but we did teach some.
No focus on playing kick the can to show we are developing leaders...we just played some fun games every now and then.
No focus on Bible merits we just had a sword drill every now and then and the boys and leaders all new the salvation scriptures by memory..today we don't.
We did a program feature that was focused around the next event coming up so all the boys would come on the event and get saved or filled with the Holy Spirit again and again until it stuck.

We still had 3% GMA. We still taught Leadership by the patrol method. We still had over 125,000 men and boys enrolled in the program that knew how to camp, survive, tools safety, compass and how to build a fire. Today our Rangers can at best just barely remember something about it. One and done.

Try the JB methods. Put the patrol system back into order and Reach, Teach and the hardest part KEEP folks for Christ. That's Rangers.

Mark Jones

1 sorry for my absence, family life.
2 I actually start every young man in middle or high school on the AR Trail to give them the opportunity for GMA. Their vest/shirt can have the Expedition group tag, but I like the structure or AR better. I add some silver skills in to keep the ER's challenged but there is a lot in the green merits any way.
3 If GMA is motivating how about Jr / Lt Commander.
Have a young man interested and a good role model, and about to graduate HS? Ask what his plans are after. If he is going to be local, look into training your own commanders, build your team up.

I think we're going to get our high school boys into the ER curriculum, but will give them plenty of opportunity to do their GMA. We'll see how all that goes. We're still a relatively new outpost....

Remember ER boys doing silver merits can use them for GMA or E3.

Can you show me where that says that? Not that I don't believe you, buy I just didon't see that before and that would give us more flexibility.

Check AR handbook should say in the elective requirements green or silver.

Also if you look at the applications for the medals (free for download ) it says Greens/silvers

The only merits that CAN count toward GMA is DR red leadership.

So we could do a Red leadership merit with all boys from DR-ER and everyone working towards GMA could use it??

GMA, GEA, or E3 won't matter.

What does that even mean???? I need a little more description there, please.