New Change for Leadership merits

I happened to pop on to the National site to see what was new & saw this

https://royalrangers.com/en/news/Program-Helps/2019-07-Leadership-Merit-Update-2019?D={0DB6EE67-D8C0-4853-9BA4-0D8891FB3FAA}

July 17, 2019

As part of our ongoing efforts to make the Royal Rangers program more suitable for churches of any size, an important change has been made to the way in which leadership merits may be earned.

According to previous requirements, five specific lessons associated with each leadership merit must be completed in order to earn a specific leadership merit. That is, the five lessons associated with Leadership 203 must be completed for a boy to earn the Leadership 203 merit. However, this practice has led to significant challenges:

   Boys who attend Royal Rangers inconsistently may be unable to complete all the specified lessons for a specific leadership merit, leading to significant make-up efforts on the part of the leader or boy or the inability of the boy to complete his advancement trail.
   Royal Rangers outposts in smaller churches where multiple age groups are combined into one class face challenges in teaching material that is applicable to the advancement trail of every boy in their class.

In order to eliminate these obstacles, the following changes have been made, beginning April 1, 2019:

   The leadership lessons currently associated with a specific leadership merit will now be referred to as a “leadership lesson set” rather than a leadership merit.
   Boys from any age group may complete any leadership lesson from any leadership lesson set and count that lesson to satisfy the requirements for the next leadership merit in his age group. (Note: This does not apply to Ranger Kids since the Ranger Kids advancement trail does not include leadership merits.)
   Each leadership merit is earned by completing any four (4) Royal Rangers leadership lessons and participating in a group service project.
   Leadership merits must be earned sequentially. For example, a Discovery Ranger who completes four (4) lessons and a service project receives Leadership 101. When he completes an additional four (4) lessons and another service project, he receives Leadership 102, and so on.

This change enables outposts leaders teaching combined groups to teach one leadership lesson, allowing every boy in the group to receive credit toward his next leadership merit. For example, if a leader is teaching a combined group that includes Discovery, Adventure, and Expedition Rangers, he can teach any Royal Rangers leadership lesson (red, gold, or sky blue) to the entire group. The Discovery Rangers will receive credit toward their next RED leadership merit. The Adventure Rangers will receive credit toward their next GOLD leadership merit. The Expedition Rangers will receive credit toward their next SKY BLUE leadership merit.

This change also enables boys who have missed a leadership lesson with their group to make up the lesson with another group or wait until the next lesson is taught to complete his leadership merit.

It should be noted that the structure of the Royal Rangers advancement system has not changed. Only the way leadership merits may be earned has changed.

Big thumbs up to this. That will make things a lot easier for small outposts

Mark or anyone know if they ever finished up all 6 ldrship merits for each group?

My new outpost we have yet to teach any of these. We plan on teaching them enough to get into FCF. So were about to teach one at least.

I personally have not liked the leadership merits. Having boys running on all 4's and bouncing ping pong balls into cups is in my opinion a waste of my time. GRIN! A single 23 hour campout teaching a whole lot more than a whole stack of leadership merits in my opinion. I have been in on teaching 4 or 5 of them. Yet my opinion still remains. I requested to the National Office that they allow a 23 hour campout to count as a leadership merit. Bring your own, Cook your own, or go hungry is the best teaching method. The boys learn fast and they enjoy it.

I just looked over (again) the Adventure Ranger 202 Gold Leadership Merit. While I can see some "Team Building" skills, I have had excellent results in rotating positions of leadership in the Patrol System. I try to show the boys how the leader or the patrol members can "make or break" the success of the patrol.

Does it work? I have had several Youth Group Leaders remark that they can easily tell the boys who have been in Royal Rangers by their leadership ability and how well they can work in a team.

Claymore wrote:I just looked over (again) the Adventure Ranger 202 Gold Leadership Merit.  While I can see some "Team Building" skills, I have had excellent results in rotating positions of leadership in the Patrol System.  I try to show the boys how the leader or the patrol members can "make or break" the success of the patrol.

Does it work?  I have had several Youth Group Leaders remark that they can easily tell the boys who have been in Royal Rangers by their leadership ability and how well they can work in a team.

Well said, Claymore. While I have always had the senior boy (by rank) as the Senior/Patrol Guide, I rotated all the other positions. It helped them to be ready to lead in case they rose to the top. Leaders are made, not born. You can always find something in a good leader's past that prepared them.

joecool wrote:

Claymore wrote:I just looked over (again) the Adventure Ranger 202 Gold Leadership Merit.  While I can see some "Team Building" skills, I have had excellent results in rotating positions of leadership in the Patrol System.  I try to show the boys how the leader or the patrol members can "make or break" the success of the patrol.

Does it work?  I have had several Youth Group Leaders remark that they can easily tell the boys who have been in Royal Rangers by their leadership ability and how well they can work in a team.

Well said, Claymore. While I have always had the senior boy (by rank) as the Senior/Patrol Guide, I rotated all the other positions. It helped them to be ready to lead in case they rose to the top. Leaders are made, not born. You can always find something in a good leader's past that prepared them.  

In 1970, my entire Noncommissioned Officer Candidate Class (120 men) was "given over" to the Fort Benning Ranger Committee for 2 weeks.

Week #1 was Knot Tying, Rappelling, Introduction to Patrolling, 5-Paragraph Op-Orders, Advanced Map Reading, etc.

Week #2 was spent living in the woods doing constant patrolling in the Georgia Woods/Swamp, 1 C-Ration per day, and 3 hours of sleep per night (6 hour Down-Time with 50% Security).

The 120 men were divided into 5 Patrols. Each Patrol had a Platoon Leader and about 4 Squad Leaders, and each time that you ran into another patrol, it was "enemy".


You were evaluated on your leadership skills, and if you failed "Ranger Phase", you just failed a 12 week school. In the middle of an operation, the R.I. (Ranger Instructor) might say to the Patrol Leader, "You're dead.", then point to someone else and say, "You're in charge. Take over.".

So you couldn't be just following the guy in front of you. You had to know exactly where you were on the map. You may be immediately assigned to be in charge and to call for fire support, or get the patrol through a "danger zone", or withdraw to the assigned "rally point".

I would do the same with the boys. One night, I brought splint materials: ace bandages, two 8-foot 2x2 poles, and a poncho. We went through how to splint a broken leg and how to make a poncho litter.

When we finished, and just after we folded up all of the supplies, I said, "Ranger Billy. Your leg is broke. Lay down and start screaming." (Now Ranger Billy did most of the work, so they lost their leader.)

"You people, imobilize and splint that leg. Make a poncho litter. The truck is on that road (50 yards away). The ground is too soft for the truck to get here. Carry Billy over to that road on the litter."


And you know what? They did it. There was a little fumbling, but Ranger Billy's leg got splinted, and they carried him to the road on the poncho litter.

Somehow, I lost an Ace Bandage in the field, during the process.

Oh well. Write it off as a Combat Loss.

(Leadership Training)