Howdy from Tennessee!

Hey Y'all.  I am Jeff Childers from Fayetteville, TN.  I am the Sr. Cmdr for Alabama Outpost 48 (although we are actually in TN) and we have about 25-30 boys in our Ranger program.  We are blessed with great commanders and eager boys.  I started helping with Royal Rangers in 1980 right after college and have been involved off and on ever since.  All of the changes in the Ranger program are sometimes hard for me to grasp.  I guess I am an oldtimer, having retired 6 years ago from work and travel.  My Ranger group has recently added Adventure Rangers to our RK and DR program.  I am looking forward to new experiences and will be regularly checking out this forum.  I think I will like it here because we already have so much in common.

Hello, Jeff! You'll find a mix of young and old here, all of us wanting to serve the Lord in whatever way He needs us to. Reach-Teach-Keep is one way. Glad to hear your outpost is doing well. Mine was shut down a few years ago by a children's pastor who is also gone now. Our current CP started up a co-ed program that is the next closest thing to RR. Why not take the extra step?

Have you heard any noise about Rangers in the USA turning coed like most of the world has already done?

Not from the national office. Missionettes would scream, much like the Girl Scouts are yelling at, and suing, Scouts USA (formerly known as the Boy Scouts).

But here and there, small churches are doing it. When in between children's pastors, my wife and I created a co-ed group that we called Voyagers. The younger group was the Clark Brigade and the older kids were part of the Lewis Brigade. We melded similar RR/M'nette advancements and the kids earned patches. They loved it. Needed far fewer leaders to run it, too. Not quite legit, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

RangerJeff wrote:Have you heard any noise about Rangers in the USA turning coed like most of the world has already done?

Welcome Jeff
That rumor has been floating around for years. But personally I doubt it. As Joe Cool pointed out, it would stomp on the toes of MPACT (Missisonettes) & GPH who has loads of MPACT items to sell.

But that hasn't stopped anyone from running cod outposts. There have been a number of coed outposts in Michigan over the years, my own outpost one of them. I ran Rangers Coed for 7 years.

I think it would take a collapse of M'ettes to cause a coed rr usa.

if you're foreign its God's will
if you're American its an abomination lol

RRCmdrBennett wrote:I think it would take a collapse of M'ettes to cause a coed rr usa.  

l

I think that CMDR Bennett is right. My wife used to say, "Missionettes is boring. Why do Rangers get to do all the fun things?"".

Jeff, I am Commander of Outpost #28 in Red Bay, Alabama. I see that you are just a stone's throw from Huntsville. I believe that there are some pretty active outposts there.

Also...I am an NRA Rifle, Pistol, Shotgun, & Home Firearms Instructor. If you ever want to do a Friday Overnight with classes on Saturday, I can get the boys their Firearms Safety Merit.

(Pastor lets us shoot BB-Guns & Air Rifles in the Fellowship Hall ).

Claymore! Have you ever participated in any of the Tennessee Valley Section Royal Ranger activities? We have a great section and hold at least 4 camps though out the year. We are going to Valhermoso Springs, AL tomorrow to camp and attend a work day on Saturday Our next camp out is Sep 27/28 at the same place. Is that too far for y'all to join us? I know you would be welcomed. The event is Old Fashioned Farm Day to support Outreach Ministries of Alabama (OMA) It offers rappelling, hawk and axe, .22 rifles, archery, a cow train for the littles, and lots of contests (upside down tea drinking, egg toss, lemon eating, tractor pull, tug-of-war, plus a youth rodeo with live calves, pigs (and grease and mud). It is a blast for the whole family. The older boys camp on Friday and the younger ones come down on Saturday for the feast which includes lots of ice cream and cobbler. Interested in joining us?

As for working together for merits … Yes, we do that, too. Mostly Leadership merits, but we can expand the idea and do almost any merit that can be accomplished in a day.

By the way, as a point of clarification, my church is in TN, but the main campus is in Huntsville. We participate in both AL and TN events.

Claymore, I will talk to our boys about the shooting merits soon and see if we can get together to offer the safety class and maybe even do a lot of shooting on the BB Gun or Air Rifle merits. It would be cool if we could get an outpost in the Decatur area to host it since that is about halfway between us (less driving). What do you think?

Jeff,  I'm afraid that my Medicine Show isn't designed to go "over the road".  

It involves Target Boxes, Target Backings, and Shooting Mats for 5 Firing Points, 8 encased Target BB-Guns, Training Materials, a Laser Firearms Training Simulator and Screen, with a 20 Gauge Remington 870 Shotgun adapted with a Laser Insert.  

It is just too much to transport, and takes me a half day to set up, even on Home Turf.

(Hence, the invitation for your boys to have an Overnighter in the Fellowship Hall.)

My Program of Instruction can handle 10 students (plus a couple of leaders who can go through the Course). 5 Firing Points, with 1 Student as the "Shooter" and 1 Student as "Coach" on each point.

Well...I guess I should have just said "Road Trip!" Ha! I will contact you after I talk to my boys. Thanks.

Let me know. I'm pretty flexible.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to get your boys ready to participate in the 2019 National Postal Matches. Team have to be formed, Registration completed, and targets fired by October 30.


But you would have plenty of time to form teams for the 2020 Matches.

I guess I'll take my future posts elsewhere since this started as an introduction, but has changed. Why don't you and your senior patrol leader plan on driving over to Valhermoso springs and join us for Old Fashioned Farm Day on 28 Sep? You will find me in the FCF Village. I will have a chair in the shade ready for you.

Jeff, Let me check my schedule. Thanks for the invitation.

Ice cream and cobbler, too, my treat! Y'all come!

Good job guys. It's always good to see outposts working together and having fun and character development all the while pointing them boys and girls to Jesus Christ and His Church. Rangers can be the BEST of the BEST! We just have to go and do and often stretch out a bit more. So many talented leaders and friends of rangers around. Keep up the great job. You inspire me!