On Monday, December 9, 2002, at 12:34 PM, Lone Ranger wrote:
Would never call you out of touch mi amigo. A tad out in left field maybe....<G>Howdy *Burn'nheart- I read with intrest this merit schedule, and step out on the thin ice to honk<G>: *No Ranger Meeting should revolve around "Merit Aquirement" to give purpose to the group. Here's a few of my reasons- 1. Merit's are an opportunity for Commander to include other Adults as advisors, councilors and expand his resources. Commander allready has enough to do with paperwork- My *wild idea is to ask every Ranger parent to sign up as a merit councilor, and use a "study guide" form to walk the boy thru the merit requirements. *The boy and this other Adult must work out the requirements between themselves, in person,by phone E-mail anyway they want.. *But the end positive is that the boy becomes at ease in talking to a diverse population of Adults.. *and one Parent.. get's to participate with every member of the Outpost one on one in the course of time. 2."Presentations" can be done in the meeting as a feature.. but the nut's and bolts achievement needs to back the growing communication skills of the Ranger boy. The meeting format should remain as per LTC guidelines.. with perhaps more focus of Patrol planning and event driven adventure's.. It's Royal Rangers not Sunday School<G> -=A=- (How out of touch am I amigo?)
Nah, actually what you say makes sense. When I was a Pioneer commander I tried to get as many parents involved as I could. Always advertised outings as "Father-son."
Not to exclude mom but because many boys have very little time with dad nowadays. Many boys have very little time with a male role model, period.
Our best outing was an overnighter to a place called Crabtree Falls in mid-October.
The axle on the trailer broke. We had to haul thirty-five participants and their gear two miles up a narrow, one-lane mountain road... but to this day the dads and sons still talk about what a great campout it was.
A quick storm came through after we got all the boys bedded down. I stepped out of my tent in time to see the weather front pass over the surrounding ridge and the Milky Way come out in full glory.
The next day we day hiked to Spy Rock (about 3.5 miles). About halfway there we came to a stretch of trail that was surrounded by a maple grove. There were gold leaves overhead, underfoot and on down the slope. A sunny day in a golden cathedral. Had a great teachable moment about the Glory of God. The dads helped patrols work on advancements. Good stuff
That night the boys cooked tin foil dinners for their dads and themselves. We had a "snipe hunt." I laughed 'til I cried.
It was my son Nathan's first campout as a Pioneer and he woke me up at 3 AM with "Dad, I think there's a bear in the camp!" this was entirely possible as the boys had been amazed earlier in the night when a small herd of deer had come into camp to nibble on wild blackberries.
Anyway I woke up and listened hard..."Sorry, son, that's just Deacon Nelson next door snoring."
Woke up on Sunday to Breakfast burritos and Sunday school at the head of the falls overlooking the Tye River gorge.
Got a couple of commanders and a lot of committed dads from that one.
Oh....and one dad got saved.
Nah.........you ain't out of touch , bro.
Gary "Burnin' Heart"
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"Do to others as you would have them do to you."
-- Luke 6:31 (NIV)
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