After having planned for and worked at the sectional Ranger of the Year (ROTY) Evaluation, and worked at the district and regional ROTY Evaluation, I was amazed at changes. Granted, there is much more time, work, and planning involved, but the individual sections no longer have to write their own tests for the sectional evaluation. We know exactly what is needed to run the evaluations, what materials to bring, how to run it, what to expect, and how many people you need to be successful and run it.
However, this year we have seen decreased participation at sectional, district, and regional ROTY evaluations across the nation. What is the cause behind this low attendance at ROTY? It is not because each outpost is limited to only sending one boy from each age group, because now any boy that qualifies to attend sectional and district is able to attend and be evaluated. Furthermore, every boy that qualifies at the outpost level automatically becomes an Outpost ROTY. Every boy that attends the sectional evaluation automatically becomes a Sectional ROTY. How well a boy does at the sectional or district level determines if the boy achieves the excellent level or the outstanding level. So with there being no limit on the number of boys who can advance we should expect there to be increased numbers at each level of evaluations. However, that was not what we saw this year.
Is it because boys are sick of the boy against boy competition? It is not that either. With the new ROTY program the boy against boy competition has been eliminated. ROTY is now the boy competing against a set standard. Already you can find the study guides for next year on the sectional web site (www.royalrangers.net/ntd/waco/) and on the national web site (royalrangers.ag.org) for each age group. These study guides are reproducible in the local outpost to be handed out to each boy. This way the boys know exactly what they need to be studying to get ready for ROTY.
So if there is no limit on the number of boys that can be sent to the higher levels of evaluations and the boys can know exactly what they need to be studying for ROTY, why did we see decreased attendance in ROTY across the nation? I believe there are three reasons that stick out above the others. First, boys did not meet that standards necessary to be able to advance to the higher levels of evaluation for ROTY; second, that the boys, parents, and commanders were intimidated by the application that must be filled out for every boy; and third, the boys didn’t know how to prepare for the evaluations.
The first reason is understandable. For some of the age groups, the materials have not been out long enough to allow many boys to qualify. However, with the way the ROTY program is set up, if you do not have any boys that qualify to attend the sectional evaluations from your outpost, you are able to send the boy that has the most points on their ROTY application to represent your outpost in that age group. This was done so that every church can be represented at the next higher level of evaluation.
The second reason is also understandable. The application is now lengthier than the one that we used for many years. However, if the local age group commander takes the time to keep accurate and detailed records for each boy, filling out of the application for each boy would be easy. I recently sat down and in the span of about five minutes I had filled out the entire application as if I was an Expedition Ranger.
As commanders we can look forward to the tracking CD that is going to be available in April, 2005. It is designed to keep track of the information that is needed to fill out the ROTY forms. I firmly believe that if we as commanders do a better job at keeping records and filling out the applications for the boys that we can see an increased attendance at the higher levels of ROTY.
That leaves us with the final reason – that the boys did not know how to prepare for the evaluations. In this case that is the fault of their commanders. The study guides are available on the sectional and national web site, and they can be passed out to every boy so that they know exactly what to study. This is a vast improvement over the past where the boys were told to study “everything” because no one knew what they would be evaluated over. That is no longer the case, the study guides tell the boys exactly what they need to study for the evaluations.
The commander is also able to help their boys with these study guides, because the local commander can take time each week, once a quarter, or over a weekend and make sure that the boys have completed everything they need in terms of merits to be able to be successful at ROTY.
Here in the Waco Section we want to see the boys in the section be successful at the ROTY. To do this, at the Round Table January 13, 2005, we are going to cover different ways that commanders can be preparing their boys for the ROTY as well as steps that you can begin taking now to make sure that you have accurate records. At the April 14, 2005, Round Table we will be handing out the assignments on what each church will be expected to help with at the Sectional ROTY, and at the July 21, 2005, Round Table we will be going through the different applications so you will be ready to fill out the applications as the time arrives. At the July Round Table we will also be talking about the final preparations you need to be doing to make sure that your boys are ready for the Sectional ROTY evaluation on August 20, 2005.
I want to leave each of you with a challenge. I would like to see each church strive to have 30% of your boys in each age group achieve Outpost ROTY, 20% of your boys in each age group to achieve Sectional ROTY, and 10% of your boys in each age group to achieve District ROTY for the 2004-2005 ROTY evaluation year. I believe these are obtainable goals.
David Trower
Web, Publications, and Productions Coordinator