Man in Royal Rangers - this is the biggest stumbling block to doing great things - reliving past glories, trying to raise the dead in dumb, uninspiring and cold activities.

Sometimes dead things are better off buried!

Are there some elements in your yearly calendar, or weekly meeting that are dull, lifeless and just plain dead?

Is the only justification for ding them that "we've always done it" or "but that's what Rangers do..."?

If so - seek, kill and destroy those things.

Just because someone once thought that a car wash would be the best, and most fun activity a boy could desire - and decided to run a car wash the first Saturday in June - doesn't mean you have to run a car wash on the first Saturday in June.

You know only you and two other "suckers" are gonna show up anyways.
You'll only be discouraged.
Any leaders that show are only going to be embarrassed.
Any kid who comes will be curing their poor judgement all day.

Don't do it.
Cancel it.
Remove it.
Delete it.
Forget it.

Look for something new - create your own hopeless events if you have to - but don't live someone elses.

Phew - You've gotta be doing new things all the time.

When I took on the position as State Commander for Royal Rangers in NSW, I told our teams that we would be changing lots of things. I suggested that there were a few "core values" - things that we would never change - because that would change who we were.

But - I said - everything else was up for grabs.

Every other item on every future agenda in every meeting would need to justify its existence. if there wasn't a compelling reason to keep it - it went.

Now hear me here I am not advocating change for the sake of change (although for many of your programs - you need some change, and any change would do).

Catch the spirit with which I speak. "You've gotta be moving forward, cause if you're not, you're moving backwards - and that means you're dying!"

Action Plan - Change some things

• change the date of your outpost camp
• change the order of the weekly meeting plan
• call opening parade at the back of the hall instead of the front
• don't run the car wash
• do hire a donut machine and sell donuts on Saturday next
• cancel the annual father son picnic day
• cancel the annual father son campout
• cancel the annual father son banana bending contest
• schedule a "first ever" father son rappelling conquest
• schedule a "first ever" mother son ball (yes dancing!)
• get rid of the boring newsletter you put out ever term
• buy post cards and run them through the printer announcing the next event
• have a mufti (non-uniform) night
• announce that from now on Rangers will meet on Thursday nights
• double the salaries of all commanders

You get the point. There are many, many, many elements you can change in your program.

Change some.

Don't be one of the last people still standing on the Titanic shouting "We'll never sink - we never have before!"

Come on - it's not that bad!

Have a "whatever it takes" mentality that stands on the foundation of core values and shouts "everything else is up for grabs!"