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2017 Ranger Essentials Training at Oak Grove AOG in Springfield Missouri. Gary Rowe our SW Division Training Coordinator held a Ranger Essentials Class on Saturday October 28th. He was assisted by Jerry Millhouser, Ray Reece and doing student teaching Mark Jones. The class had 9 leaders from our area and we enjoyed the fellowship and their input in the training sessions Lunch time Rob and Cindy Helfer cooked up a pot of Steak and Vegetable stew and a raspberry desert that had us going back for seconds! The team of both teachers and students were refreshed in the best part of working with our Rangers. The leaders manual is packed full of good info. I personally find it a good idea to pick it up and read some chapters out of it to refresh what we know about our Rangers and often forget. In our busy life the things that matter can often slip right on past us.

Years past after the ICS training in 2006 my instructor certifications expired and I didn't renew my training. Our District in 2006 had just under 40 Instructors./ Here is a picture of that ICS I attended. Rangers and training has changed significantly and we currently have 11 instructors on staff at this time for our District. To give honor where honor is due in alphabetical order by last name our So. MO Instructors are Rick Barnhouse, Don Bixler, Ralph Davis, Norm Kirsch, Kelly Michael, Richard Michael, Jerry Millhouser, Ray Reece, Frank Reed, Gary Rowe, Larry Toll. Last week in my preparations for student teaching I was reminded of the hard work that goes into holding these training events. Just my 2 hours of teaching took several hours of prep time to become acquainted with the new training and to become a subject matter expert. We are blessed to have Richard Michael as our District Training Coordinator and in April once again we will come together at our District Leadership Conference to do our best to hone our skills at being the BEST Ranger Leader we can be.

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