Imagine trying to create an entire training program for a new Royal Rangers program . . . one that hadn't even been created yet. That was the challenge that was given to the training committee that has been working on the LTA since before Rich Mariott was appointed to serve as national commander. Sure, as the new staff in the national office developed materials they were shared with the committee, who in turn shared them with the authors of the various modules. But the materials continued to be changed and refined through the entire development effort. Thus, when completed modules came back to the committee, and things were "finalized" . . . they weren't really final. The modules had to go to the national office for final editing, since things could have, and did, change during the writing of the module.
Once the national office did their edits of the modules that were finished, those modules were pilot tested in January of this year at a regional conference. Based on those pilot tests, further changes were made that affected not only those modules, but others as well, and even resulted in changes to the list of modules that are required for the LMA. Other modules were finished between January and March (yes, some were finished the week of National Council), and the entire set was again pilot tested in March. But now the results of those pilot tests must be incorporated back into all of the modules, and again, changes to one may impact others.
Why weren't all of the modules ready for the January pilot test? Partly because many of the original authors of modules backed out, or simply didn't deliver what they agreed to deliver. Or what they did deliver was not usable without major modifications. Several people throughout the country have worked many hours on modules that they did not originally agree to do, just to try to have them done on time. The national staff slept very little the week of National Council as they were frantically trying to finish the modules for the pilot test; some of the committee members were working with them as well to get them done.
What has happened since March to delay the revisions? The new curriculum. As the various pieces of curriculum go through the various stages of production at GPH, the guys in the national office have to be involved. Final edits, page layout, etc. all have to be approved by our national office staff. So for the past 3-4 months (and actually longer than that) they have had the difficult choice -- spend time with GPH so the curriculum could be released, or spend time on training so it can be released. Since experienced commanders can effectively use the new curriculum without additional training (beyond the Transitions module), it makes more sense to me for them to focus on getting the curriculum out, and it appears that that is the choice that they made.
At some point in time GPH will not need the guys in the national office as much for approvals, and they will be able to focus again more of their energies to getting the training materials out the door.
Be patient with our national RR staff . . . as Mark Jones pointed out a couple of days ago, they are working incredible hours to get all of the materials done as quickly as they can. But they can only accomplish so much in a 14-16 hour work day (6+ days a week).
Jonathan
------------------------------------------- Jonathan Trower South Central Regional Training Coordinator E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 254-420-1941 Fax: 254-710-1091 Home Page: http://home.hot.rr.com/trower/
_______
List host: http://eBible.org/mpj/ List info: http://eBible.org/rangernet/faq.htm
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://eBible.org/subscribe.htm
