The HS association I belong to REQUIRES two years of classroom training (which also now includes a lot of mechanics work on the field too!) as well as 3 more years after that of "advanced training". You are not required to attend the advanced training, but the commissioner has made it clear that by not doing so, you will see that reflected in your assignments.

I think this 5 years of training has opened the eyes of some of the old timers in the association, and that they will either work towards improvement, or at least not complain when they are not assigned at the level they think they should be.

This year, our association is making a discernable effort to make the meeting more professional, and thus, possibly shorter, and the material presented more clear!

If anything, that was always my beef before, that the material was not presented very clear, then you get a bunch of people adding their war stories on top of information that is being misinterpreted because of a weak presentation. It add's up to a big ol' mess.

We shall see if this year things improve. So far, the first meeting of the general membership seemed to go well. I will reserve judgement on the advanced training until they can get a few more things ironed out in how they present their agenda.