ON THE SPOT demos for MCCI Candidates

This is in answer to Peter Minnick (MCCI candidate) who was taken completely by surprise when I got him, "front and center" from the audience to give a demonstration on change of direction casts at our course with Lefty and Jiim Valle in New Jersey last month.

(I did this partly because I have never seen anyone do a better 180 degree change of direction cast using the Galway technique .... I wish I could do it that well.)

Peter did a much better job with this than he thought .... though his total surprise was a bit obvious.

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When a candidate becomes a new Master, he or she is expected to be able to jump in when asked and give a demo or a workshop on the spot if the presenter is delayed or cannot make the class .... say, weather delays, etc. for a conclave presentation. ..... ON ANY SUBJECT AT ALL.

I do this all the time with MCCI candidates ... call on them when they least expect it to give demos. It is one of the very best ways to prepare them along the way even if occasionally a tad painful. I look at this as really effective training.

A few months ago, for example, Joan Wulff, Dusty Sprague and John Cave and I were giving a series of demos at the IGFA in Ft. Lauderdale ... combined with an FFF Florida Council meeting. Jim was in the last throes of being ready for his MCCI exam. My talk/demo was on the FFF Certification Program. We had a full audience.

After giving a brief description of the program and getting to a description of what a Master candidate must go through in order to pass, I announced that we had one such candidate present in the audience. I asked Jim to come forward. Then I had him go through some test question paces with a few, "explain and demonstrate" tasks.

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Comment: When you announce the fact that you are an MCCI candidate, and I know that, don't be surprised if I call upon you. I look at it as part of your preparation.

If you do a less than perfect demo I'll never embarrass you. I'll use utmost tact in turning it into a brief teaching exercise before the audience starting with an observation of what you did well, then, "tweaking" your less than ideal performance as needed. If you do it better than I can, I'll point that out, too !

PS: I learned that teaching technique years ago from Lefty. His technique includes a lot of humor. Mine doesn't. ....as Jim Valle has pointed out, this represents the similarities and the differences in teaching styles.

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