Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote:Strangely Brown wrote:There really is no wiggle room. If money (or money's worth) changes hands, then it requires an ADI.
I take it you and your RoSPA tutor (you
are RoSPA Gold, right?) drove around in lofty silence, laughing at the idiocy of those who dare to do observer voluntary work?
I never had any tuition from any IAM group. By the time I joined the local IAM group, I had already passed their test. I never had any association with any RoSPA group either. At the time that I would have done so the local group was almost exclusively motorcycles.
I took the IAM test after one observed drive / lesson by a BSM ADI and one drive out with a friend who had also passed the IAM test "cold". I took the RoSPA test soon after that and got a silver. I joined the local IAM group some time after those tests and, at that time, the payment made was along the "(small) subs for group membership" model with as much training as you like free for group members.
The point of my statement was that in the new IAM model, money changes hands specifically for a course of training/instruction.
In case there is some confusion, I think that people giving up their spare time to help others is great. I did it myself for a number of years and I am still more than happy to help anyone that asks, free, gratis, for nothing, nowt, nada. I have no problem with observers/tutors coaching/instructing/teaching/advising for anyone who wants to learn (call them/it whatever you like). I have no problem with local groups charging a nominal membership fee (subs) and providing as much assistance FoC as anyone wants.
My problem is the commercial selling of a product that requires a particular qualification to deliver legally but is provided through the services of unpaid, unqualified, volunteers instead.
Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote:Or perhaps you made sure you had a tutor who was also an ADI?
See above, but back then, it wasn't something that I even thought about. I didn't know any more about it then than someone new to AD could be reasonably expected to know now.
Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote:(out of interest, the ADIs who come for advanced tuition often need more work than the average Joe to make then any use, and often have no knowledge of fairly basic techniques like rev-matching or block changing).
I completely understand. One of the most difficult associates that I had as an IAM observer was an ADI. Getting him to do more than 40mph on a rural NSL was a nightmare. In fact, IIRC, he was reluctant to adopt anything other than what he already "knew". Of course, that was probably as much my failure to "teach" as it was his reluctance to learn.
Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote:Or maybe, recognising the moral dilemma, you chose not to have a tutor at all. Well done.
See above.
Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote:Oh, I just realised - you are an ADI yourself, and taught yourself
I am not an ADI, but you're not far off. I didn't really get hooked until after the IAM test and first RoSPA test. That was when I joined the local IAM group and discovered their access to the local police driving school. Only then did I really start to see what was possible and how I wanted to drive.