The ANZO Cont TTC circa 1980

[ttamaad]

I was on Sydney Day staff and had just returned from Flag after completing the infamous Pro TRs Pilot and the Pro Course Sup internship.

Eager to take advantage of my new "skills", the CO FOLO ANZO implemented a Continental TTC to train auditors at the the Continental Org. Sydney Day was apparently the Continental Org. This was seen as a great way for Syd Day to extract money from the other orgs in the region and get their staff trained as auditors with the push to get an AO operating down under.

There were a number of problems to overcome but, as you can imagine, with Phyll as the CO ANZO, none were going to get in the way of stopping the Cont TTC.

The Cont TTC was going to operate seven days a week, day and night. Something new for this part of the world where most the staff were either on day or fdn staff and had to have other employment to pay the bills, rent etc.

I was under no illusions as to what I was being offered. I was told I had to supervise and the times I was going to be on post. I was required to give up my job and survive on Org pay. Not bloody likely. There was no way I would have been able to pay rent food beer and other expenses on 15 bucks a week (if I was lucky)

A grand compromise was made... I needed $400 bucks a week and Sydney Day paid it. No questions asked. Phyll saw to it! As she was the CO FOLO and not the ED Syd day, I don't have any data on how it was accepted but I am sure there will be others that will have some info. $400 was pretty good at the time too, I might add.

Logistically we were miles behind the eightball as well. Desks, Chairs, Books, you name it, were raided from the academy. The Academy that had the paying public studying was left as a mere shell as the dollar signs flashed that the outer orgs would have to pay for their services and it would go into Syd Days coffers. (this was the Syd Fdn academy as well remember)

We were going to be training auditors up to the Grad Class IV which was the advantage the Continental Org had over the rest of the Orgs in our region (they were only class IV orgs) Someone may like to confirm this!

Scooter mentioned in another post in the Staff Pay thread http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?p=279215#post279215

<snip>
I do remember Allen Wright (URLC/S) doing all the taping of the Level tapes for you from reel to reel onto cassettes and the blow-up that caused when NEP didn't get "their" payment for tapes. A lot of talk about violation of copyright that basically was about "we didn't get any money from it."

We didn't have enough copies of the tapes. What to do and how to do it in a hurry? Allen was the brains when it came to anything like techie type stuff (as in recordings, e meters etc) and he somehow got roped in. I hope he will add his experience here. As students started arriving from all around ANZO we were ready to roll (if in appearance only)

Somehow fdn had been handled. I remember the huge outpouring of emotion when the ED Syd Fdn, ED Syd day and the CO FOLO had a discussion around the use of the space for the Cont TTC which was technically "owned" by fdn during the nights and weekends. There was also the many services that the Cont TTC was going to use such as examiners, cramming, etc on fdn time. Sydney Foundation gave the lot for free.

 

[scooter]

The thing that I remember causing a lot of angst was that none of the Cont TTC students audited on their Levels but just did all the theory and started their auditing when they hit the Internship - Supra should add his stuff here as he was the intern sup then.

I loved it 'cause I got my HRD, ARC Straightwire and a Joburg from it while it lasted. I just had to turn up and be audited for free - BIG problem (not.)

I think I had 5 auditors for ARC Straightwire and 6 for my Joburg. I remember the three I had for the HRD.

I actually performed a marriage for an ex-Cont TTCer a while back - Ken Granshaw. He used to commute to study via a skateboard and dodge the traffic down Oxford Street in the mornings with great aplomb!

It did actually provide ANZO with a lot of long-term staff - Dave Ainsworth is still C/Sing for the mission down here in Melbourne and there's been a lot of others still kicking around until the last ten years or so.

 

[ttamaad]

Auditing? whats that?
In the Cont TTC, you didn't audit you studied.

Our esteemed C/S, mate, will remember the battles. The problem with the auditing was finding PC's. Especially for the grades... and when a problem in the auditing occurred, getting the PC fixed up and back on to something the auditor could audit. I was shown references that "implied" a PC could start on grade III if he was raw. Nothing was left unturned in the pursuit of getting a grad IV auditor ... as the end result!

Someone then found a obscure reference that meant that staff auditors could move onto the next course without having done the practical. In other words without auditing anyone. That seemed to fit the problems in the Cont TTC so hey presto, lets get them through and on to the internship where they could really audit to their hearts content.

There were so many clashes of beliefs, The whole of the Tech and Qual divs had a reference to suit their particular needs and wishes and the longer it went the screwier it got.

 

[Carmel]

I recall the battles too, Bill. That Cont TTC was such a wrought! - Kinda gotta laugh, looking back at it all now.

Crikey - Syd Day, was the "Cont Org", as we had no AO at that time. Being the "Cont Org", we had the 'responsibiity' of financially supporting the SO crew in ANZO, if and when funds were short - I don't know if this was "standard" or not, but those of us who complained about it were told that it was an FO and that because we were non SO, we weren't permitted to see it,

Funds were always short. What the FOLO collected from all the orgs in ANZO (including Syd Day), only covered food and berthing - When I was on FP Committee for a short time back then, stuff like abortions, uniforms, communication machine repairs, dentist bills etc for the SO crew, were paid for by Syd Day. There was a 'waiting list' for anything and everything, and always demand on us to provide those extra funds - the "Cont TTC" was the 'bright idea' that would give Syd Day and extra income, and 'potentially' the opportunity for the FOLO crew to move into better premises.

The other orgs in ANZO had the same opportunity/quals, as us in Syd Day to deliver the Grad IV stuff. They weren't granted it though, or they were denied it, so as the other orgs would have to send their C/S and Grad IV trainees to Sydney.

We had the odd trainee (from Melbourne mostly), but they were arriving in dribbles. Next thing, when the Cont TTC evolution occurred, all the orgs in ANZO were ordered to send a certain number of trainees, and they did. They also had to pay for their trainees birthing while away. It cost them a fortune, and it cost the poor students food in the stomach as well as accumulating debt back home.

The whole thing was a shocker (man, I had blacked that whole episode out so damn strongly, I almost forgot about the bloody thing). The vast majority of the students were starving. They were "PTP'd" to the hilt (no food, lack of sleep, problems at home with no time nor resources to deal with them).

I was C/Sing for the Cont TTC too. Eeek! It was a nightmare. Aaaggghhh! The orders were flying thick and fast for the impossible, and on students who didn't even want to be there. The politics and conflicts over the whole thing was more than disturbing. We couldn't get interned Class IV's in any volume, out of the bloody thing, and the Execs were wondering why.

It would have been easier and cheaper for ALL concerned, to just allow the other orgs to deliver what they could have, and whack the 'tithe' up. The whole thing was just robbing Peter to pay Paul - For every $10,000 dished out by our org and the other Orgs to fund it, only $1000 ended up in the Org's pocket, and to just about no avail. It was insane, but the GI looked good and so did the stats.

We lost Ethel over that, if ya remember Bill. She fought like a bastard on many fronts over that one, then left - I never knew why she did, but now of course, I can imagine. In hindsight, all good for her, but we didn't see it that way at the time.

 

[scooter]

Years after the Cont TTC was disbanded, I grabbed a set of the level cassettes and took 'em home - I over-taped some of them with music but actually used some of them to do my Levels with.

I'd been given an order to destroy them but reckoned removing them was just as good.

I remember turning up one day on my Joburg to be told by Murray the D of P for the students that my auditor had blown the day before!

I was mid-Joburg at the time and thought that only PCs blew while on that.

I think the next auditor I had on it was Kath Millar, who's still on crew at the AO I think - she was from Canberra originally?

And I think Janelle Hall (now Stokes - at the AO as a Cl IX) was Syd F's contribution to the Cont TTC student-wise. Also Tom Quibbel(?) who I later twinned on my Purif with.

There was Melanie Collier (from Adelaide or Melbourne?) and Cindy Simpson (who'd been Narconon staff and was now training to be auditor for the GO.)

 

[Carmel]

Years after the Cont TTC was disbanded, I grabbed a set of the level cassettes and took 'em home - I over-taped some of them with music but actually used some of them to do my Levels with.

I'd been given an order to destroy them but reckoned removing them was just as good.

Wut? Ya didn't follow an order? - Oh my goodness!

There was Melanie Collier (from Adelaide or Melbourne?) and Cindy Simpson (who'd been Narconon staff and was now training to be auditor for the GO.)

Melanie was from Melbourne, and Cindy married Dave Drake, before she 'blew' a couple of years after 'completing' her training (she was a Syd Day HGC auditor for a while).

 

[ttamaad]

I think just about everyone had a run in over the Cont TTC, Carmel.

From the perspective of being inside supervising, it was almost overwhelming. There were well over 40 students, surviving on the smell of a tech volume, me and a wordclearer during the day.

I was pretty safe for weeks on end though... as the Orgs were ordered to get staff over to Syd Day, my stats just went from one power week to the next. Being so upstat also meant I could push the boundary more and more. I managed to get another supervisor (part time) and Qual took over more wordclearing. My stat was student points and, if I remember rightly, we didn't have a DofT at the time. Thats one of the problems Ethel had, she was holding the post from above and really cared for the students. She was so distraught at some of the situations that happened to the students just trying to survive. They weren't being looked after. At least at Flag, they would have been fed and housed. In Syd, they were left to their own devices.

It was an insane time, The idea was that students were going to Co Audit their way up the courses but when they arrived there just wasn't a hope of that happening. The training went much faster and some had had very little auditing at all or were already on an action that required something other than the grade they were studying. Such was the push to get them through that it became a farce.

 

[ULRC/S]

Regarding the levels tapes - the org had one, maybe two sets of official reel to reel copies of these tapes, but that wouldn't be anything like enough for the floods of students the TTC was meant to generate. Buying more from Pubs would have been financially crippling, and take far too long, as well as needing to provide lots more good reel to reel playback machines. So someone, maybe me, maybe someone else suggested bootlegging them onto cassette - all in a good cause of course. I was asked to help by Ethel, and used my professional audio contacts to have the duplicates made by a top professional tape copying lab in Sydney.

IIRK 20 sets were made for about $1 per tape - a tiny fraction of what the reels would have cost - and more than good enough for the job intended. And more than workable headphone driving cassette players were obtained for almost nothing.

I scored a set of tapes for myself as a payment for my work, but if OSA wants to go after me for holding copied tapes, they all have gone sticky and are unplayable - a fate many tapes from that period suffered - even music master tapes of the great bands.

Basically, we got the job done and while the TTC students may have had other hardships, at least their lecture tapes were in plentiful supply.

Regards, Allen

 

[Dulloldfart]

Did you have transcripts as well? You can get away with really terrible quality tapes as long as you have good transcripts.

At SH I remember some asshole mission taking away transcripts we had painstakingly prepared for the OT2 films, as well as translating them into French and German, because they were "non-standard." Somehow having students fall asleep because they couldn't understand what was being said was more standard!

Paul

 

[scooter]

Sorry - no transcripts (or at least none that I knew of.)

Equipment was bare minimum for everyone in Sydney at that time - rock-hard clay was the order of the day because new stuff couldn't be afforded.

 

[Dulloldfart]

Sorry - no transcripts (or at least none that I knew of.)

Equipment was bare minimum for everyone in Sydney at that time - rock-hard clay was the order of the day because new stuff couldn't be afforded.

OK, thanks.

Ah yes, fond memories of that rock-hard clay! I saw the other side of the coin when I moved to LA, where it was so hot that the figures just oozed around and fell over if you weren't careful. Then we moved into the HGB and got air conditioning. Hallelujah!

Paul

 

[ULRC/S]

The tape quality was actually superb - they had been professionally copied from a virgin set of reels from pubs, onto good quality cassettes. The players wern't too fancy, not like the $$$$ Nakamichis demaded later, but were more than good enough for voice.

I actually personally HATE transcripts, because the student then reads them and doesn't actually concentrate on the tape, and get the additional info from his voince pitch, tone etc. A lot of things completely non-understandable off a transcript become clear from the tape - like jokes and snide comments.

Regards, Allen (6 years a Fxxxxing good Acad Super)

 

[Dulloldfart]

The tape quality was actually superb - they had been professionally copied from a virgin set of reels from pubs, onto good quality cassettes. The players wern't too fancy, not like the $$$$ Nakamichis demaded later, but were more than good enough for voice.

I actually personally HATE transcripts, because the student then reads them and doesn't actually concentrate on the tape, and get the additional info from his voince pitch, tone etc. A lot of things completely non-understandable off a transcript become clear from the tape - like jokes and snide comments.

I love transcripts. I found there was little of importance that one missed without the audio, although sometimes it is impossible to get it right without the tape. But the main thing that used to drive me mad was the enforced monotone pace of the tape. You couldn't fast forward through the easy or irrelevant bits and slow right down for the really important or hard-to-grasp bits. If you had both available, then that was best. I found it easiest to listen to the tape and use the transcript for clarification.

I sup'ed a lot too. Debugging a student on a tape was much more precise, and quicker, with a proper transcript available.

Paul

 

[ttamaad]

The TTC got new clay. That was one of the advantages of setting up a new academy, anything that was needed was bought if there weren't enough supplies in the existing academy and qual. It didn't take long for all the pretty colours to become that strange shade of purple.

The Cont TTC was a idea that was based on a snippet of tech and so once it became ingrained that it was going to happen, the rest was made up. I shudder to think how many times I heard "I don't care how many rules you break... the watchword is service"

Mind you, that quickly changed when it became obvious that the outer orgs weren't going to pay for the services or to look after their staff while they were training.

At the time we didn't even have transcripts for the student hat. I had a folder I wrote all the weird words in to speed up the tape listening process. It became such a easy task as us Kiwis and Aussies would always come unstuck at the same places.

I am sure that Phyll kept the heat from above off the lines in the initial stages.

It came crumbling down pretty quickly though. When it did, there was so many ramifications. An order finally arrived that said that outer org students could not be included in any of the public stats. There were a few references that were as ambiguous as the ones we were operating on. The Cont TTC closed up shop.
All the Stats were required to be adjusted. The student points just fell out the bottom. The public academy had been neglected so much that there were only a handful of students and most were part time (like three mornings a week or less)

The Cont TTC students quickly disappeared as well. Some that were well into their internships stayed and completed but the great Aussie "Lets just do it" got a hammering. Everything got shifted back down into the Public academy which was a dungeon at the best of times.