Crusty Old Bastard
Patron
Dave's plans for the next Grade Chart changes?
A friend of mine who lives and works in Clearwater has recently been telling me of rumors they have been hearing about "the next thing DM is working on." Granted these are rumors at this point only, and presented here for speculative purposes only.
Firstly - Objectives are being GREATLY expanded. I know this is true as I am aware of several people recently in the Church who had to expand their objectives again, etc. But the new word out is that DM is looking at significantly increasing the number or hours spent on Obj's and also releasing more processes (culled from various refs) that are to be used. Whereas previously a TE of 1 - 2 intensives was given for Objs - TEs of 5 - 8 Intensives have now been seen.
Secondly - There are rumors that DM is looking at "speeding up the grades" and "removing arbitraries". After piecing together some hints, it appears that DM is looking at re-instituting Quad Grades - the major grade quad process only, and having the rest of the expanded grade run only if deemed necessary. The irony is that if any auditor or C/S presented using Quad Grades rather than full expanded grades prior to DMs "recovery of this lost tech" they would have been shot from guns and declared so fast their spinning would instigate a hurricane. But if DM does it, then its recovering lost tech.
Now, both these points I find interesting. On the grades matter - I can see it. In order to keep the "stats" of people on OT levels moving they need WAY more people moving through the lower Bridge. In the 10 years since the GAT they have rounded up pretty much everyone they are going to get onto the OT levels. Last I heard there were about 5,000 of the 10,000 they want on or through OT VII. The number of people moving up through Grades and NED is pitiful, so the solution is = lower the bar. Make it so you can get onto NED in a few intensives and then onto the OT Levels. And it makes financial sense too - someone on OT VII pays the same as all their Grades in a year to two, and they are on VII for many years, so this is more money for the Church. OT VIIs are the cash cows of Flag.
Also, getting 10,000 onto or through VII along with the HUGE BOOMING and AMAZINGLY SUCCESSFUL IDEAL ORGS then allows management to say - LOOK! We've done it! There are SO many on VII now and these Ideal Orgs are so fantastic we can finally release IX and X!
They have to release IX and X soon - the carrot has dangled too long as it is. And next year (interestingly enough) is the 20th anniversary of the Freewinds and it will be out of dry dock then - having been Ideal Org-ified. So a 20th anniversary release of IX and X seems to align with that as well.
One final thought though - reviving Quad Grades will be the death stroke to training. Already practically no one trains. Co audits were abandoned even before the GAT really. So the very few people you have on training, those hoping to use it as the economical way up the Bridge, will adandon it for the fast, easy route of Quad Grades. And that will be the end of auditors - no one will be left to train - just a few doing it for elig.
The only other option is to release NED as a co-audit. Like HSDC was. So you do the Quad Grades and then the NED course and co-audit. HSDC was incredibly successful. In the beginning it basically had no pre-reqes. Eventually BSM was added, but that was pretty much it. You could come in, pay your $500 and be co-auditing to Clear in a few weeks. Yep, WEEKS. TRs and metering, model session, ruds, etc. were all on that one course. It was extremely popular, everyone was an auditor and there was tons of co-auditing. And if you survey OT's an amazing number of them did HSDC - I would say 60 to 70% of OT VII and VIIs I know did it.
I don't have a problem with Quad Grades in and of themselves - I always wondered why they were totally abandoned when you can still find references on them. But of course how the grade chart is rendered one decade to the next has always been an interesting study.
Time will tell eventually, but I thought this might be interesting to think about.
DM did say at an even last year (Auditors Day I believe) that the near future was going to hold "major changes on the Grade Chart from the bottom to the top." I distinctly recall that part of the event as the irony was just too stunning to miss. Perhaps some of these changes will be rolling out soon.
COB
A friend of mine who lives and works in Clearwater has recently been telling me of rumors they have been hearing about "the next thing DM is working on." Granted these are rumors at this point only, and presented here for speculative purposes only.
Firstly - Objectives are being GREATLY expanded. I know this is true as I am aware of several people recently in the Church who had to expand their objectives again, etc. But the new word out is that DM is looking at significantly increasing the number or hours spent on Obj's and also releasing more processes (culled from various refs) that are to be used. Whereas previously a TE of 1 - 2 intensives was given for Objs - TEs of 5 - 8 Intensives have now been seen.
Secondly - There are rumors that DM is looking at "speeding up the grades" and "removing arbitraries". After piecing together some hints, it appears that DM is looking at re-instituting Quad Grades - the major grade quad process only, and having the rest of the expanded grade run only if deemed necessary. The irony is that if any auditor or C/S presented using Quad Grades rather than full expanded grades prior to DMs "recovery of this lost tech" they would have been shot from guns and declared so fast their spinning would instigate a hurricane. But if DM does it, then its recovering lost tech.
Now, both these points I find interesting. On the grades matter - I can see it. In order to keep the "stats" of people on OT levels moving they need WAY more people moving through the lower Bridge. In the 10 years since the GAT they have rounded up pretty much everyone they are going to get onto the OT levels. Last I heard there were about 5,000 of the 10,000 they want on or through OT VII. The number of people moving up through Grades and NED is pitiful, so the solution is = lower the bar. Make it so you can get onto NED in a few intensives and then onto the OT Levels. And it makes financial sense too - someone on OT VII pays the same as all their Grades in a year to two, and they are on VII for many years, so this is more money for the Church. OT VIIs are the cash cows of Flag.
Also, getting 10,000 onto or through VII along with the HUGE BOOMING and AMAZINGLY SUCCESSFUL IDEAL ORGS then allows management to say - LOOK! We've done it! There are SO many on VII now and these Ideal Orgs are so fantastic we can finally release IX and X!
They have to release IX and X soon - the carrot has dangled too long as it is. And next year (interestingly enough) is the 20th anniversary of the Freewinds and it will be out of dry dock then - having been Ideal Org-ified. So a 20th anniversary release of IX and X seems to align with that as well.
One final thought though - reviving Quad Grades will be the death stroke to training. Already practically no one trains. Co audits were abandoned even before the GAT really. So the very few people you have on training, those hoping to use it as the economical way up the Bridge, will adandon it for the fast, easy route of Quad Grades. And that will be the end of auditors - no one will be left to train - just a few doing it for elig.
The only other option is to release NED as a co-audit. Like HSDC was. So you do the Quad Grades and then the NED course and co-audit. HSDC was incredibly successful. In the beginning it basically had no pre-reqes. Eventually BSM was added, but that was pretty much it. You could come in, pay your $500 and be co-auditing to Clear in a few weeks. Yep, WEEKS. TRs and metering, model session, ruds, etc. were all on that one course. It was extremely popular, everyone was an auditor and there was tons of co-auditing. And if you survey OT's an amazing number of them did HSDC - I would say 60 to 70% of OT VII and VIIs I know did it.
I don't have a problem with Quad Grades in and of themselves - I always wondered why they were totally abandoned when you can still find references on them. But of course how the grade chart is rendered one decade to the next has always been an interesting study.
Time will tell eventually, but I thought this might be interesting to think about.
DM did say at an even last year (Auditors Day I believe) that the near future was going to hold "major changes on the Grade Chart from the bottom to the top." I distinctly recall that part of the event as the irony was just too stunning to miss. Perhaps some of these changes will be rolling out soon.
COB