FFF UK

Well, that went surprisingly well. Just over half of those that I have contacted have responded positively to the idea of forming some sort of FFF group in the UK. The other half are waiting to see what happens.

I have been an FFF instructor for four years. I think I assumed there was some sort of group, somewhere. I just hadn’t come across it yet. Wrong. After I became a Master it was a near constant niggle in the back of my mind wondering why such a group hadn’t been set up. Yes, I had been to European events in Denmark and Germany and for a couple of years the annual Sexyloops get together had an FFF element, including testing, but it wasn’t an inclusive group that included all FFF instructors. This is my attempt to create such a group.

I want to create a group blog where we can all post a profile, notify the rest of the group of an upcoming event, write an article and generally keep in touch with each other. I want to create a couple of ‘must do’ (in the sense that it’s too good to miss)  weekends where we get together to give workshops, demonstrations and talks. Perhaps we can, initially, run some mock tests for both CCI and MCCI candidates.

But first we have to have an initial meeting to work out how all this will work. I have been offered Sportfish in Reading and because its geographically convenient for a lot of us I propose our first meeting will be Saturday 1st December 2012.

This could be the start of something. Let’s make it happen.

Mike

And Now For Something Completely Different

I am going to attempt something I have never done before. No, not make a cast that doesn’t tail. I am going to attempt to organise something. Those of you that know me will be surprised. Those of you that know me well will be astonished.

I have come to the conclusion that it the mountain won’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed had better do something about it.

In the UK there are thirty something FFF instructors and by the end of the year there may be nearer forty. As a group we are pretty ignorant about each other and I would like that to change. In the next month or two I will be contacting as many of you as I can with the view of starting something similar to that the domestic associations already have, an annual get together where we can run workshops, assist others working their way through the system and learn from those with experience of how things are done in the other associations. I realise that a lot of us already have pretty full diaries and having to find a date and venue that will suit us all will not be easy but I think we should make the effort.

I believe the FFF is a fantastic organisation and, as members, we should make more of an effort to be involved with each other. The FFF is also working towards making changes and as a group we may be able to influence these changes far more effectively than we can as individuals.

The beauty of a UK get together is that we will have no association politics, no AGM, no votes. Just casting and fishing and instructing. If it becomes organised enough we may well be able to offer testing as well.  Or am I being a bit naive? Probably, as I said before I haven’t done this sort of thing before.

I know several FFF instructors read this and I would like to hear your thoughts either in the comments section or you can email me heritageathome@btinternet.com I would also like to have as many of your email addresses as possible so that I can start to create a mailing list.