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Allan
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The number of students dictated the media in which it was presented. I think it was something like six new students were required to run an audio class with flip charts. Ten or fifteen were required for a film class. Grads could attend for free, so naturally, the prospect of having a film class was used as an incentive to sign up more recruits.

 

Classes other than PFAL were run there, as well. I took Dealing With The Adversary there my first time through it. I remember that specific one because of a traumatic personal experience I had the week before it ran.

 

Also, live classes were sometimes presented there because of its proximity to HQ.

 

Aside from that, there was nothing special about the place,

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7 hours ago, Nathan_Jr said:


What was a regular sized class back in the day?

I was in a class of two: me and the coordinator. Looking back, that seems like a huge number.  

Thanks for the laugh  :jump:

Edited by Charity
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19 hours ago, waysider said:

The number of students dictated the media in which it was presented. I think it was something like six new students were required to run an audio class with flip charts. Ten or fifteen were required for a film class. Grads could attend for free, so naturally, the prospect of having a film class was used as an incentive to sign up more recruits.

 

Classes other than PFAL were run there, as well. I took Dealing With The Adversary there my first time through it. I remember that specific one because of a traumatic personal experience I had the week before it ran.

 

Also, live classes were sometimes presented there because of its proximity to HQ.

 

Aside from that, there was nothing special about the place,

The decades determined what an average-sized class was.  Apparently, you took it in the 60s or 70s.  By the mid-80s. the classes were on videotape or nothing, although I've heard of grads taking audio-only classes.   For us, they didn't run until at least 6 were signed up.   IIRC, when I took it, there were 8 of us signed up, 7 of us showed up for Session 1.  Three of us showed up for Session 12- myself, a coordinator's wife, and a different coordinator's son. (Plus a bunch of grads who showed up suddenly for Session 12. No pressure, right?) 

Later, we started to have recommendations, like "if you're going to retake it, please show up for the whole thing so you don't startle the new students" and so on. One clever fellow set up adjoining rooms, one behind the other, with a doorway looking into the front room.  Both rooms had a television feed from the VCR. The front room was where the new students sat, and the back room was where all the grads sat. It was a lot smoother for the students.  Naturally, that was also good when we actually had enough new students to make a front room feasible.

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Oh, I remember those video classes. Clunky, top loading, play-back-only,  Beta machines. They didn't even have a record function ...for the days of VHS had not yet come. We kept a log of how many hours they'd been used so we could routinely tear them down to clean the play-back heads and service the drive belt. Nothing but the best picture and sound for Gawd's people would do.

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I remember the Foundational class we took in Auckland New Zealand in '89.....audio, with cards being held by someone up the front ( Hi Fi !!) lol...was a hoot watching the cards sloowwwlllyyy dip towards the floor as the card holder drifted in and out of consciousness, oblivious to the little 'ding' from the audio bell....

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Pleased to say that the YMCA in my city is not a bad place.  But not a luxury place either.  And nary a hint of PFAL about it.

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