Charlottesville, VA AAR - August 27-28, 2022 - Instructor Boot Camp

[Maximum Ordinate]

What a great weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia at the Rivanna Rifle & Pistol Club!  RRPC leadership have been long-time Appleseed supporters and we're so grateful for their committment to our program.

On Saturday morning, 15 Patriots gathered together to learn how to polish our craft. After some introductions, we dove into instruction.  We learned about the Mission of Appleseed, how to be most effective, and our part in it.  Lunch came quicker than we expected and we talked about effectively and passionately sharing our heritage.

Thanks to BrotherPilot who planned an excellent dinner on the grill.  That was fantastic!

Sunday morning came way too early, but everyone was smiling and engaged.  We got back into our small groups and did more practical exercises, including another opportunity with Inches-Minutes-Clicks.  As Monkey is fond of saying - it's all about sets and reps!  At lunch we heard some phenominal history during our History Drill!

Our final topic of the weekend was coaching and we tried something a little different by modeling and talking through the errors.

We closed out the weekend by conducting a graduation ceremony.

A few personal comments:
BrotherPilot - thank you so much for all the legwork to help make this a great weekend!
Impossible Girl & Beowolf_357 - sorry we missed you this weekend!
RepeatOffender - welcome to the cadre!
FaithOverFear - You rock!  Can't wait to see you wearing red!
BBQ_Bandit - Thanks for making the long trip in.  Keep up the excellent work!
OldDominionIron - looking forward to seeing you rocking a Red Hat soon!
Misawa - thanks for stepping up as small group lead.  You did a great job!
FunctionCheck - It was a pleasure working with you.  Continue to pursue excellence as an instructor!
Jlevine - you are raising the bar for Applecore everywhere!  Huzzah!!
BillP_556 - your enthusiasm for the program is awesome!  Thanks for your input this weekend during our discussion!
Double A Ron - Nicely done, sir!  Huzzah!
Wolfhound & Dangerous Cook - thank you for your leadership in Virginia.  You've built a great team.  Keep up the good work!

To everyone who attended - keep practicing at home - that'll help you develop and maintain the skills you need to grow the program and light brushfires in the hearts and minds of Americans.

It was a great weekend meeting everyone at Charlottesville 9-ummm-8-22! 

In Liberty,
MO

P.S.  No AAR is complete without pics... here's a few!  Most pics courtesy of Monkey and BrotherPilot.  (Sadly, the one pic we didn't do is the group pic.)

These are in no particular order!

[Double A Ron]

MO,  I want to Thank You for for presenting such a great IBC.   I really came away from this camp feeling like I had grown so much from just this weekend. I also want to thank the VA crew for arranging and putting on such a great weekend as well.  The food on Saturday and Sunday was greatly appreciated!   Huzzah!! 8-22!

[misawa]

Always a great time with our Appleseed family!  Learned a lot!

[BillP_556]

Thank you very much for running the IBC Rusty!  I learned a ton and like the new changes in the Academy book.  I'll be adjusting the Rifle Clinics that I SB to match up more closely with your itinerary and the academy. 

[Faithoverfear]

What a blessing this IBC was for building confidence in presenting each of the teaching points in front of others.  As much as I loved the history portion of the weekend, my absolute favorite was the small group time.  Hearing MO teach in the large group setting first then hearing it again directly from a shoot boss in our small groups gave us orange hats the opportunity to present and exemplify what we heard.  It gave us a great opportunity for feedback to know what skills we need to polish.

This was well worth my time to attend! Every instructor, no matter their hat color, should make a point to attend these events. 
Thank you for making this happen.

[Monkey]

What a blessing this IBC was for building confidence in presenting each of the teaching points in front of others.  As much as I loved the history portion of the weekend, my absolute favorite was the small group time.  Hearing MO teach in the large group setting first then hearing it again directly from a shoot boss in our small groups gave us orange hats the opportunity to present and exemplify what we heard.  It gave us a great opportunity for feedback to know what skills we need to polish.

This was well worth my time to attend! Every instructor, no matter their hat color, should make a point to attend these events. 
Thank you for making this happen.

FoF's observation here really emphasizes why IBCs are so important, and why they'll never be completely replaced by the Appleseed Academy video series.

I'm so glad for the level of attendance that we had, esp. from our Border Raiders.

Observation: MO has made it a nearly year long road show crusade to get as many IBCs on the books this year.  However, he can't (and shouldn't) make this the norm.  It now falls on senior cadre leadership - RCs, SCs, grey hats, dSBs, and de facto leaders - to keep this momentum going.   

[BrotherPilot]

Very grateful for all who attended.  A special thank you to MO for all the travel and time to put this IBC together. I learned a lot. 

Already planning VA's next IBC

J

[BBQ_Bandit]

Thank you all!

Taking an IBC was indeed on my short list as a learning Orange hat... took me two years to get to one. Thanks again all for the mini reps to refine the various techniques to become a better asset to Project Appleseed.

Charlottesville 8-22
Huzzah!

[The Wolfhound]

Monkey and Maximum Ordinate