We are proposing to offer all our courses (except for Basic Boating) as home study options, which would provide busy members a way to obtain their course qualifications without having to attend class at a particular time. The idea is that any member who wants to take a course would be assigned a coach who would work with him or her by phone or e-mail, and meetings when and if necessary, to correct the homework, answer questions, complete the course, and take the exam, all with no set limits of completion.
Technically, all USPS courses are already available to members for home study, but not in an organized fashion; we would organize the process and possibly make a home study our major path for course completion.
Coaches would be selected by the Local Board chairmen from volunteers among the membership who have taken a desired course and who wish to participate in the program. We would anticipate having a group of coaches for each course, so that no coach would have to work with more than one student at a time unless he or she wants to. The usual fee for manuals and incidentals would be charged.
All courses would still be offered in traditional classroom arrangement, with regularly scheduled instruction, if enough students are interested at any time. In this case, determining whether the number of students is enough would be up to the instructor, as it is now.