SANA Assessment Weekend, 31st March - 1st April 2012

New Venue for SANA Assessments

We are now into our 5th year of working closely with the Scottish Anglers National Association's SGAIC committee, as part of a joint assessment team which was set up to identify potential new instructors who are capable of representing SANA on a professional basis, and as a consequence of the equivalence scheme put in place, this also allows us to offer these new instructors a continued professional development route, via AAPGAI, should they wish to take their newly gained qualification forward to the next level.

This year saw another positive move forward for the continuing working relationship between AAPGAI and SANA as the assessment process was moved from Loch Leven to the river Tay. The weekend was hosted by an experienced gillie and SGAIC Salmon instructor, Iain Kirk, who looks after the beats, and all credit to Iain who did a brilliant job both sourcing and hosting the event, making everyone feel at home from the outset.

It became increasingly obvious over the duration of the weekend just how much the assessment process has progressed since the relationship between AAPGAI and SANA was first inaugurated in 2007, and the all round professionalism displayed by the guys from the SGAIC Committee whilst administering the SGAIC qualification to potential candidates made us very proud to be associated with them. The passion of the guys involved was very familiar to us, and SANA should be very proud to have this string to there bow. The feedback from the candidates, both successful and unsuccessful, was brilliant, which is not only what we are all striving for in both organisations, but it also tells us something about the assessment process itself, as well as the type of candidate we are now attracting, like minded passionate people, which is very important to the future success of our associations.

Following the assessment process, we all sat down around the table to discuss the events of the weekend, and with input from all of the assessors, how we might continue to improve the experience, and help maintain standards for all. This is a very important an integral part of the assessment process if we wish to continue improvement in what we do, and if the working relationship between AAPGAI & SANA continues in this vein then I think we can all look forward to a very successful relationship for a long time to come, and at the present time we would be more than happy to endorse this.

In conclusion we would like to thank the SGAIC committee (Scottish Game Angling Instructor Certificate) for their hospitality over the weekend, and congratulate the successful candidates who will no doubt be our future assets. We also look forward to seeing those candidates who did not make it this time at the next assessment event.

"Well Done All".

Clive Mitchelhill (AAPGAI Membership Secretary)

SANA Assessment Weekend - 2nd - 3rd April 2011

Loch Leven to take part in the SANA (Scottish Anglers National Association) assessment weekend.

AAPGAI have worked closely with SANA over the past 4 years as joint assessors of the SGAIC qualification (Scottish Game Angling Instructors certificate). As well as being part of the assessment process for potential new SGAIC instructors, we have also been instrumental in the training of new SANA assessors for the SGAIC qualification programme. This has been very successful from the outset and this weekend was no exception.

Candidates were assessed in two areas of expertise over the two day period, some taking their casting qualifications, and others the new fly dressing qualification which has recently been introduced following much dialogue and hard work between our two organisations, and is now available to all SGAIC candidates. Also, in parity with the AAPGAI route, (which offers an equivalence programme to AAPGAI provisional level for those passing their SGAIC qualification) candidates were expected to display good teaching skills, as well as good practical skills to make the grade, and it was great to see that several candidates displayed these qualities, but it was also noticeable that those unsuccessful candidates were also good potential future instructors, with a little more work in certain areas. These candidates received good verbal and written feedback to enable them to achieve these goals.

The working relationship between AAPGAI and SANA, which is aimed at providing the best qualified instructors we can find to represent both organisations, at all levels of instruction, as well as to continuously maintain those standards, is most certainly coming to fruition. After all we are only as good as the members who represent us, and therefore it is in our best interests to build on these foundations. This joint passion was very apparent throughout the weekend.

That said, it has been a pleasure to work side by side with the SANA (SGAIC) committee and their assessors on this joint venture, which not only offers SGAIC candidates a route to progress their qualification, but it also affords us all the opportunity to continuously progress standards within both organisations, and ultimately offer a high standard of instructor.

SANA Assessment Weekend - 27th - 28th March 2010

The SANA assessment weekend at Loch Leven was once again a success with AAPGAI Master Instructors Clive Mitchelhill, Glyn Freeman and Paul Little involved in the various assessments throughout the weekend in partnership with the SANA team. With strong winds not presenting ideal conditions, those candidates who were successful thoroughly deserved their qualifications. The two days events were organised by AAPGAI members Will Shaw and Alan Everington who did a fine job. Will and Allan are the Chairman and Secretary respectively of the Scottish Anglers National Association (SANA) SGAIC committee.

A presentation on assessing was given by Glyn Freeman and Clive Mitchelhill which was attended by the SANA officials. This was received well by the audience with many learning points taken from the presentation.

The recently retired chairman Mr. David Bell, also an AAPGAI instructor was presented with a contemporary classic salmon fly as a thank you for his excellent work over the years. This was dressed and named (The Highland Bell) by Paul Little.

During the weekend the new SANA fly dressing course was finalised. Members of SANA will be asked to attend a Master class in October where the techniques of dressing the flies will be demonstrated by Paul Little as part of their syllabus. Assessments in fly dressing will then follow possibly in the spring.

AAPGAI continue to enjoy the working partnership with the (SANA) SGAIC committee and we have also witnessed the SGAIC qualifications and those who have earned them go from strength to strength and become a great asset to both organisations. We look forward to working with SANA again later in the year when we will be delivering the instructor workshops and again next spring with the exciting introduction of the new fly dressing workshops.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate SANA on their hard work in recent times not only bringing back the enthusiasm to potential SGAIC instructors but even more important attracting good quality instructors in Scotland and we are extremely pleased that AAPGAI were given the opportunity to be involved with this, and the Continued Professional Development opportunities that are now in place will help to maintain the standards that people should come to expect from a qualified instructor.