Woof Dustin:
Thank you for your question.
Following the example of Guro Inosanto, in DBMA the instructor rankings are very simple. They go like:
1) Group Leader: A GL leads a "Training Group".
2) Trainer: The first level of acknowledgement of ability to teach some material. This gives me a chance to give someone some leash to run with so I can see what they can do and how they do it without putting too much of our credibility on the line.
3) Apprentice Instructor
4) Senior Apprentice Instructor
5) Instructor:
If an instructor is also a member of the Dog Brothers Tribe, he gets his ranking in Tagolog-- apprentice instructor being Lakan Guro for example.
Standards are pretty high-- this is not a paper mill! Thus far only two men have received the rank of Guro/Instructor: Benjamin "Lonely Dog" Rittiner, who heads our organization in Europe, and Guro Chris "True Dog" Clifton.
If would be fun to hand out big titles, but it would be ridiculous of me to have a bigger title than that of my teacher Guro Inosanto
and so Guro/Instructor is the maximum title.
As for student rankings, in that my preference is not to have them and I am blessed to live in an environment where as best as I can tell they do not seem to be important to our students, but for those instructors who do live in an environment where the students enjoy these things, then on the Instructors' pages of our DBMA Assn website they can find one designed by Guro Lonely that they may use.
Also, we have just begun an "Affiliate School" program.
In all these areas, (students, instructors, affiliates) there is to be a real relationship. A primary vehicle for this relationship is the DBMA Assn and its website, vid-lessons, etc. EVERYONE has continuous direct access to me via the Assn's forum. All Instructors participate in the Forum as well.
Does this answer your question?
Woof,
Guro Crafty
