This year has seen the introduction of two new courses run by the NTSA and the NRPAI, which were lobbied for by DURC and UCDRC.
A Coaching course was held in UCDRC in early September, with UK National Coaching Director Dave Froggett as instructor. DURC sent four Range Officers to this course, which proved to be extremely useful both for these Officers' personal shooting and for their ability to coach the Club's Ordinary Members. A second course was scheduled to focus on smallbore shooting, but has been postponed due to the Foot and Mouth crisis. It will take place later this year.
A course for Range Officers has been lobbied for for several years by both DURC and UCDRC, and more recently by WTSC. The NRPAI had run such a course in the past (in the eighties), but had not done so recently, until this year. DURC had been planning on sending all Range Officers to this course for certification, but confusion over the time and date of the course resulted in a very poor turnout on the day. The course will be rerun later this year and it is hoped that all Range Officers will become nationally certified before the end of the next Academic Year. As it is planned for this course to be an ongoing one run by the National Governing Body, it is hoped that all future Range Officers will be sent on it before they make the transition from Trainee to Full Range Officer.