Ok, a Rigger Isn't a Rigger Isn't a Rigger

Or more accurately, it looks like a rigger isn't always a rigger, or at least there are apples and oranges - not apples and apples. At least it isn't apples and bowling balls like people have been making it sound for so long.

After many many months, ok years, of meetings and cajoling it looks like I have failed in my quest to bring arena and theatrical rigging under one banner. At the end of the latest round of meetings we were still in two camps. With the necessary vagaries again, it seems like something close to 5/6 of the material turns out to be the same, even more so if you only look in one direction. But the remaining 1/6th of the material turns out to be unique enough that it did not appear viable to require it of the group that would rarely use it. Its not really that simple. What each group does with their outline will also be distinct. But what with the overlap and the demographics it did seem at least for a second that there was a chance. But alas no.

I can't tell if I am disappointed or not. My biggest fear all along if the scopes weren't merged was that the theatre people would not get a certification for their riggers. That's not going to happen. There will be a theatrical rigging certification. So even though there will be two certifications rather than the one I was pushing, I do think that I have been successful in driving the theatrical certification along side the arena credential. And that success is really the thing that was most important. The other was just nice for reasons like unity, simplicity, and style.

Everything on the theatre side looks good. I assume the same is true on the arena side, but I wasn't working with them this go around. We're on track to launch next year with at least two more sets of meetings along the way. Its kind of exciting. Next step for us is to start writing questions. While we're doing that the ECTP council is preparing application requirements. Really, when I wrote my thesis I never expected to see this happen. Its pretty cool.