Becoming a Landmark Forum leader is next to impossible but not completely impossible. I do know one person who after MANY years finally achieved the standards that Landmark sets to become a Landmark Forum Leader.
Most people who are either on staff or who are seminar leaders or Self Expression and Leadership Programme (SELP) leaders generally aspire to being a Landmark Forum leader but you have to achieve some unbelievable targets just to be accepted into the Landmark Forum Leader Programmes.
When I was at staff conference one year I would estimate 80% of those present (all paid staff and volunteer seminar leaders and SELP Leaders) put their hands up to the question of "who wants to become a Landmark Forum Leader?"
Most people quit before they even get there because the pressure and way they are treated by "LEC" squashes any hope they may have once had.
When I went on staff I was told "This job is too big for one person - you can't do it by yourself" All staff members jobs are like this, Yet to get into the Forum leader training programme they must be sucessful in their roles (plus many other things)
Seminar leaders must lead sucessfully to three (I think) seminars before they can become accredited semiar leaders. from their they have to lead sucessfully to more seminars to be considered sucessful. They also then have to go onto staff and manage a centre sucessfully for 2 years. (this is all from memory so I may have it wrong now) Managing a centre is incredibly hard as generally they are extreemly understaffed, their paid staff have to recruit and maintain full volunteer teams to do their jobs. The manager has to "cause" their staff members to be sucessful.
In the time I was on staff I was sucessful in parts of my job but mostly not. I struggled to keep my assisting teams full (mostly I had only ten people when i needed 80) and I know that this was normal for most staff members.
Unless your friend is unbelievably commited to this, in all likelyhood they will not suceed. I have watched so many seminar leaders come and go in the centre I worked in. Some were seminar leaders for 4 years and then just quit after the pressure got to much.
Seminar leaders are coached non stop by the centre manager, the other staff members, the landmark forum leader responsible for their country, any landmark forum leaders who come to the center to lead a course. they get coached by other seminar leaders from their region. And its always about how they are going to register more people into the landmark forum. If they register people they are a star but if they have a month where they dont go well they will be pushed and pushed and pushed non stop
Glam has really hit the whole thing on the nose with the statement
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believe getting people to hope they'll one day waste their lives as Forum leaders is just a way to keep people hanging on so they'll continue to "volunteer" as much unpaid time as possible
Your friend will probably work this all out at some point, unfortunately they will probably be used up by landmark Education first.