Each CIC institute consists of 20 hours of class. Of that 20 hours
about 16 will be "mandatory" topics, which will be included
in that particular institute whenever it is held anywhere in the country.
These topics will vary somewhat by state, due to the inclusion of state-specific
endorsements. They will also vary somewhat by instructor, because CIC
instructors develop their own outlines, which must be approved by the
Society of CIC. The Society ensures consistent quality and makes sure
that certain major elements of each topic are always covered adequately,
but within those restrictions one instructor may present a topic in
a different order from another instructor, explain things somewhat differently
with different examples, of course, and (aside from the major elements
of each topic) may emphasize different aspects of a topic. Overall,
however, you can count on the "mandatory" topics being essentially
the same any time you attend a particular institute.
Each institute also has about 2-5 hours of "optional" topics.
These are not optional for the students attending the class, but are
the topics that our IL CIC Committee decides to include when we plan
our agendas for the upcoming year. Each optional topic outline must
also be approved by the Society to maintain quality, but the instructors
sometimes have more flexibility in the elements they focus on in the
optional topics.
