Since DIR is about a unified team concept, one of the first (and maybe the most painful) lessons you will learn in a GUE-F class is how important a team is to the success of any dive -- including success at the fundies level. To get the most out of your diving dollar, it would probably benefit you more to fill a class with students who are at the same level of diving. For example, if you are already experienced with drysuit diving and double tanks, it would be frustrating to find yourself in a three person team with two buddies who just purchased drysuits and doubles and haven't gotten the hang of the equipment yet. They'll be blowing their buoyancy and body positioning while you're trying to perfect kicks and work on team awareness and ascent rates. You'll enter class thinking you have enough of a solid foundation to pass and move into tech or cave training and then find yourself having time wasted that could be better spend building you or a similarly skilled team into even more solid divers.
That is not to say that if you found yourself in such a class that it would be a waste of your time, but with all there is to learn and with the quality of instruction, you'll get much more out of it if your teammates are on the same page. I'd recommend using the message boards to organize divers of similar skills and experiences and motivations. There are many additional benefits for doing that such as finding a long term training team and new dive buddies. If your interest in GUE-F is improvement of your recreational diving skills as a newbie recreational diver, and you prefer single tanks, then filling a class of six or at least one team of three would put that team on the exact same page. Any improvement in trim, buoyancy, propulsion, awareness, team skills and emergency management would be a gigantic leap from your current level. Three newbies would experience some of the same challenges and be able to relate to the follies and short-comings of their buddies. Throwing a full cave diver who wants to take Tech 1 into such a team will make it more difficult for an experienced diver to be honed to a level to which he or she is capable. Will it be done? Sure. But, if you took three cave divers who are interested in GUE technical courses, they'll probably respond well to light signals and be aware of command hand signals. With improved communication in such a team, a GUE instructor can push them farther and harder than a team who can't communicate well and fine tune them even further.
Success isn't measured by a failure, a provisional, a recreational or a technical pass, but by what you learn from the course. If you're putting in the coin and the time to learn from the best, you should try to set up with the best people at your level of diving to learn from mistakes divers at your level will make.
My suggestion would be to organize classes, especially at the fundies level, by the goals, equipment and unity of the team. Examples:
1) New recreational divers equipping in backplate and single tanks for the first time and want to find out what this DIR stuff is all about and improve skills.
2) Experienced recreational divers who want to transition to technical diving and want to start working with drysuits and doubles.
3) Highly experienced recreationonal divers and dive pros who may have experience with drysuits and doubles and want to clean up their act and start doing it right.
4) Technical divers who don't possess the fundamental skills and wish to improve.
5) Divers who want to learn to cave dive and are training for Cave 1.
6) Divers who want to learn to gas dive and are training for Tech 1.
If you can get 6 people on the same level with the same goals it will reduce frustration and improve overall enjoyment. If you can't get 6 then get 3. This way you could have a team of three technical divers looking to become cave divers getting their fair share of experience in the same class as new drysuit users who will be getting their experience.
Such team unity is the first step to long term friendships and successes.
