I agree to an extent.
I did a seminar last year having (despite what I said earlier) managed a lean year just under the 10 hours instructing minimum. With the agreement of all parties, I did half of an AOPA FI seminar, supplemented with a couple of hours 1:1 with an FIE. It worked, and much of the material - teaching and learning, best practice in x, y or z was appropriate to my role as a CRI. But it was a "special", and I suspect that if I'd stayed for the other half of the FI seminar it would have been less appropriate.
There are enough of us that organising the occasional dedicated CRI seminar shouldn't be that hard - but at the moment apart from my special arrangements, the two options are an occasional at On-track, and a similarly occasional seminar organised by LAA for their CRI/coaches. So opportunities exist, but they're rare.
Does anybody know how many CRI/SPAs there are in the UK?
G