Re-read my post above: You just can't think like that. Read books and watch vids all you want (and those resources can and do help a lot) but getting a stave and working it is exactly what it takes to learn. Odds are you are going to ruin a stave... but the progress and mistakes you make while working on that first one will teach you ten-fold what you'll need to do on the next one. And working a crappy stave is way harder than working a good one. So, it's really best to get a good one to start out on.

My suggestion: Search for and buy a dry Hickory stave (so you don't have to chase a ring like you do in locust and osage) and get to work. Be mindful of backset, stringfollow, perfect tiller, (and the rest of the buzz words that you'll likely to hear at Twin Oaks when you go) but the goal for the first one should simply be producing a piece of wood that bends without breaking and will shoot an arrow.