You should cleave the staves down to a managable size, do not leave them whole under any circumstances Most of my staves are between 3 and 5 inches diameter and I always halve them. I find more than 3 inches across and the stave is nearly guaranteed to check heavily as it seasons.
As far as stripping the bark goes it depends on where in the world you live, Stateside bowyers need to strip the bark as they have lots of bugs that will burrow under the bark and wreak havoc. Im in the Uk and leave the bark on. If you strip the bark you will often need to paint a generous coat of sealant, like pva, to slow down the drying or the wood checks all over the surface. There is no 'fast' when it comes to drying timber, except if you very quickly rough the stave down to near bow size and then seal it all over. That can reduce the time to weeks not years, although as the rough rule for drying is a year per inch, this is per inch measured from each surface so 2inch thick stave might be largely dry in 6 months as it dries from 3 sides