Having problems with message search?
Thursday, 17th July 2008
CONTENTS:
1. Maruyama Sensei Seminar – Early Bird
2. Administration Fee Changes
3. Changes to the Dojo Library - New location, new additions, new borrowing times
4. Sunday Morning Ki Class
1. Maruyama Sensei Seminar – Early Bird
Maruyama sensei seminar early bird payments close July 31st . Griffith Aikido will take member payments for the seminar for early bird registrations only, thereafter please register directly through:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/aikido/events/seminar2008info.PDF
2. Administration Fee Changes
Dear Fellow Members
We are about to embark on a series of significant changes in the way we conduct the club’s administration. Over the next 12 months we will completely overhaul the way we do things behind the scenes. In a nutshell, online payment or automatic deduction for monthly training fees and online product purchases will be implemented from 1st August 2008. Next year we will introduce a dojo management software package coupled with a computerised accounting system. In the not too distant future, you will be using a swipe card to record your attendance at class and your grading records will kept electronically.
We are making these changes because the burden of administration in the club is constantly growing as we expand. We need to ease the time consuming task of cash handling fees and stock purchases on both week nights and Saturday mornings. Our record keeping and reporting requirements are also higher now as the club is an incorporated body subject to external audit. The aim is to make the task of administration easier for the people who currently do it as well as those who will follow in the future.
We seek your cooperation now in phasing out cash payments at the dojo door and phasing in online payments for all payment of monthly fees and stock purchases. We will commence this first stage from 1st August. We ask you to do your bit to help your club by simply going online to pay your monthly fees. If you don’t want to pay your fees online via Pay Pal, simply use our Ezi Debit direct debit system. Ask any member who uses it just how easy and flexible it is. You only have to contact Gary or Jutta to start, pause or stop. From 1st August, cash payments at the dojo door will only be accepted on the first Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday of each month.
In preparing to phase in our online payment system, we have streamlined the club’s price list. From 1st August, there will be no more free introductory lessons however, people are welcome to come and watch. Monthly training fees have not changed but we continue to offer a significant discount to those paying online or by direct debit. All grading fees, up to and including 1st kyu, have been scrapped and will now be included in your monthly fees. Annual membership fees are now the same for everyone, including students and children - $30 full year (any time up to 30 June) and $15 half year (any time after 30 June). Class fees for Saturday morning kids’ classes remain the same except that we now ask you to pay online. Simply bring in your Pay Pal receipt and swap it for a 12-class pass.
Family discounts have increased. If one family member pays the ‘monthly unrestricted’ rate, additional family members will now pay the applicable ‘monthly lite’ rate only. Teens who train with adults twice a week or more will now pay the concessional ‘monthly unrestricted’ rate ($50), which of course is reduced to the ‘monthly lite’ rate ($25) if the family discount applies.
We are also transferring all of our product sales online – i.e. uniforms, belts, weapons, handbook and DVD Grading Syllabus. To make things a little simpler, we have reduced the number of product choices available. Adult gis offered will be the heavy judo style only ($70) and children’s gis will be the lightweight type ($40). Bokkens and Jos (red oak only) will now be sold as a $40 set only. When you purchase products online, simply print your Pay Pal receipt and bring it to the dojo to collect your goods.
Thank you for you cooperation with the upcoming changes. We do understand that some people without computer access will be inconvenienced but you have plenty of friends in the club who will help you out. Thanks again.
3. Changes to the Dojo Library - New location, new additions, new borrowing times
When you pull out the mats tonight you may notice that the cupboard behind Jutta has changed and is now half full of library books. The library has been moved to allow easier access to the library.
To aid students in borrowing books and to help stop books and DVD's vanishing mysteriously, as has happened in the past, I will now be overseeing the borrowing of books at the end of class each night. So, if you want to browse, borrow or return a book and I am not lingering around the cupboard, please just wave me down. The library will be open from 8:30 - 8:50pm Tues and Thurs nights. Arrangements will be made for Saturday borrowing, watch this space.
As a reminder - the dojo library is a resource available to 5th kyu (yellow belt) students and above. We have over 200 books, DVDs and other items in our Library which have been acquired over many years with your hard-earned training fees as well as by donation from students and instructors. Please make use of this invaluable resource for students, and treat it with due respect.
New books and DVD's that were added on Tues night:
Book - Mishima's Sword Travels - in Search of a Samurai Legend by Christopher Ross
Book - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
Book - Sport Stretch by Michael J. Alter
DVD - Yuki - The Healing Art of Aikido Yuishinkai Part 4 - Master Koretoshi Maruyama
DVD - Aikido - Australian Seminars 2007 - Master Koretoshi Maruyama - 3 disc set
I have also $400 of new stock which should be arriving in the next couple of weeks. If you have any requests for books, DVD's or CD's that you might like to see in the library, please email me at gabrielle.paynter@... and it will certainly be considered.
Gabby
4. Sunday Morning Ki Class
Our club now offers four classes a week at Nathan plus three children’s classes on Saturday mornings. Most people are aware of the three Aikido classes on Tuesday, Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings but the fourth class each week is the Sunday Ki class, and what goes on there continues to remain a mystery to most. Steve Dows teaches the class and he has over 25 years experience in Aikido and has developed very powerful Ki. He now prefers to teach Ki concepts rather than the martial techniques of Aikido. But telling you that you need to learn about Ki and coincidently there is a Ki class on Sunday doesn’t provide much information. So what is ‘Ki’?
Ki’ is the Japanese name for the vital energy that passes through our bodies and connects us to the universe and indeed to each other. It is not a concept exclusive to the Japanese culture. The Chinese call it Chi or Qi and also regard it as our life force and our source of internal strength. It is the cornerstone of the Chinese disciplines Qigong and Tai Chi.
The concept of Ki energy is based on the premise that all things in the universe are made from the same basic materials, just in different proportions and thus we are all connected as beings from essentially the same source. Just as we so depend on water and air, we depend on Ki energy for our very existence. We share this energy with each other just as we breathe the same air. It is the spark of life! The internal energy that causes us to be a living being rather than a lifeless corpse is our Ki energy. It flows through the universe and flows through us all. We don’t see it and because we live with it every day, we often become aware of its presence only by its sudden absence. A depletion of this energy results in sickness and debilitation; its total and prolonged absence results in death!
Ki is the energy within that provides the real power in Aikido. The power of Ki is far greater than anything generated by muscular strength. However, optimum power is generated only when Ki energy flows through a calm mind and relaxed body. Learning the outer forms of Aikido martial techniques is relatively easy. Learning how to relax under pressure, maintaining that relaxation and developing powerful Ki energy is much more challenging. Many people in the early stages of their Aikido journey are unaware of the role that Ki plays in the art. From day one however, whether you realise it or not, the warm-up exercises before every class help train both body and mind to relax and focus and train the hips learn to be the centre of power. You are developing an ‘Aikido mind and body’.
Steve Dows’ Sunday Ki class is ‘relaxation plus’. If you want a less physical and relaxing experience on a Sunday morning - the Sunday Mail, bacon & eggs and Steve Dows is the perfect combination. Go along and try it! And watch your Aikido develop and grow. Steve’s class is on every Sunday at 10.30am, except the first Sunday of each month which is set aside for Community Self Defence.
Shirin Mohebbi
Email: shirin(AT)internode.on.net
Offline 
Send Email