There’s been some discussion of how a better fencing club could and should be organised. These are some ideas as to how a club should look.

Membership:

There are only two kinds of fee structure – membership and ‘program’ membership, for want of a better word. There may also be a short term membership in place for those who are only available during certain times of the year, like college kids and so on, and there may also be nightly fees. If membership fees can be kept to around $450 or so for yearly membership, and a monthly ‘program’ fee at perhaps an extra $50 per month, I think these fees are not exorbitant and well suited to the benefits that they give.

Training structure:

Let us assume a training night opens at 6:30. From 6:30 to 7:30, everyone does footwork. This footwork and general warmup is open to everyone in the place, and is led by a coach or senior fencer. If there are lessons scheduled during this time, they happen, but the general footwork and warmup is for everyone. The reason it goes for an hour is that people will inevitably straggle in sometime between 6:30 and 7:00, and it is important that group warmup be done together as a club. Furthermore, when beginners or new fencers come in, they can have someone teach them the very basics from 6:30 to 7:00, and then they can join in with everyone else till 7:30. This is important too – get beginners involved with the club as soon as possible.

After 7:30, those fencers who are involved with a ‘program’ do further training. This involves having a senior coach conduct intensive drills and conditioning for another hour, till 8:30. Beginner classes are also conducted during this hour, taken by whoever the beginner coach is. For everyone else, there is free fencing. After 8:30, the club is open to general free fencing, and everyone is thrown back in the mix together again.

For those involved with a ‘program’, there may also be another, shorter training night where there is no general fencing scheduled, but they gather with their coaches and train for an hour or two. This general structure is dependent of course on available time and space, but the above structure is basically how I envision a good fencing club running.

As for what to do about our current situation, I have several thoughts on this as well.

Firstly, I think it is in everyone’s interest that there be less segregation and more fencing. The Academy has existed essentially as two separate clubs for a long time, with any fraternising between two groups severely frowned upon; mostly by Tim, granted, but the fact remains that this segregation has not helped the situation. Splitting clubs in toto is always a possibility, but I think it should be a possibility of last resort. I am aware that for many of you, the idea of fencing at a club with Tim in it is unpleasant. Certainly he and I have our share of problems. Still, I am highly resistant to the notion of splitting off a separate club just on personality conflicts. I would rather fence at a successful club with people I don’t like than have two failed clubs.

I know there are many of us who may be willing to do more to make a club succeed. The reality, though, is that most of these people turn up to fencing once every couple of months, if that. We are busy people with lives, and it’s hard to commit time, I know that. But if we are to be honest, how much more are we all willing to contribute to a new club that has even less to start with than the one we have now? I know that I am not willing to make any commitments to anything till at least the end of August, especially not a new club. Med school starts at the start of August, and I have to know what my workload is like before I can make any commitments. I imagine that I can always spare one or two nights a week, but you never know.

Something we can do, though, is to come up with another venue with the possibility of moving the entire club there. The facility we have is vastly overpriced for the amount we use it. If we can lower operating costs, then fees stay down and everyone is happier. I think Tim will have to listen if another option is presented, particularly if it is presented by people who he doesn’t have deep and abiding personal issues with, unlike me.

These are just my initial thoughts and reactions. I don’t like the current situation on many levels, but mostly because I don’t think anyone is getting value for money with the current structure of training and recreational fencing. I certainly don’t think that increasing fees and providing nothing more in return is acceptable either. My preference is to improve upon what we have, rather than start afresh elsewhere with less fencers and uncertain commitment from those we do have. In any case, I am not prepared to commit to anything for at least a month. Let me know what you all think.

Aron