Bunnings fundraiser: Call for volunteers and loan items

The Headline for this week is that this Saturday, 4 April, is the Clubs opportunity to hold a fund raising barbecue at Bunnings Toowoomba. We need to be staffing the hotplate from mid morning to mid afternoon and will need sufficient people to help out.

We also need to organise sufficient ice chests for the sausages, and a digital thermometer to ensure the meat is kept at safe temperatures. If you have these items, please let us know as it will save use from having to purchase them.

Please let Michael know ASAP if you are able to assist on the day. We will also be adding some colour and movement to give the public a little taste of what we do!

Less than two weeks to go: Russian Martial Arts Seminar with Andrew Seyderhelm.

Definitely excited as the countdown to the rescheduled seminar with Andrew has now clocked under a fortnight!

Andrew has promised a jam-packed day, and I hope to see as many of you there as can make it!

The new membership year is upon us!

Happy New (Club's membership) Year!

April is officially the start of the Club's year, and we will be having the Club's Annual General Meeting in a few weeks, and a separate notice will be going out about that next week. However in preparation, could I ask that all that are intending to train with the Club this year fill out a Membership application form, which can be found by following this link.

You need to be a financial member in order to train with the Club and vote (or be nominated for) the Executive. This year we will be rebuilding the membership database, so please fill out all relevant sections of the form so that we can do so.

I'm looking forward to training with you all throughout this year, and hope to see as many as possible at the AGM when it is called.

40th Australian Kendo Championships (and other kendo news)

Melbourne's Kenshinkan with be hosting the 40th Australian Kendo Championships starting this Friday and extending over the Easter long weekend.

I'd like to wish all competitors the best of luck, particularly the Queensland and, more specifically the Toowoomba-based players and officials heading down— Ryo Atsumi and Randy Le Berhz will be competing and Itakura sensei will be on shimpan duties for the event.

To all officially registered Kendo members, I would also strongly encourage you to vote for the last vacancy on the AKR kendo board. These appointments are for three years and are critical to the promotion and good functioning of kendo in Australia. You should have received a from via the QKR, but if you have not, please contact me to have another sent through. Returned proxy voting forms can be sent to Dave Fitzgibbon at secretary@qkr.asn.au.

There is a very small likelihood that kendo will be on at the PCYC this Sunday, though Michael Ridel will confirm this later in the week.

Wednesday training  at USQ will be the last session Randy will get before he competes, so I would like to see as many there as possible to assist him do a final tune up!

Members' "Classifieds"

One of the new services the Club will be providing members is some the opportunity to list some "classifieds" to be distributed via the Budo Bulletin.

The main things that I would like to see distributed are notices to participate in study-related participation (for instance, I've promised Melissa Pierides to put out a call when she is ready to collect experimental data for her Psychology honours project); calls for to help move house etc.; and, trips/events that members are organising on their own steam rather than being an official Club event.

Listing items will be limited to current financial members of the Club. If you want something that is to be broadcast through the Club's broader network, please send details through to michael.baczynski@bbrd.org.au before 4pm on a Friday.

Taekwondo on hiatus

On a bitter-sweet note, I would like to let the Club's members and friends know that Taekwondo will be on an indefinite hiatus in the Club.

I spoke with Jack Jang this week and he informed me that due to a number of personal circumstances he is unable to offer regular Taekwondo classes for the foreseeable future. One of these reasons is that he is likely to relocate to Sydney within the next few months in order to find work, now that he has completed his studies at USQ.

I would like to extend well wishes on behalf of the Club. Jack has been a key member of the Club for the two years he has been in Toowoomba, and we will miss him on a personal level as well as on a professional level and wanted to remind him that he always has friends and somewhere to train when in town!

USQ Kendo news

I was talking with Itakura sensei on Sunday about Australian University Games Kendo and the USQ players. He is very keen to help develop the squad, but as he rightly pointed out this cannot be done without some regular input from him.

To that end we have decided that a minimum requirement for eligibility to represent USQ will be to participate in a minimum of one Sunday training session a month where sensei is present. We will also be seeing what can be done by way of organising regular trips to Brisbane to train with sensei (which is only fair given his commitment of driving up to Toowoomba every Sunday morning).

In some more USQ Kendo news, I will be taking the opportunity of working at the Springfield Campus on Fridays this semester to see if we can generate some interest in kendo down the hill. One of my co-workers has expressed an interest to once again pick up her shinai after and extended break, and we will be seeing if we can get a few more along — possibly with an eye to expanding the number of eligible USQ kendoka for this year's Uni Games, which will be held on the Gold Coast this year on the last weekend of September. 

Harmony Day celebrations this Wednesday

The next of our early-year rush of commitments will be held during the Wednesday common hours (12–2pm) this week at the Toowoomba campus. Instructors will talk to their various students about what demonstrations we might offer, but we are leaning toward a "light load out" this year where we will not have to set up too many mats!

Harmony Day is an excellent fit with the core values of the Club, and each year that we have been participating in it at USQ has provided an excellent opportunity for us to show that. Make sure you drop past and say "hi" if you are free, and sample the food on offer from the various communities that make up the broader USQ community.

Seitei Iaido this Tuesday

There will be an iaido training session in the second Tuesday evening session at the MEAC.

Fellow iaidoka James Archer has moved to Toowoomba, and I am looking forward to the first training opportunity to look at some of what he picked up at the Nationals in January. We will also be having some discussions about the regular schedule for seitei iaido so that we can fit a bit more keiko in, including more time with Tom Johnson, sensei, whe he returns to Australia at the end of the month.

Hello from Kyoto

Hello to the club from Kyoto! Here it has been freezing cold. There has been many occasions after morning aikido training we open the windows to see snow falling outside! Another way to escape the cold has been to head to the local bath house (sentou) and soak in the hot water until you forget what the temperature outside was. This provides the right mood for some sake to be drunk afterwards :-)

The waza that I have been practicing the most whilst over here has been busting concrete with the jackhammer. My parents in law are renovating their house so I have been busy helping with any labour that needs doing. This has been a good test of my posture training as I find posture alignment harder to maintain after the fatigue sets in when wielding a 30 odd kilo jackhammer. See you back in the dojo on the 24th!