On the road

Today mark the end of my extended summer, and the start of my new routine for the next seven and a bit months of travel up to Bundaberg and back for study. 

There is always a measure of nervousness and excitement with such large changes of routine, and a number of new opportunities (and their associated tasks) to go with this.  

First up, I will be on USQ Toowoomba Campus each Monday 12 pm with Go boards to see if anyone would like a catch up and a game. Please feel free to drop past, even if you have never played before, and you might have a surprising amount of fun! 

Second, I will be restarting classes in Gin GIn this week, with Kendo and Iaido first of the blocks from Wednesday afternoon. Jujutsu will restart the following Monday evening. We will be having some administrative changes there so that classes up there are fully covered by the Club’s insurance and systems. 

Third, I will be teaching back in Toowoomba on Thursday nights, and it would be great to see folk turn out for what will be a jam-packed evening of activities at the MEAC.  

I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone over this week, and will be posting regular updates in the Budo Bulletin concerning what we are doing up North. Till next time ...

Annual General Meeting Saturday 30 March

Yesterday evening, the Executive Committee set 30 March as the date for the Club’s AGM. The meeting will be held at the Mort Estate Activity Centre (MEAC) at 4.30 pm, in lieu of the regular scheduled session of FlexiFit. 

There are a few procedural things that we need to ensure before this happens. First, all Club memberships are due before this time. All people currently training, bar those that might be within their first four weeks at the Club will need to renew their membership in order to continue doing sessions at the Club. We shall be asking that instructors use our membership database to ensure that you are a current financial member after this point. 

We will send around a membership renewal form later this week so that you can provide the relevant details. These include: 

• Full legal name
• Email address
• Contact phone number
• Proper emergency contact details
• USQ Student or Staff number (even if you have discontinued or finished your studies)  

These are critical for your continued insurance coverage and so that we can make sure you are properly contactable.  

Fees will continue at the same level as for last year. They consist of a core membership, discipline levy, and insurance contribution, and vary slightly depending on which/how many disciplines you train in. These shall be laid out in the e-mail send later this week. If you have any queries regarding your membership, the amount you owe, or any other matters of interest or concern, please contact your relevant discipline coordinator in the first instance, then Sian Carlyon in her role as Treasurer, then myself. 

We would like to see as many of you there as can make it as there will be a number of significant changes going into the new year, particularly as I will be stepping down from the President’s role. To encourage you, we will be putting on a light dinner after the AGM.  

I hope to see you at the AGM and going forward into the new year! 

Taiko performances

This week just past has been a busy one for our Toowoomba Taiko group with three different sets of high energy performances fulfilled! Saturday 3 March was a performance at the High Vibe Night Market opposite the Spotted Cow in Blank Space in the Mills Precinct. Several videos of our performance have been posted to our social media sites on Facebook and Instagram if you want to check us out! Thanks to Tomoko, Jun, Michelle, Arielle, Gary, Katy (who also performed her dance magic), and our brave newercomers Mika, Natsuko and Barbara, who have all learned the pieces so quickly and well. Then the team turned around on Sunday afternoon for a performance at Cobb and Co Museum for the annual Mayoral TRC and USQ "Cooee" welcome to the international students and families. Again a great vibe and feedback from the audience. Later in the week on Friday morning, a slightly smaller group performed to a very appreciative audience for the Endeavour Foundation and, as with the other sessions, audience members also enjoyed a chance to show their own bacchi beats on the Takatsuki donated drums. Thanks team for your wonderful energy, coordination and obvious enjoyment while performing!

Many thanks MUST go also to Tomoko and Jun for collecting the drums from TRC and trsnporting them to and from our various performances, storing them on the other days, then returning them to TRC. We so greatly appreciate your efforts!  Domo arigato!

At the moment, we train Taiko on Thursdays in the first session from 6-7.30ish and all are very welcome to come along and give it a go. No experience is necessary, it's fun and it can be a great workout at the same time (like all our Club arts!).

Slight changes to pricing on the Website

For those of you making payments for classes and memberships via the Club’s website, you will notice that there have been some changes (increases) in the cost. This reflects part of the price we are charged by Stripe to process these payments, and in some cases, bring the cost in line with what has been charged via other methods of payment. This especially hit our casual session fee, where we were loosing more than 10 percent to charges. 

Please remember that our preferred method of payment is direct bank transfer into the Club’s account, as this takes the least amount of money out of the transfer. Details for where and how to pay can be found on the website at www.bbrd.org.au/fees/

If you have concerns with this, please contact Sian Carlyon, the Club’s Treasurer.

New timetable in effect

Just a reminder that the new training timetable came into effect on Saturday. The Club’s website has been updated to reflect these changes, the headlines of which are: 

• No current training on Wednesday nights (Adult fencing has been canceled, Jujutsu and Kendo shifted)
• Monday Jujutsu now starts at 6.00 pm and FlexiFit shifted to Saturday 4.45 pm
• Thursdays are now packed with Jujutsu, Taiko, Jodo, Kendo and Iaido
• Saturdays order has changed to Kendo (2 pm), Jujutsu (3.40 pm) and FlexiFit (4.45 pm) 
• Go boards will be set up in the Refectory Monday lunch times from 12.15-1.15 pm

Please ensure that your equipment and/or uniform is serviceable (clean) and try to get to your class session at least 5-10 minutes early so that you are ready to start promptly. Individual tardiness has an impact on everyone in the class, and my goal for this year is to reduce this to rare occurrences. 

If in doubt, check the website, or contact the relevant discipline coordinator.  

Have fun everyone, and I’ll look forward to seeing you at the dojo!

Student Life Expo wrap up

I want to express a quick round of thanks to everyone who participated at the Student Life Expo on Wednesday, and a big Hello! to everyone who dropped past to find out a little more about what the Club has to offer. 

Although the overall foot traffic for the event was down, we still managed to generate quite a bit of interest and had a number of folk sign up for more information. My hope is that they start to make their way into the dojo from this week coming!

Thank you Eric, Jack, Kateena, Sean T, and Sian for your efforts in the Quad and Refectory. And it was great to see Aaron dS come past and help to pack up at the end of the day!

Club Muster this Wednesday (27 February)

It is that time of year, and we shall once again be parading the Club’s colours at the USQ Toowoomba campus Student Life Expo this Wednesday. 

We have had a number of folk exit out of the University system this year, which will make both the staffing of our stall and demonstration area a little more difficult, and make it more important to recruit new members so that we maintain our minimum number of current registered students and current staff in order to maintain our affiliation with USQ Student Life. 

We shall be doing our standard procedure of setting up a demo area in the Quad (weather dependent) and have a booth inside the refectory to take details of folk interested in what we do. While the busiest period is always between 11.30 and 1.30pm, we will still need assistance:   

• packing up the trailer on Tuesday night at the MEAC. We will be doing this from 6.00pm sharp and will require at least four volunteers to make this relatively efficient.  
• “Bumping in” on Wednesday from 8.30 am
• Staffing either the booth or the demo area till 3 pm
• “Bumping out” from around 2.30 pm
• Restocking the MEAC and setting up for evening training from 6 pm

A number of you have already indicated your availability (or lack thereof) for these various times, but if you haven’t, please do so ASAP so that we can take an appropriate amount of gear with us and draw up a roster for the day.  

Even if you can’t make it past for Wednesday, please spread the word and try to flush as many people past us as you can. Remember that the Club is only as strong as its membership, and the more folk we have engaging in the various activities we support, the better an experience everyone at the Club enjoys! 

Changed training times from this Saturday.

The start of the new month will see a change to training times in order to accomodate my availability due to study committments. 

The most immediate will be this Saturday, where training will start at 2 pm, and take the order of Kendo (2–3.30pm), Jujutsu (3.40–4.40), then FlexiFit (4.45–5.45pm). I will be updating the Club’s website timetable later today to reflect this. 

The aim of the change is to make the transition between classes a little smoother, and to squeeze in FlexiFit, which I will no longer be in a position to direct of a Monday night as I will be in Bundaberg.  

I would ask that those coming in for Jujutsu please do so by 3.30 at the latest, so that you can assist with the set up of the training surface and be ready to start at 3.40 sharp. We shall then transition to FlexiFit and I’d encourage folk to stay for that class in order to properly cool down and do some body weight exercises. 

The second change will be to shift Wednesday Jujutsu to Thursday evening, starting at 6 pm. Again this will accomodate me driving back from Bundaberg to teach. We have yet to confirm the permanent shift for Kendo to Thursday second session (7.30 pm), but the likelihood is that we will be running it parallel with Iaido on a Thursday night.  

Hope to see you at the dojo! 

Wrap up: Kendo State Squad training

Queensland State Squad training for the upcoming Australian Kendo Championships was held on Saturday, and it was lovely to spend a post-birthday morning with the upped ante of practice under the wantchful eyes of Isaccs sensei, Komo sensei, and Tamura sensei. 

For me it also represented the lat time I will get a chance to train with senior sensei input before resetarting my travels up to Bundaberg for study. I personally feel like I have refined a few techniques and had several light bulb moments with my practice, which I will be attempting to make a regular part of my training. And a always, it was lovely to have the opportunity to share that with Kateena and Sean T, including a lovely lunch at Sunnybank on the way back to Toowoomba. 

Isaacs sensei is looking to host at least one or two more of the State Squad sessions before the AKC, and we will be planning to attend them when we know the details. 

Some altered training for this week

Just a quick note to let you know that I will not be able to make it to the dojo tonight. Brady will be running Jujutsu, and we will give FlexiFit a miss till next week. For those interested and available, I’ll be on campus at lunch with Go boards.

At this stage I shall be in for Wednesday night as per usual, but will of course provide an update if there are any variations to that.