New Fees

As indicated last week, from Tuesday, we will be increasing the amount of many of the contributions we pay towards supporting our various activities. This will be reflected on the Club’s website, where you can find all of the details, specifically www.bbrd.org.au/fees

We have not taken this decision lightly as we have kept the fees at their current level for many years now. There has been a significant increase in our costs over this time, and the increase in the number membership has not quite kept up. Our fees are still significantly lower than similar Clubs in the Toowoomba region, and there are still ways that you are able to make savings on regular trining contributions.

Check this evening for the full updated list. If you have any questions please ask your instructor/discipline coordinator or any one of the Executive members.

AGM Redux

A quick round of thanks to everyone who logged on yesterday afternoon to attend the AGM. We managed to get all core business done in just over 35 minutes and elect the Executive for the new year. The elected positions are:

• President: Michael Baczynski

• Treasurer: Grant Vickery

• Secretary: Brady Albrand

• General Member: Tracy Campbell

The full list of discipline coordinators and special appointed positions will be confirmed at the first extended Executive meeting, which will be held in the next fortnight.

On a general note, I want to thank everyone for their efforts on the extended Executive over the past 12 months. There have been a number of significant challenges to the Club that I would argue we have risen well to. I am looking forward to the year ahead, where we can bed down and extend the strategies we have been engaged with in the past year, and continue to grow interest and participation in the Club’s activities.

We have a rapidly filling “dance card” in May, including Taiko performances, Jujutsu grading, and the Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival, which has been moved from its historical August date. We will look to these events as an extended opportunity to share what we love to do with the Toowoomba (and wider) community, and continue to build the membership base.

As always, I’ll hope to see you soon in the dojo!

Late dues …

I would like to thank everyone who had managed to pay their membership dues by yesterday afternoon. I have noticed though that there are a number of you who have not renewed as yet. Just a reminder that you will not be able to participate in Club activities unless you are a financial member. This is to ensure you are properly on the books, and therefore covered by insurance.

I understand that it can be tricky, especially for full time students. Additionally there may have been some confusion regarding Brady’s e-mail regarding the fees due. To clarify:

1. To be financial, you must pay the Membership fee. This is $15 for current USQ students or any full time student at another institution (school or tertiary), $20 for a general community member.

2. If you train one or more of Jujutsu, Systema, or Arnis, you will need to contribute $30 to the Training Insurance Fund.

3. For each discipline activity you participate in, you need to contribute $10.

4. If you are training a QKR supported art (Kendo, Iaido, Jodo) you must be a current financial member of the Renmei. Likewise if you are training in Kyudo, you must join the Queensland Kyudo Association, and if training Judo, fees must be paid to Judo Queensland. Each of these State organisations have their own timeline for payment and banking details. If in doubt, please talk with your discipline coordinator or instructor.

Fees are due to rise this year. We have maintained the current fee structure for a number of years now, and the increase will be necessary to cover increases to our fixed costs. If you pay this week, you will be able to take advantage of the historical prices set out above. However, we will be setting the new prices at the first extended Executive meeting for the year, and you will be subject to them as they are then set.

Again, you will need to be paid up before you can train. Given we are still away from the CBRC this week, I would strongly suggest that you get things sorted before next Tuesday.

Grant and I will finalise the membership list this week, and sending our receipts to everyone who has paid up.

Thanks Tamara Kelly

We undertook our first outdoor and Zoom broadcast Iaido class since the end of last year’s COVID lockdown on Saturday, with the addition of a brand new radio microphone supplied by Tam. The radio mic was primarily purchased to improve the quality of cross dojo teaching via Zoom, and the test run on the weekend certainly proved its efficacy.

Many thanks to Tam, who organised and posted this off. I hope that this will encourage more of the Club’s diaspora to log into live sessions, and it will also make recording for the Club’s private You Tube Chanel to be much smoother and clearer.

Jujutsu: There are three slots …

Although we have been away from the CBRC this week, we have continued to train. Jon has generously provided his garage as a training space for jujutsu, and we have had two quality training sessions so far, and look to repeat that with three session this week.

Given the limited space we are operating in, we are restricting the numbers to 5 people. Given myself and Jon take two of that number, there are three slots available for each session.

Rules are simple:

1. When the call goes out for interest it is first in best dressed

2. You must be ready to start on time. That is dressed and ready to go. If you are late without decent excuse you will not be permitted to train.

3. If you are late or a no show, you will not be able to nominate for the rest of the week.

Last week we focussed on BBRD jujutsu ne waza and suwariwaza. The ceiling height is somewhat restrictive of KJR jujutsu sessions, but we will look to see if we can run an open air KJR session this week. Keep an eye on the Club’s Jujutsu Chat for your opportunity to put yourself on the training list!

Final reminder: AGM this Sunday 11 April 4 pm

Just to remind everyone that if you haven’t paid your membership and insurance fees this calendar year, then you will need to to so before Saturday in order to be considered a financial members of the Club. This is to give Grant sufficient time to pull together a complete list of all members for the AGM on Sunday.

If you are not a financial member, or someone in the first four weeks of coming to classes, you cannot train with the Club. This is to protect everyone with the relevant insurances, and to support the range of services that allow us to put on training sessions.

All financial members are very welcome to join in with the Zoom-ed AGM, ans you can follow the link to the AGM meeting details here. You will be able to access the various annual reports a they get uploaded over the next few days, and get the log-in details for the Zoom meeting.

If you are having difficulties accessing this link, please send an e-mail to enquiries@bbrd.org.au

Training over the next two weeks

I hope that everyone has managed to take some pause over the Easter weekend and feel recharged and refreshed (though possibly carb/chocolate overloaded). Queensland has certainly kept with its tradition of a wet long weekend, which has certainly been welcome for the garden.

Unfortunately, as previously noted, we will not be able to use the CBRC for the next two weeks as the University has commandeered the space for graduation ceremonies. This will mean that we will be training in slightly different ways, including rebooting some of our Zoom sessions for conditioning training, back yard/park sessions for Iaido and Kendo suburi, and, thanks to Jon H.’s generosity, some limited Jujutsu training in his garage.

We will be using our regular communication channels to let you know the when/where of training. Specifically with Jujutsu though, you will have to book in for the session given the limited space at Jon’s, and it will be first come first served. If you book in and are a no-show, or come late, you will not be allowed to book in for any other sessions for the remainder of the fortnight.

Hope to see all of you at some stage over the next two weeks!

Quick blog: Sprint to the finish

Morning everyone! A very quick Budo Blog/Bulletin post for this morning as I head into my last week of clinical placement.

We still have to receive final confirmation from the CBRC regarding the availability of alternative training spaces while the centre is being used for USQ graduation ceremonies over the two week mid semester break starting straight after Easter.

At worst, this will me a hiatus from training with some informal sessions. However I am still hopeful we might be able to offer some classes through this time. I will try and get the message out to everyone in the next few days.

Barring that, it would be safe to assume that this week will be the last sessions for a fortnight. And yes I will be there Saturday afternoon for our regular training.

Beyond that, all current active members should have received an e-mail from Brady regarding the AGM. It would be great to see everyone over the camera on Sunday 11th April.

Finally, we have received another update regarding where in the world is Carmen Santiago (our order of new mats shipping in from Belgium). Fortunately, they were well past the Suez canal when it was blocked. However due to delays at all shipping ports, they were redirected from Singapore to Yantian before coming into Melbourne. So currently it is expected that the estimated time of departure from Yantian will be 28/03, and estimated to arrive in Melbourne on 12/04. From that point they need o be unloaded and rail freight to Toowoomba. With luck, by ANZAC day we might see our new mats!

Have a great week everyone, and I’ll look forward to seeing you Saturday

AGM Date

Just a quick note that the date for the Club AGM will be Sunday 11 April at 4 pm Toowoomba time.

In the next day or two you ought get an e-mail directly to yourself reminding you of how and where to pay your annual dues, and any other matters relevant to the upcoming Club year.

If you do not get a reminder, can you please e-mail secretary@bbrd.org.au just to ensure that we have your correct e-mail details on file.

Taking competition to the next step: Strength and conditoning

It is a relief to have a rostered day off from my clinical placement today after a very full weekend completing the face to face classroom component of a Level 1 Strength and Conditioning Coaching course. The course was run through The Fit Lab Toowoomba by Steve Nance who was, amongst his long and highly successful career in the field, the strength and conditioning coach for Wane Bennett’s Broncos Rugby League team through the 1990s, and prepared the Wallabies for their successful 1999 World Cup challenge.

While the course was biased towards preparing team sport athletes, there were many highly relevant and useful take homes for how I would like to better prepare our Club members for their own performance goals, whether it be specifically for competition or more general performance in their chosen disciplines. In particular, what was brought home was the importance of general and endurance conditioning to improve performance in activities that do not involve a great deal of running.

I already have a couple of members lined up to work with for the practicum/project component to finalise this qualification. However, once qualified and registered I would be very happy to work in with other members to develop specific year-long programs. Those training with me in regular classes might also notice some subtle changes to the regular flow of classes too.

Lets see what we can achieve after Easter!