AGM - queries anyone?

petewells2000 wrote: Hi All, Having just stumbled across the minutes of the last AGM meeting that was held, is it me or am I reading it wrong, but isn't over £200K in the bank seem a lot of money for a governing body? Why does it need so much? Also, how can a governing body ratify grades when surely it is up to the individual associations to give grades? I also notice that a number of the aikikai groups have banded together to try to get proportional representation. Does anyone know what this is about, surely if a group is 2000 strong they should have greater voting rights than that of an organization of 100 or is it one vote one organization? Any thoughts anyone? Regards, Pete

Thank you Vincent for a prompt reply covering the points raised. I think it is great that these forum's give members the ability to interact directly with other members and with "some of the people who make decisions". It is a great step forward and healthy discussions about various topics is a great way of getting everyone involved!

I agree ratification might not be the right word, but why do you need to compile a list of dan grades? It just seems more administration for someone (and at a cost) and what benefits would this actually accomplish? Where is the next logical step for this? Would a smaller organization request for their senior grade to be awarded their next grade if for example their was only 30 members in that organization? It seems logical to me? Of course this might not obviously be the case. The BAB as a governing board do not need this information and members should not be paying for it, why would they unless they could get something out of it? This would only create division between that person and their association in the end, would it not?

I think Gordon Jones does explain the situation clearly in what they are wishing to table. I would guess that bringing the Doshu over costs a lot of time, energy, and money, so spreading the burden makes a lot of sense but from their points I do not think this is just the case. How can a voting system change, when you only have one vote regardless of how large your organization is? If the benefits to the smaller organizations (i.e. pay less money for membership) then why would they want to change that as it is not in their interests to?   Therefore it could never change. Catch twenty-two wouldn't you say?

Regards,

Pete

Hi All

Edited by SteveBillett - 18 Jun 2009 at 3:40pm

Thanks for the reply's.

But surely that's why the BAB has coaching qualifications? You cannot get one of them unless you are 1st kyu and above. So basically the dan grade certificate that your association hand out was not good enough for the council. Therefore, this person took the certificate as a ratification of your grade? So again, on a smaller organizational front (i.e. 30 members, a club for example), if this went ahead, and "Billy Bob's school of martial arts" (and we all know that there are many out there) was accepted into the BAB, and the instructor asked for his certificate, even though he has never belonged to any other assoication and he can get a certificate of an 8th Dan for example.   Which means that the board is endorsing that grade without them ever having to perform in front of anyone.

As soon as you issue a certificate, you are saying that this person is of that grade. Which is ratification!

The BAB should not have anything to do with grades, hand out certificates (as from your example, does become ratified by Joe public) or anything of the such. As this basically bypasses the association as in your case Steve, because although your assoication governs your Aikido, it was not considered good enough?

Food for thought wouldn't you say?

Pete

Hi John