Dear USAF Dojo Cho and Instructors,
The Board of Directors met in Ft. Lauderdale for its annual meeting on November 7-9. Here is a summary of the main outcomes of that meeting.
A second issue of importance for our annual meeting is the election of board members and officers. I am pleased to announce that we elected a new member to the board. Sylvie Firestone, 5th Dan and co-founder of Aikido of Westchester, will join the board in 2020. As well as being an accomplished Aikidoist, Sylvie is an excellent graphic designer with great media savvy. The Board is excited that she will bring this skill set to the USAF to help us grow and strengthen the organization going forward. Julia Freedgood was re-elected Treasurer and Peter Bernath was also re-elected as Technical Committee representative.
The Board has created a “Working Group” to explore issues of gender, diversity and inclusion in our organization. To start, the group consists of Board representatives Julia Freedgood and Sylvie Firestone along with USAF members Chris Wong and Arturo Peal. It will be chaired by Sharon Dominguez. The working Group has already met and is moving forward to determine goals, structure and composition of the group and to decide on next steps.
The Board updated the Code of Conduct, clarified the Grievance Process, and will be making the entire package more easily accessible on the USAF website. This document is linked to our DDC instructor’s page, our newsletter – www.usafaikidonews.com, and our website’s Membership Benefit’s page at www.usaikifed.com. We encourage you to post the Code of Conduct in your dojo so your members are aware of and have access to the updated policy.
You will be receiving information regarding 2020 renewals in the next few weeks. Please do not proceed with your renewals until then.
Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving and a joyous holiday season,