We have just finished the USAF summer camp of 2012 and it was a big success. It was the second biggest summer camp of our history in terms of attendance, and I’m very happy. A million thanks to all the people who worked so hard to help organize this big event. I would like to mention many individual names to show my appreciation, however, there is not enough space to do so. Anyway, it was successful because of everybody’s effort.
One unique point of our camp is that we have so many classes taught by so many instructors, including women and people from other countries, and each one of them showed their personality and skills freely. That showed my motto for our federation is working: Freedom, Friendship, Fairness and Flexibility. This is what no other country offers besides ours.
Needless to say, my biggest concern is to make everyone happy, but nothing is ever perfect. My summer camp headache is to make the class schedule. There are so many capable instructors for a limited number of classes, so in the future I must make some adjustments and shuffle the schedule around. I need your understanding and I will do my best. You can expect another good camp for next year. I will also try to improve my singing.
At the end of camp during the farewell party, I introduced my ideas for the future of the USAF. You may have received the official letter with my announcement, but here is a copy of the letter to read if you have not seen it. I also asked the Technical Committee to do the testing at camp, as it is also one of my ideas for the future. I understand that there was some confusion among the members when this happened. Please put your trust in whoever it is that oversees our tests, and not question their decisions as I have put my trust in them as well. After all, changes must be made sooner or later and since it is my responsibility to make sure the USAF stays strong in the future, it is better to start addressing them now. I will remain involved in the oversight, instruction and guidance of the federation for many years to come, and hope that you will accept with positive thoughts the many changes I have offered to secure our future.
You should be proud of yourself to be a member of the best federation in the entire aikido world.
Y. Yamada