What is an IUKF member?
The IUKF is a young organization and the Board of Directors was discussing the question of what makes an IUKF member. Other Martial Arts organizations require membership dues in order to join. If you’re an engineer, lawyer or doctor, you pay annual dues to belong to professional organizations. The year you omit your dues, is the year you cease to be a member.
It was mentioned that some people think that because they’ve been affiliated with IUKF activities, that they’re a member. Some feel that because they are seniors, they ought to be considered a member. Others who volunteer time and effort on behalf of the organization believe that this equates to being a member. What they all miss is that in order for an organization such as the IUKF to grow and prosper, it needs funding. For it to create projects and items of value to its members, it needs funding, and that comes from all of our dues!
Every bit of those dues received by the IUKF goes to communications and projects on behalf of the members.
To give you an example, the members of the Board of Directors are individuals who volunteer considerable amounts of their time. Still, each one of them is a paying member. Darin Yee, who is an advanced teacher, has forty years of Martial Arts experience and gives classes and seminars on behalf of the IUKF, has paid extra, to become a lifetime member. The members of the Board understand that the more senior one is the more one should understand that our organization needs the support of each one of us, to survive and prosper. So a dues-paying person, is a member of the IUKF.
“What is the IUKF doing for me”, may be the reply to a request for dues. Well, the more we do for the IUKF, the more it will be able to offer its members. Currently, the IUKF is a promoting and certifying source for Uechi-Ryu Dan rankings. The Eastern Arts website operates on behalf of Uechi Ryu and the IUKF. This site alone keeps our style’s members in touch with each other and with developments in our style. Its Forums allow for lively exchange of ideas. The video section is rich in content, and will be available exclusively for members.
The Eastern Arts store has DVDs, Uechi insignia clothes, gym bags and jewelry, all discounted to IUKF members. And the Summer Fest tuition cost is discounted each year sufficiently for IUKF members to off-set for the cost of dues each year!
As the IUKF grows, it will become the kind of organization that will have the power to offer the wide array of products and services that you would like. As a young outfit, it needs your help. So please send your $50 enrollment fee or $35 dollar renewal fee to David Berndt, IUKF Treasurer and Membership Coordinator, at:
International Uechi-ryu Karate Federation
POB 1403
Mount Dora, FL 32756
Tel: 352-636-5270 Fax: 352-383-6227
POB 1403
Mount Dora, FL 32756
Tel: 352-636-5270 Fax: 352-383-6227
Paul Haydu