As the ARMA is falling apart , some of the those guys are trying to put together federation that is more open to other groups. Much like the US karate federation has basic standards and certification for different individual schools who want to be associated. Looks like it's pulling together in an interesting way.

John Clement's ARMA was legit, but they were suspicious of other groups and hard to work with. This was an email that's sent out to members of the email list for the New Orleans Sword guys.

Thought I'd pass it along.


Here's a blurb:
Jake posted this on the Schola Gladiatoria forum:

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The main thrust of this organization is to bring groups together. Seperate and distinct groups with their own methodologies, uniforms, interpretations, etc. etc. The idea is to emulate some of the success that HEMAC has had with bringing together a larger community.

A subordinate effort to that is a unified club which will be, for all intents and purposes, equal to any other club in the larger organization. This is where colors and ranks are involved, and it is currently independent from the larger "association." We're ironing out the details right now.

Clubs will have the opportunity to be associates of the HECF, or chartered clubs. Clubs that join the HECF from "outside" will *not* need to adopt HECF uniforms, methodologies, etc.

We want to be able to provide a few things:
- A place on this side of the pond for groups to connect with each other
- A large (yearly?) event in the US and open to all
- Some "federation" benefits that really only apply to stateside folks as far as I can tell: group insurance, resources for helping to establish a group and recruit members within the framwork of US laws and what-not
- instructor certification. You don't need one of these to teach and you don't need to be a chartered school to get one, but if you have one, you can point back to published standards that you've met. For most of the niche community this doesn't matter, but the long term goal here, in my opinion, is to help bring our field more into the open, more out of obscurity--to legitimize it. And, for better or for worse, a piece of paper goes a long way toward doing that.
- training resources and methodologies for start-up groups that aren't ready or willing to do this from the ground up
- an open-source research database that will filter into a university-style publishing house, allowing less commercial (but still important) research to see the light of day
- business conducted "in the open," with publicly published minutes of leadership meetings, budget information, and elected leadership (within the framework of the legal structure that the federation is set up under).

Please note that we're really still dreaming this up, arguing about what we can and can't realistically accomplish, and we're working out the differences between a "club" and a "federation," since most (but not all) of the founding members are ex-ARMA. I think when we're done we'll have something akin to the American Tae Kwon Do Federation or whatever--something that groups across the country (world?) can belong to, benefit from, but not answer to.

Hope that helps. We are open to suggestions, since this is the formative stage.

Best,

Jake

Also, another link about the subject in more detail.

http://blog.paulushectormair.com/2009/0 ... tives.html

Looks like this will open up some interesting opportunities. It would be great to be able to get some quality instruction/certification without having to completely assimilate our group into another organization. I'll try to keep an eye on this, but if you find any more info, please post it here. I'm very interested in the instructor certification stuff.

Yeah, I think this could be a great program to be affiliated with if it comes together. These guys have the right idea for improving and connecting the WMA community IMO.

very interesting, opportunities follow. i'll keep an eye out here and on on that blog as well.

I like it too. It could bring our organization into the light a little more.

Also, we may be able to send 'representatives' to other fight-meets.