Dear Students and Friends,

By this time, you have all seen the video that I did in May. I hope that it conveyed several things.

First, I hope you realize that the Association was formed for you, the member and not for us, the senior Black Belts. This is your Association and we need (and expect!) your input.

Second, communication among all of us is critical for the growth of a strong and focused common effort. Our Newsletter is just one of many ways that intergroup communication can be accomplished. We expect you to be creative in how you meet other members and establish a dialog.

Third, we need to at least double the size of our Association in order to provide the talented advanced Black Belts that we have the opportunity of sharing their Art. Rapid initial growth will give us all a responsibility of sharing our Art as well; we must each take new members and get them focused on the right path of training. If each member that we currently have could just bring in 2 new members in the next year, we could easily attain our goal. Let's all try. Help your Program Director out by making a commitment to bring a couple of your friends down to your club.

One of the things that I briefly mentioned on the video that I would like to add a little to is the concept of assigning value to your training and to your Art and Association. Let's take an example: we don't put a lot of value on a bottle of Pepsi; anywhere from $.89 to maybe $1.60 or so- not a whole lot of money, and when we get it, we just drink it right down. If some spills, well... no big deal because we can always get some more. But what if that bottle of Pepsi on the shelf at the store was the last bottle in the state? Now how much value would you place on it (given the fact that you really like Pepsi in the first place!)? Would you pay $5.00 for it? Would you pay $10.00? $15.00? How much? It would depend on how much you wanted it, I suppose.

The point is that we created the value by assigning a price to it that we were willing to pay based on how bad we wanted it. So, let me ask you this: how badly do you want to achieve success in your Art? If you want it badly enough, then you must assign a high value to your training and work very hard.

Those who do not value their training are always the ones we have to "motivate" at class, right? And those of you who have trained with me know that I do not waste my time motivating students: I am not a cheer leader. I value my Art and my training very highly. I do not have time for those who take their training lightly or carelessly because I know that they will never succeed in attaining any of the really neat things that our Art and our Association can offer them. That is sad, but only from the standpoint of sad for that one person who doesn't care.

But look at all of you that do care, and who work very hard. I am very proud of you, and I know that it will be you who will assign the highest value to your participation in the Association realizing that it is your Association; that you will be the ones who will establish the important communication bonds throughout the Association and develop new and life long friends; that you will be the ones who will go out and bring your friends down to the club so that you can share these neat things with those who are the closest to you. Those who can see ahead must assign their own value to their training and what they will ultimately get out of it. It is to you that the leadership of the next generation of members will fall to. Let's get to it, ok?

As I mentioned in the video, I am planning on doing another video sometime in the Fall as I celebrate my 25th anniversary in the Martial Arts. If anyone has anything that they would like me to address in that video, please let me know; I am beginning to formulate an outline for it now.

Enjoy your Summer, but don't neglect your training. Use the warm weather to accelerate your stretching and flexibility development so that when the colder weather comes, you will be able to warm up more quickly and effectively.

And thank you all for your continued support of your individual programs. Make your Program strong and you make us all strong. I am counting on your help!

In our art,
Grandmaster Peter M. Rose