May 2010 USMA Notice to All USMA
Members and Friends
Dear Friends in
the Martial Arts,
I send you
cordial greetings and sincere best wishes always from our US Martial
Arts Association.
I am happy to
tell you that our USMA is growing steadily. Many of you know that I
have been ill during the fall and winter. I had some major surgery
during the past summer, and took quite a while to recover. I’m in
fine health again and back in the harness working hard in the
office.
My wife Joy
helps me every day. At the beginning of March we had a big backlog
of over 1,700 emails. We are nearly caught up now, but it’s a
constant work load of about 100 new emails a day. One good thing
about all this is that the flow of questions about the USMA and its
forward looking policies never seems to stop.
Two new and important essays for you are now up on our USMA website.
In this message to you, I am calling your attention to two important
essays I have recently written about two very important subjects.
Please let me summarize for you
WE TRUST
OTHER MARTIAL ARTISTS TO TELL THE TRUTH?
This is the general subject of the essay I have called,
“Martial Artists Aren’t Liars!” It’s an important
question, because there are at least 100 million Martial Artists now
practicing in the US and Canada. We cannot possibly know personally
even a fraction of the 20 million club leaders who train these
people. Therefore, when we receive a membership application from
one of them, how are we to know if he’s telling the truth?
As you read
through this essay, you’ll see that I have been thinking about this
question for over 50 years. After all this time and experience, I
have reached a strongly held conclusion the Martial Artists are not
liars. Read the essay and decide for yourself. Look for the title,
Martial Artists Aren’t Liars!.
How does the USMA descide what ranks a new member should have?
This is the basic and fundamental question that the Founder of a
large Martial Arts association like the USMA must answer every day.
Often a Martial
Arts expert with up to 30 years experience writes to tell us he has
been held back in promotion is only a 2nd or 3rd
Dan after all those years of training and service. How do we go
about deciding what rank he should have? Mostly by asking him or
her to give us a resume of their career, and then following the
guidelines laid out in the second essay, called “USMA
Martial Arts Promotion Times.”
I really urge
you to study this second essay carefully. You might want to print
it out and then make many copies to give to non-USMA club leaders
who need help in getting their promotion problems cleared up.
It’s hard for
me to describe how much time and thought has gone into this five
page essay. After all, it is a really big responsibility to tell
someone what rank they should have or even should not have. On the
one hand we could just give out rank as requested. Honestly, that
has been suggested!
On the other
hand, we could have so many insulting requirements that very few
people would bother to fool around with promotions. Think about
this for a minute. I’ll bet you know quite a few really dedicated
Martial Artists who have simply stopped fooling around with rank
because they have been rebuffed, neglected, or just plain insulted
regarding promotions in Martial Arts rank. There are thousands and
thousands of these “misplaced persons of the Martial Arts.”
What we of the
USMA want to do is come to the rescue of these dedicated people who
have looked for years for an organization which provides a fair and
equitable promotion system. In the end, it’s all based on trust,
and in my own personal conviction that Martial Artists aren’t liars.
It’s also
wonderful to know that we have a build in, automatic correction
system if any errors are
made in promotions. Even though we are a very big group, Martial
Arts leaders are really a pretty close knit fraternity. When
someone claims or is promoted to the wrong rank, I know that sooner
or later I’m going to hear about it, mostly sooner!
I rely on each
of our members and friends to give me their thoughts on this
subject. Our promotion system isn’t perfect by any means. At the
same time, I think it’s the best system in existence so far. We are
able to administer the ranks for not one or two Martial Arts with
this system, but over one thousand, and that’s a big order. Please
read these two new essays and give me your honest comments. Print
them out and give them to all the non-USMA club leaders you know.
LET’S
KEEP OUR ASSOCIATION GROWING!!
Your servant
and friend,
O-Sensei,
Phil Porter, Founder, USMA
10th Dan in:
Judo, JuJitsu, Taiho Jitsu, Budo Taijutsu, Jun Kin Shin, Shorindokai
Karate, Beikoku Mizu Ryu JuJitsu, and Mixed Martial Arts.
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