By Jokokan Honbu

Over 250 happy Shindenkaners gave it their all and had a lot of positive experiences under a fantastic and sometimes euphoric atmosphere during Shindenkan's Christmas rally 2008. The Shindenkan Christmas rally actually also marked a 20-year anniversary since the first Christmas rally was held.

With the emphasis placed on technical understanding and deep positions, all TG groups went through focused teaching specifically targeted for their curriculum group. TG stands for TeamGruppe and is included in the new communicative and very informative Shindenkan Handbook in color, which will be published in January, 2009. TeamGruppe is a group of degrees that can benefit, support and inspire each other.

After 3 hours of concentrated teaching, a 20-minute long extraordinary general assembly was held, which was called for in the X-mas convention invitation four weeks before

Extraordinary general meeting 2008, 13 December.

In connection with Shindenkan's Christmas training meeting on December 13, 2008, an extraordinary general meeting announced four weeks in advance was held, where 20 minutes were set aside.

The chairman of the federation, Kimu Bjarkmann, opened the general meeting and gave a 10-minute long presentation about his departure as chairman of the federation, background, results and in what structural and financial condition the federation is handed over to the new 2-year management:

• All strategic plans fulfilled years ahead of schedule and well above target.
• A streamlined, efficient and highly professional organization with knowledge sharing and a high international level of competence
• Management-trained managers for all positions, who are "bottled up" with a set of values and common guidelines
• Organization's finances 1/1-2009: The debt items are divided by 11 % to Honbu Dojo and 89 % to Kimu Bjarkmann, as the two largest creditors and lenders.
• Licenses revoked in June, 1996; Cyprus, Greece, Ireland
• From 3 schools to 8 schools in Denmark
• From approx. 40 students to 650 students in the total organization per 1 February 2008.
• 20-30,000 readers worldwide to the website
• Before the year 2000 Competence level; Big holes in the degree pyramid up to Menkyo Kaiden
• Now year 2008 Competence level; Few holes in the degree pyramid up to Menkyo and now also an Inka.
• Now year 2008: 4 new Honbu 1 assistant instructors trained. A total of 550 hours of training. It hasn't happened before.
• Innovative conceptually designed curriculum handbook in colour
• A recognized and attractive martial arts association, which is publicly "blue stamped" in Denmark and internationally.

Confederation chairman Kimu Bjarkman and deputy chairman Jens Iversen for the past 20 years had, after mature consideration, chosen to pass the torch on to a new generation. For the past 8 years, Kimu Bjarkmann has been responsible for approx. 70 % of all the work in Shindenkan and before that Jokokan, and will concentrate on being the federation chairman of Shindenkan Scandinavia and Europe, as well as board member of Jokokan International and Bujutsu Kodosokukai International, as well as chief instructor for all Honbu dojos. Both the outgoing chairman and deputy chairman then join SDK's board of directors as ordinary members in their capacity as chief instructors for the respective Honbu dojos and Jokokan Ballerup Karate School.

Søren Nielsen, 4th dan and Martin Hansen, 4th dan, were unanimously elected as the new SDK chairman and deputy chairman per 1/1-2009 for a 2-year period with fixed tasks and performance targets. The outgoing chairman's entire presentation of "State of the nation" was also unanimously approved.

Then it was time for a fabulous graduation session of 1½ hours, where 107 students were up for graduation. After a 5-hour rally, the happy Shindenkaners could wish each other a Merry Christmas and a very good and auspicious New Year with a loud shout of Santa Claus.

At the same time, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our 20-30,000 readers worldwide a very happy and prosperous New Year, and to say thank you for the past year and the support you have given Shindenkan by being faithful readers. Thank you!.