Our time 🙂 Shindenkan time

We are currently experiencing a very special situation that covers the whole world, our whole homeland Denmark, our workplaces, our schools - Well our homes and Yes OUR Shindenkan karate schools.

As federation chairman of Shindenkan Denmark, I am very proud of the way we have handled this crisis.

Because of the serious effect that the Coronavirus has on our lives and society - Is a situation without parallel in Shindenkan's 53-year history in Denmark. A situation that requires strong leadership, as we experience it from our Danish government, and with rules that cover our society, and that require EVERYONE to be role models - both for ourselves and for each other. In a time with the risk of the spread of infection, it is important that we all follow the rules and guidelines set out by our government.

Rules are for everyone

At Shindenkan, we are of the belief that rules exist for EVERYONE, and we respect and live by that at Shindenkan, because we are precisely a value-based organization that represents a 1,000-year-old martial arts and martial arts system with an ingeniously constructed curriculum manual, which is implemented in all member schools.

Rules ARE for everyone, and this applies both in maintaining world order and national social rules that make it possible to stand together in a time of Corona. But of course this also applies to the same extent in association life - of which Shindenkan is a part - and I am very proud that we at Shindenkan do just that.

At Shindenkan, we always want to be at the forefront and we have shown this time and time again through the many national and international projects we have completed and participated in - here just need to be mentioned POMW – Project Old Modern Warrior and SHIELD KISS the project which has also made Shindenkan extremely well informed here during the Corona period.

I can proudly write that at Shindenkan we ARE value-based, and we show responsibility both towards our members, towards ourselves, and towards both state and municipal regulations, and not least our own laws and statutes - and Shindenkan's Curriculum handbook. This is shown by the measures we have taken for all the members of OUR Shindenkan here and now in the Corona era.

Association life has become rougher than before!

But not everyone wants to follow the common rules we have! Because over the past 10-15 years, we in Shindenkan have experienced that association life has become increasingly rough, with accusations, personal persecution, lies and deception. Yes, even an attempt to undermine a local school's democratic general assembly with such aggressive behavior that the police had to be called, and that the police, after questioning, chose to post two men outside the general assembly to ensure that democracy could be maintained and that the local general assembly could be carried out according to the rules and statutes that are in the Danish association law.

We thought this was a special case, but after we have contacted the municipality and DGI we have learned that this is experienced everywhere in association life - it has become the norm! It wasn't like that 20 years ago.

Compliance with the common rules of the game adopted at all democratic general meetings and as written in statutes and guidelines is no problem for most of us – 85-90 %. But it is too typical between 10-15 %. This is not only applicable to Shindenkan and all of Denmark's associational life, but it is also made clear during the temporary restrictions with a sense of community and looking out for each other during the Corona PAND Epidemic.

Rules ARE for everyone, but what is happening or where are we going when the police have to be present in order to conduct a democratic general meeting for an association in Denmark. Why do more and more people choose to make their own rules - instead of following the common rules that apply to everyone?

Well, for most it happens that they can no longer achieve what they want, or cannot or will not live up to the rules that apply to everyone. Then they begin to bend or break the rules for their own gain. And when they are caught bending or breaking the rules, they get angry and vengeful!

Association life today has become a vengeful state culture, where breakaways seek to steal from old, well-established associations under the motto: "One's death is another's bread" and where disgruntled members or critical shareholders seek to steal or take over old associations' seniority, members, premises , cash registers or skills.

In Shindenkan's 53-year history in Denmark, there have been tens of thousands of members through the organization, and as is always the case in a large successful organization - there have been both fantastic member experiences and good experiences of an administrative nature. That was also the case in 2019.

It is normal practice in most municipalities to carry out an audit of the associations in the municipality documenting that rules are observed, and this often happens every 5-8 years. This can both be carried out internally in the municipality or through the use of an external association-specialised accountant from a large audit firm, and it has always been this way for as long as I have been part of the associations' management (32 years).

But to put things in perspective, I want to start by turning back the clock - because in the time before the year 2000, the incidents were mostly of an internal nature, and where this was handled in the organization according to value sets, rules and guidelines. But increasingly from the year 2000 onwards, in line with Shindenkan Denmark's increasing success, there have been incidents from outside that have tested our value set, our administrative processes and our documentation. I will not mention all, but only events that are related to what happened in 2019.

In 2012, Jokokan Ballerup Karate School, which is one of the oldest associations in Shindenkan, was called for an audit by the municipality. At the time, it was a mystery to us why this happened, but of course we made all material available to the municipality. But here it was clearly initiated by critical shareholders or former members, as an expression of dissatisfaction or an attempt to paralyze the board in administrative work. This audit was carried out by the audit firm Deloitte, who were very thorough in their audit and finally concluded that the administration and accounting, as done in Jokokan Ballerup Karate School, was exemplary and something that all associations in Denmark could learn something from, and gave Jokokan Ballerup Karate School the blue seal with the highest grade.

In 2015, after 23 years of disagreements, Jokokan Slagelse Karate School freed itself from the local collaboration with another martial arts association in the municipality. Unfortunately, it turned out that there were local leading forces in the association who did not fully understand the necessity of honesty, loyalty and timely care, and this gave rise to a municipal review of Jokokan Slagelse Karate School's administration. It quickly turned out that everything was perfectly fine, and that Jokokan Slagelse Karate School was also given the blue stamp with the highest grade.

In 2015 – 2018, which was part of Shindenkan's turn-around strategy plan, based on 5 successive steps with the implementation of a fixed common structure, a higher common ENS competence platform and an Information & Communication plan that precisely emphasized that rules ARE for everyone. This was emphasized through the introduction of first NKT – National Competence Training, and then our very successful OBC concept.

This effectively meant that "Faith & Love" was replaced by a joint general meeting's adopted support and assistance structure, which aimed to ensure common minimum competence requirements, thus the requirements of the curriculum handbook, became the same for everyone. A study had shown that "Tro & love" for approx. 30 % of member associations of Shindenkan had verified false. However, this was only concentrated in one region.

Here, Shindenkan's value-based leaders and instructors chose to step into character, and instead of hiding behind a belt - to show by example that the rules in Shindenkan's Curriculum Handbook apply to everyone, and our task is to lead the way as a role model for ourselves and others – all the time. The managers and instructors who did NOT think that rules ARE for everyone and had failed in terms of competence, then left Shindenkan.

In the wake of their departure without decent stopping blocks, they made the conscious choice to make false reports to the municipality around Jokokan Slagelse Karate School and Jokokan Korsør Karate School. This led to an audit initiated by the municipality, which engaged the audit firm BDO to carry out an audit of the 2 associations, and once again it led to a blue stamp on these two associations. The BDO concluded that this entire episode appeared to be intended to cover up suspicious actions by the very individuals and members who had left the associations! What they hadn't expected was that they themselves are now being audited and investigated. Their new associations now run the instructor performance pay scale. It is directly opposite to Shindenkan, where the association's work is voluntary and unpaid, for the benefit of the community and the members.

Two years later, with a new team of instructors and board of directors, Jokokan Slagel's membership and member satisfaction have more than doubled, indeed on the way to tripling. It tells just like everything – values, facts and reality.

When an organization is as successful as Shindenkan, there will always be situations where individuals or disgruntled shareholders walk out on Shindenkan, after having failed to circumvent the rules, - openly or covertly. Until 10-15 years ago, it was normal that if you didn't like the smell in the bakery, you said a nice goodbye and thank you and took your good clothes and left, and it was free to start a competing association - from scratch.

Today, they don't want to do all the hard work. Here, they would rather steal generations of hard work, where ALL funds are used, from trying to steal the municipal association's seniority, premises and the association's treasury, and in the process would like to eliminate competitors in the most limitless and despicable way. Here we are talking about close training companions for often 10-20+ years, and who have most often received the most help organizationally and personally. It is humanly very hard, brutal – and often merciless. Fortunately, it has only been from one region. All regions are operating as normal since the 2017/2018 season. There is peace of mind at work, which has meant that Shindenkan has started to grow again - quietly.

But democratically adopted rules exist for all of us, and fortunately Shindenkan is very strongly value-based 🙂

As a consequence of the major money-laundering scandals that have plagued several of the major banks over the past few years, such as Danske Bank and Nordea, the Norwegian Parliament adopted stricter control rules, which would also cover all of Denmark's associational life. In 2019-2020, the trip to Shindenkan came over almost 6 months. It included all the local associations which were investigated and laundered locally, but also connected Shindenkan Denmark and Jokokan Honbu-dojo, which of course went through the most thorough documentary laundering, as national main associations. This was therefore through a central laundering of the national association accounts, carried out by their respective banks' special departments at head office.

All local as well as national associations were whitewashed and given a blue stamp, without any comments whatsoever.

We are very happy about that, as the authorities' actions also totally exonerate the voluntary and unpaid association work in Shindenkan once and for all, from the baseless and fanciful accusations from time to time, over the years, from disgruntled former members with their own egocentric agenda.

All of Denmark's main sports associations and member associations within all sports go through this laundering process, which is of course time-consuming and not very nice - but it is necessary for all associations, for democracy and for all members that we have the documentation in place.

The Shindenkan welcomes this, as it is necessary, but also blackmails and in the process acquits the innocent of malicious slander and false vile accusations. If there are some who still want to continue down the road with lice in their fur, then we are out of the ballpark; conspiracy theories and whether the moon landing actually took place. Shindenkan can't do anything about that - there are no people who can, since everything down that ballpark is sensationalized and outside the educational reach and fact-based reality.

But we can be happy that once again it turned out that we at Shindenkan do things properly and have our documentation in place - and we are happy about that. It shows that we are doing things right according to the delegated assessment of municipalities and national authorities, and that we can document it and have the blue stamp until the process has to be repeated again in 5-8 years, and then again in another 5-8 years.

There have been many other events along the way in the 53 years, but each time we have stood firm on Shindenkan's set of values and shown that we follow the applicable rules - which are for everyone. It is also great that every time we have received great praise for our openness, praise for standing up with responsibility, and praise for keeping our finances, administration and documentation in order. We are very proud of that and our constant open communication policy and administration has paved the way for this and ensured that we can focus on the real thing – namely the training of the multi-track Yakami Shinsei-Ryu – because that is what we are here for 🙂

National General Assemblies

The national general meetings are always after the completion of all local Shindenkan associations' annual general meetings in May, so the national general meetings for Shindenkan Denmark connected and Shindenkan Honbu (JGS), can be run with input and election of delegates from the local schools, so that the work and knowledge that has been in the old season can lay the foundations for the new season.

This year is no exception, but it can be a challenge with the situation our country and the world are in right now. However, the national general meetings for season 2020-2021 are expected to be held at the end of June 2020, cf. official calendar, and we therefore encourage all schools to collect proxies from all members, so that the democratically elected leaders and representatives can represent the member schools at the annual general meetings in 2020, which consists of both the Shindenkan Danmark confederation and the board of representatives - which make up the political and democratic association and of the Shindenkan Honbu-dojo - which represents the 1000-year-old competence system. As you know, Shindenkan Honbu-dojo consists of Jokokan Greve Strand & SDCC – Shindenkan Development & Competence Center (JGS and SDCC respectively).

The list of members

We have previously calculated our number of members with a cut-off date of Friday in week 6, and this has caused a period shift in the calculation of the number of members. This has now been corrected and adapted to all associations' membership statements, which run according to a national model and agree with memberstat.dk.

Shifting periods has meant that each year a little too many members from the individual schools have given up, as the admission of new students is also expected.

Status of members

The status in week 6 of 2020 is that the Shindenkan Denmark association is consolidated at almost 1,100 members. This is actually quite satisfying – after the turn-around where we knew Shindenkan would be smaller and we are happy about that, because we have returned to the purpose and the common level of competence – and we are very proud of that.