By Martin E. Hansen, Member until 2018
Another year has passed since the last count of member schools and the number of members in the Shindenkan Association, and for Shindenkan Denmark, 2014 should have been a year of growth and expansion, but external conditions, which stem from the municipalities' reorganization of schools and halls, hit us hard in 2014 , when around half of the local schools had local challenges, with very unstable training conditions, and even one school had to be closed for one month due to the Badminton World Cup.
Jokokan Frederiksberg Karate School had asked for assistance, and received help for clean-up and power balancing in 2013 and is now in a consolidation phase, which is very promising in 2015. Jokokan Slagelse Karate School has been undergoing local clean-up throughout 2014, and it is our hope that Jokokan Slagelse Karate School now enters a consolidation phase in 2015, so that there can finally be full faith in the future - for the first time since 1991, and they can thereby utilize and maintain their full potential by Karate practitioners of all ages who flock to this school .
All of this has left a mark on Shindenkan's otherwise very fine retention of members, analogously explained, the bathtub has been filled well with water during the season, but external conditions have meant that the stopper could not be inserted properly and part of the water has therefore run out again! There is, of course, ongoing work in each individual local school, which constantly adjusts the work of the operational management, so that relationships are maintained as well as possible. It is work that the local boards take very seriously and follow up on through firmly established management tools.
But despite that, we still managed to welcome hundreds of new members! And there has also been the addition of a new Shindenkan school in Gentofte - which we welcome to the Shindenkan family and wish them luck in their continued establishment and growth in the Gentofte local community.
2014 also saw the initiation and implementation of Shindenkan's next big project – SHIELDKISS 2014-2019. It has already at the end of 2014 created fantastic national and international results, and we expect a lot from one of the sub-elements that was rolled out in 2014; our KataFIT, as well as partial measures according to the KISS principle.
Read all about KataFIT and SHIELDKISS in the articles on the wheel and the deep plate. And in 2K, 2015, the SHIELDKISS website.
Member development
In Shindenkan Denmark, we do the member count from week 6 to week 6 the following year and we have done this count since week 6 in February 2009, when in February 2010 there were 665 registered members in the Shindenkan organization. That is:
- Calculation for the year 2009, calculated in week 6 2010: 665 members
- Calculation for the year 2010, calculated in week 6 2011: 719 members
- Calculation for the year 2011, calculated in week 6 2012: 857 members
- Calculation for the year 2012, calculated in week 6 2013: 1084 members
- Calculation for the year 2013, calculated in week 6 2014: 1101 members
- Calculation for the year 2014, calculated in week 6 2015: 1365 members
The statement for 2014 has shown a membership increase of 24 %, which means that we per week 6 2015, there are 1365 members in Shindenkan Denmark:
The organisation's membership is an expression of the number of dues paying members throughout the season, but unfortunately not how many there are at the time of the calculation - week 6 2015.
We have actually been hit harder in 2014 than ever before in Shindenkan's 50 year history. However, we expect that the municipalities' reorganizations have now been completed, regardless, we in Shindenkan have launched assistance programs to inform our members about these challenges, as well as to address these with extra member measures, so that the 2015/2016 season can be a very great success.
We need to return to the very high retention that we have had for the last 5 years, so that 2015 will be the best year in Shindenkan's history - ever.
Remember! All work in Shindenkan and Shindenkan's member schools is voluntary and unpaid, because we believe that our values make a difference - we believe that Shindenkan is the place for everyone who wants to practice multi-track martial arts, and we want to pass on our knowledge and skills to a new generation in an improved, unreserved and structured way for the benefit of them and us. We say THANK YOU to everyone who contributed and supported us in 2014 in Denmark, Europe and internationally.
Kindest Shindenkan greetings
Martin Hansen, Federation Chairman, Shindenkan Denmark
