The following was the President’s Report as presented to the Karate BC membership at the November 30th Annual General Meeting which was held at the Richmond Olympic Oval during the Provincial Championships tournament:
30 November 2019
Welcome to the 2019 Provincial Championships and the second (attempted) AGM of the year!
Thank you for attending this all-important meeting, which allows us to ratify the previous elections, as well as the special resolutions, which were approved through our new online voting procedures.
We as a board are committed to increasing your access to the executive and our various committees, and the services Karate BC has to offer.
One of our weaknesses as a federation has been communication and thanks to our executive director Jonathan we are slowly coming into the 21st-century with improved communication via online collaboration, social media and our website. Our use of technology to communicate with our members is in fact cutting edge,
and I know of no other provincial or national federation that is moving as fast in this direction as we are today.
This is just the beginning of our efforts to fulfill our mandate for the existing membership and more specifically to grow that membership to every corner of the province.
We have to realize that democracy can be both challenging and time-consuming, but we are committed to our goal of creating a greater sense of community within our association by these means. It is our hope that with increased communication comes increased membership, and the realization from those karate practitioners outside our federation that we have many things to offer.
Karate BC is the sports governing body for our sport in the province and as such is the only gateway to Karate Canada and membership to the WKF. This is not the only benefit that we offer, and we must in fact offer more to encourage those style asocciations and independent dojos already practicing karate to join our community.
We must remember that we are not an alternative to any style association, but we are there to support and enhance everyone’s enjoyment of our art throughout the province.
Our board has been instrumental in moving forward on a number of fronts, which continue to bear fruit:
- We continue to field a leading and ever-growing BC Team;
- We are hiring co-ordinators in order to build province wide competencies in
coaching, officiating and BC Team management; - We are improving our coaching competencies in line with Karate Canada;
- We continue to see athletes at the highest levels – including a top 8 ranking in the WKF for kata in 2019;
- We continue to field officials at the highest levels, nationally and internationally;
There is a great deal of work yet to be done in my estimation. However, with our continued modernisation at the organisational level, we are now ready to gear up to do outreach to those dojos that are not yet in the fold, to sell them on the benefits of membership.
2020 is a big year for our sport, with the Olympics in Tokyo looming large.
We intend to capitalize on that Olympic status as much as we can, even if it appears to be a fleeting connection.
On the positive side of the equation, our sport is now an official member of the Canada Games family. This is a tremendously positive achievement, which will continue to put Karate in the spotlight at the national level, and keep us within earshot of the Canadian Olympic Committee for years to come.
I hope that all members within our community will trumpet the values and professionalism that we offer. We must realise that those that came before, over the past 45 years, started Karate BC with all of us in mind. All our established clubs grew into what they are today in part through their membership in the
association.
We need to celebrate and acknowledge that past, and it is my hope that we maintain those core values of co-operation that got us here, both for future generations and any new clubs that may approach us down the road.
Respectfully,
Andreas Kuntze
President, Karate BC
