Recent posts (moderated anonymous comments):

Open Letter to Taekwondo Canada’s CEO and Board of Directors‏

On 10 May 2013 we sent an Open Letter to Taekwondo Canada (TC)’s CEO and Directors, all but two as we could not find an e-mail address for one Director at Large and TC’s e-mail address for one of the Officers failed to deliver the message. We also included in the distribution list the Presidents and the Secretaries of each provincial organization and other TC’s organizations, when their e-mail addresses were available. The letter is available below, and we will update our readers on developments related to that on this post and in the comments section.

Taekwondo Encore!

A Must-Do To-Do List for Taekwondo Canada

(Updated May 8, 2013)

Taekwondo Encore!’s ‘Team Canada’ for the 2013 World Championships

The first two days of the 2013 Canada Open were for many Canadian taekwondo athletes the last chance to earn necessary ranking points to secure a spot on Team Canada for the 2013 WTF World Taekwondo Championships taking place in Puebla, Mexico (July 14-21).

Taekwondo Canada’s “2013 Canada Open” by the Numbers

As of 22 April 2013, Taekwondo Canada’s (TC) deadline for registrations for the 2013 Canada Open, 885 competitors (1,041 entries) in the general divisions, only 3 competitors (3 entries; 2 from Canada and 1 from Ghana) in the Para/AWAD divisions, and 171 (+1 in Para/AWAD) coaches have registered for the event. Scheduled participation in forms or poomsae (232 entries, 22.29%; +1 in Para/AWAD) is lagging behind that of sparring (809 entries, 77.71%; +2 in Para/AWAD), probably not unlike other similar tournaments.

Taekwondo Canada’s 2013-16 Bid Package: What’s with the Secrecy?

In October 2012, Taekwondo Canada (TC) posted its 2013-2016 bid package for national and international events, however access to that information for the casual visitor of the website is not possible without a password. Back then, we questioned the decision to restrict access to that information and wondered if TC’s voting member organizations (VMOs) have at least received the package as that would help promote TC’s efforts within the provinces and cities and secures buy-in and support for the events. We still wonder if the VMOs were consulted or briefed about that!

Thanks to a reader of this blog, we found out that the bid package can actually be accessed using a password publicly available; just run a Google search for: Taekwondo Canada bid package!

Taekwondo Canada’s Board Meeting of Feb. 10, 2013–First in 6 Months?

Just today, Taekwondo Canada (TC) posted new Board of Director (BOD) meeting minutes, they are for a meeting that took place on 10 February 2013. In absolute, this is good news as the last minutes posted were for an August 2012 meeting.

Taekwondo Canada 2.0: A Preamble

Looking at the evolution of taekwondo in Canada and Taekwondo Canada (TC) itself, the uninitiated may be left with the impression that the pre-2009 era was the “lesser” version 0.x of TC that since then was upgraded to the “improved” version 1.x. Without defending TC’s pre-2009 Board, we disagree with such depiction: (i) the cutoff year of 2009 is often cited by TC to separate what they consider the “dark” past from the “bright” present; in our view mainly to spare board members who transitioned from TC 0.x to TC 1.x. The critical date is actually the Annual General Meeting of 23 September 2010, and (ii) in this particular instance the software, i.e. the bureaucracy, the organization, may have been updated with few bells and whistles (new bylaws, more paid staff, new website, tons of useless policies), unfortunately its performance and appeal did not improve much. If anything, TC 1.x is now much less appealing than what it used to be, while at the same time considerable resources (money, time, and goodwill) are being squandered on bureaucracy and on waging battles against individual members and organizations who dared question TC’s decisions.

Stay'n Play saga continues.

Reblogged from Coach Ilya's blog:

A rebuttal from the Pacific Coast Section chair, front page of Fencing.net:

Gary Zeiss, Chair of the Pacific Coast Section, send in this opinion letter regarding the USFA's "Stay and Play" program. In this letter, Mr. Zeiss puts forward his positions against the new USFA tournament housing program.

July 25, 2009

Los Angeles, California

Craig:

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak to the fencing community.

Read more… 3,044 more words

This post from another blog is a must-read that in the current conjuncture we couldn't afford not to reblog; it addresses so many of the pitfalls of adopting Stay-to-Play for the 2013 Canada Taekwondo Open or for any taekwondo event in Canada for that matter...a must-read that we hope Taekwondo Canada's Board and staff will take the time to ponder upon!