First, Dr. Barber took on a thankless task with the Symposium, and no thanks is exactly what he is getting. Dr. Barber, thanks for trying to make this event work. I am certain it was a great deal of effort for little financial reward.
That having been said, I do want to say a few things. Let me be perfectly clear: I'm speaking for myself, not for MartialTalk and not for the WMAA.
Originally posted by DoctorB
The following are statements made by Bob Hubbard, which I find to be in error and in need of correction
There is a certain conceit in feeling that each misstatement must be corrected. Some of your corrections are surely important, but others are not. The derisive "Bobby" does not strengthen your points, though with all the hits you have been taking recently I cannot blame you for this indulgence.
We ARE NOT business associates!!!
I am not and never have been a distributor of the "Gunting" for Bram or Spyderco!
We seem to have issues of definition here. Hosting someone for a seminar means a business relationship but I would not necessarily describe it as being business associates--it depends. It sounds as though the Gunting was merely a matter of taking orders as part of hosting an event, which I would not consider being a distributor. Still, I believe that Dr. Barber must admit that in loudly trumpeting the benefits of the Gunting--and he made me a believer when he demonstrated it for me at the recent WMAA Camp--and his association with Bram Frank, he may have left that impression. I don't think it was an unreasonable conclusion for people to reach even if it was an inaccurate one, and it would have been rather more polite to say "I can see where you might think that given how frequently and positively I speak of it, but..." instead. After the many announcements and reviews of it you posted here, I certainly assumed you were part of Mr. Frank's network in some formal way.
I also attended his WMAA Camps in West Seneca in 2002 and 2003.
[...]
On the other hand I have attended two (2) WMMA Camps
Surely this is an exaggeration--I would say that you visited each. I don't recall you spending much time there in 2002 and don't believe you took the floor to work out; if memory serves, you spent parts of Sat. morning and afternoon at the Camp in 2003, including lunch, plus some time on the mat, and some time chatting with Dr. Gyi and others (myself included). Were you a registered attendee for both camps? Am I misremembering?
the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame
I don't see you listed at their
site. (I checked some of the other URLs that Yahoo! found for this. I don't know which one is most current, but one went as far as 2001.) But then, as it says on the site:
Because of our vast list of inductees, it is not uncommon to misspell or unknowingly leave a name out, and for this we sincerely apologize. To spell it out a bit more plainly, to be nominated is to be accepted. There are many fine martial artists recognized by this organization, but induction into this hall of fame is no accomplishment. I've said this just this plainly to some of their inductees before. Using this as a significant credential is enough to declare someone suspect in my eyes. It's one thing to list it buried in one's resume, another to use it to win arguments. I
deduct points for that.
Well, well, well, here we go again, now it is about the "major" and minor organizations. The perception of the WMAA as a "major" organization is yours. It can certainly be shared by others, however that does not make it a fact and there are people who would disagree with you.
I must concur with
PAUL--who are these people, and what yardsticks are they using? Lobachevskian? Objectively--by any reasonable standards--the WMAA (with which I am associated, for those who may not know) is headed by one of the six datus, has the plurality of North American clubs and events, has a European presence (as well as other countries), and is growing at an impressive rate. I can't see how someone could rate the WMAA as anything other than a major player.
I was available and I spoke with most of the people at the event, so if someone failed to open a discussion with me, they should stand up and accept the responsibility for their own mistake.
Dr. Barber has always been most willing to engage people in conversation at camps and seminars, in my experience.
That bias is showing through again, Bobby.
That may be true, but you consistently reduce Mr. Hubbard's motivations and views to fit what seems to be your one-dimensional view of him. Are any of us truly as simple as you paint Mr. Hubbard to be?
I have no opinion on your relationship with Mr. Kashino et al. I am put off by the deceptiveness of the "Norshadow" account, starting on Eskrima Digest and continuing here.
Was this a Modern Arnis event? I wasn't there. There are a few reasons for this, but this set of issues is one of the biggest:
Originally posted by Renegade
2. A fare amount of the instructors didnÂ’t show. I have had personal contact with several of the instructors and I know of at least one of the instructors gave Jerome advance notice that they would not be attending the event, yet there was no information related to the potential clients. This could be considered false advertising.
3. There were 5 substitute instructors put in at the last minute. The people that filled in were not advertised on the bill. There wasnÂ’t a need to ad anyone. Each of the instructors could have been given longer sessions. The participants were not given substitute instructors of the same caliber of the originally advertised instructors.
4. With the given schedule there was no way to see all of the instructors. There was no reason to have three sessions ruling simultaneously. Each instructor could have taught one session for everyone at the same time. With the time that was available and the amount of participants there was no reason to split the sessions.
Not only did many instructors bail, including those I most wanted to see, but not all of these cancellations were announced in a timely and forthright manner, it seems. As I had predicted--though not in public--the melt continued until very near to the event. The replacement instructors were of less interest to me (and recall that attending this event would have meant a 10-hour drive, each way, or a plane flight for me.) I have no doubt that they were all very high quality, but they were of less interest to me personally. There were other reasons I did not attend, but this was a big factor.
Was this a Modern Arnis event? I didn't attend and I haven't seen the DVDs, so I can only go by the instructor list and the descriptions of what was taught that have been posted here. In my opinion, a FMA fest in honour of Remy Presas' contributions to the FMA in America is a better description of what actually happened, even if that is not what was planned.
Dr. Barber, you stepped into the line of fire by hosting this event and now you are indeed taking fire, and for that you have my sympathy. However, there is also an extent to which you have made your own bed and must lie in it. Aspects of your conduct and hence your character have been called into question by your actions--and that's fair.
Is it worth continually rehashing this matter? No. We should move on. But as
Tgace suggests, what we're doing is "only human nature after all," for better or, more likely, for worse.
