Reviving a tradition

[ppko]

I am currently looking to revive some of our federattion tradions that we had when I first started the martial arts. I am looking for ideas of how to make a once a year weekend seminar successful, programs for doing a newsletter, and how to make a site that has training videos, a newsletter, schools listing etc

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I am currently looking to revive some of our federattion tradions that we had when I first started the martial arts. I am looking for ideas of how to make a once a year weekend seminar successful, programs for doing a newsletter, and how to make a site that has training videos, a newsletter, schools listing etc

Making the site is easy. Just go here: http://www.webs.com/. My website is in my signature and was made using webs.com.

Reviving traditions... like what?

Daniel

 

[Kacey]

I am currently looking to revive some of our federattion tradions that we had when I first started the martial arts. I am looking for ideas of how to make a once a year weekend seminar successful, programs for doing a newsletter, and how to make a site that has training videos, a newsletter, schools listing etc

Schedule and promote/advertise a seminar. Hold it no matter how many (or few) people attend. Make it a great weekend. Repeat a year later. If you make it good enough, people will plan for it and attend every year. It takes time and work for such things to build; there's no magic formula for such things.

 

[Blindside]

I am currently looking to revive some of our federattion tradions that we had when I first started the martial arts. I am looking for ideas of how to make a once a year weekend seminar successful, programs for doing a newsletter, and how to make a site that has training videos, a newsletter, schools listing etc

Website is pretty easy, the webs.com reference that Mr. Sullivan gave is the one that I used as well, it is pretty simple.

Training videos can be done a couple of ways, the simplest is to upload the vids to youtube and link your website to them. If you don't want them public, you can have them unlisted on youtube, then link to them in a password protected student area of the website.

I think seminars are something you just start and build. I started running three seminars per year last year and they varied in size, but I think each one of them was fairly successful. I brought in a guest instructor for one, and I think the guys enjoyed having a different perspective than just little ol me. I would like to expand that experience in the future.

 

[Nomad]

Schedule and promote/advertise a seminar. Hold it no matter how many (or few) people attend. Make it a great weekend. Repeat a year later. If you make it good enough, people will plan for it and attend every year. It takes time and work for such things to build; there's no magic formula for such things.

There might not be a magic formula, but the following definitely help.

Keep costs low. The lower the price on it, the more likely your students are to attend. Don't look at this as a profit-making thing, but something extra to increase interest in the regular program and keep students motivated. If you break even, fantastic.

Make it fun. Balance basics with material they don't get to see in class and with free time to socialize and get to know one another. Invite others (senior students, other instructors you know and trust, even if they're in completely different martial arts) to teach part of the time. If you have senior students teach some of the material, make sure to review it and work on their presentation beforehand; this can be a great learning experience for them too.

If anyone is ready for promotion, the weekend seminar would be a great and memorable time to do it.