Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 16:41:07 -0600
From: Jun Akiyama
Subject: Aikido-L Seminar Review [5/5]
Conclusion
It was an odd Seminar for me this year since I was so much on the
organizing end of it all. Because it was at my "home" dojo, I also
was in the position of knowing basically everyone who was attending
the Seminar -- both people on the List and the "local" people, too.
Yet, I still felt like both "worlds" met and meshed in very well,
unsurprisingly enough, in this environment that we share called
aikido.
This was the third "big" Seminar that we've had and I've been lucky to
attend all three. The past Seminars in San Antonio, TX, and in
Merrifield, VA, have definitely been events and this one was nothing
short of an event. To have all of these people, some travelling
thousands of miles and most serving as a sort of "lone representative"
from their dojo, come together under the banner of an Internet is, I
believe, nothing short of amazing. We have cause to celebrate for
that along, folks.
I wish to thank all five of our teachers for each having an open mind
and an open heart to teach and train at this year's Aikido-L Seminar.
As long as we keep gathering like this, even if it's just one of us
dropping by someone else's dojo, I can only think that we keep the
fabric of aikido stitched together more closely.
In the same vein, I want to thank each and every single one of you who
made the effort to come out to the Seminar. I know that many of you
travelled a long way to attend and wish to say that it's this kind of
spirit that makes the List such a special place. Without all of you,
this Seminar would never have happened.
I also wish to thank Ikeda sensei for allowing us to use his dojo for
the entire weekend. I remember the first time I brought up the fact
that we had organized the first Seminar in San Antonio; even without
my asking if it would be possible to have the Seminar here in Boulder,
he told, "That sounds really interesting! Let's have the Seminar here
some day." Also, I want to thank the students at Boulder Aikikai for
giving up the regularly scheduled classes on Saturday and Sunday and
for participating in the Seminar as well.
I truly appreciate everyone's thanking me for organizing the Seminar,
but I wish to acknowledge all of the other folks who helped out on the
Seminar committee this year: Dave Liebreich, Kris Honeycutt, Scott
Crawford, Kjartan Clausen, Mike Bartman, Monica Norman, Alan Drysdale,
Emily Dolan, Chuck Gordon, Mike Speece, and Elizabeth Shipp. We
exchanged 1179 pieces of e-mail on the Seminar Committee List over the
past seven months to get this reach reality...
Also, thanks goes out to Tammy Peeples and Kjartan Clausen for their
"Aikido-L Seminar 2000" logo (Tam) and the "Just Do It!" logo
(Kjartan) for the T-shirt. Special thanks goes out to Kris who, even
in Japan, helped out in converting these images to the print-shop
ready EPS formats. Without these people, we would only have T-shirts
with "I went to the Aikido-L Seminar and all I got was this lousy
T-shirt" written on it with a magic marker. (Hmm... Maybe that'll
work for _next_ year's slogan...)
All in all, I had a wonderful time at this year's Seminar and can only
look forward to next year's event.
Jun
PS: You can lighten up on drinking water now, if you want...
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