Dear Students and Friends,

Well, as I write this in late February, New England is preparing for one of its winter Nor'easters. They can be pretty intense storms. From my 23 feet of glass overlooking the Piscataqua River and Pomroy Cove, a Nor'easter with blinding snow driven by sometimes 40 mile per hour winds can be an awesome site. Let's see how this one turns out!

Speaking of awesome, our yearly Black Belt and Program registration process went super. We currently have just over 250 students in our Association spread out among 15 very active programs all over the United States under the guidance of 24 certified Black Belts who have an average time in the Martial Arts of 16.25 years with 17 of the 24 (70%) having in excess of 15 years and 5 out of 24 (21%) having in excess of 20 years. Now, those are some statistics to be proud of! Please check out our web site at http://www.zzrose.com/index.html to see the latest list of certified Black Belts and Registered Programs. Bear in mind that I have had problems with my ISP in getting graphics onto the site. The site is also very plain and basic. I threw it together more for just a central listing for members to verify that their program is registered as a valid C&S Self Defense Program rather than a showpiece of technology. If you don't like it: complain and maybe it will spur me on to improve it. After all, developing applications for internet based electronic commerce applications is what I get paid to do so I do know more than the site alludes to! This is sort of like the shoemaker whose shoes are worn and beat up...

In the Registration packet each Black Belt receives is a questioner. I'd like to share with you some of the thoughts of 24 very experienced and dedicated people who lead this Association. Over all, the Association is doing a good job in their view. Our Newsletter gets great raves, but more importantly is the feeling of all that the Association is making a great effort at communication. I hope you all find the content of our Newsletter of interest. Each Program Director receives enough copies to give to each of you. Be sure you read it each quarter.

Most agreed with the conclusions of last years Grandmaster's Retreat that our video library could use some attention. Who cares to see a 30 second blurred clip of me (or past students long gone) from 20 years ago? The two videos I did on my 20th and 25th anniversaries seem to get pretty good play from some die hards that just enjoy watching me flap my lips, but we need more instructional videos. These videos should be geared at different interest levels and contain material that will be beneficial from a training or understanding standpoint, not just me ranting on about some topic. However, as I have said many times, none of us in the senior ranks are going to invest the time and energy necessary to do these videos unless there is tremendous clamoring for them. To date, I hear little from anyone other than a few of the more senior of our Black Belts who are not afraid to speak their mind about what they want. I would suggest that those of you who would like videos speak up and be heard.

Everyone also liked the pre-filled in registration forms so they could just make basic changes and send it back in. We will continue this practice. Everyone also likes the format and look of the revised promotion certificates and Program verification status forms. Some of the Programs have used the Rose School of Karate design for Basic Self Defense Program certificates and many have benefited from the forms and information in the revised Program Directors Orientation Manual Addendum. By the way, I take this opportunity to remind each and every member of C&S Self Defense Association that it is your responsibility to read the Program Directors Orientation Manual. Program Directors should be aware that it is ultimately your responsibility to make sure that no student in our Association reach Yellow Belt level until they have read this manual.

And finally, there was tremendous agreement among those who have internet access that email is a terrific way of staying in touch. This coupled with the use of cassette letter tapes has enabled us to be in almost instant contact at our convenience rather than getting hung up on the phone just as dinner is being put on the table, or we have to hustle off to a meeting at work. If you have email, let us know and we will publish your address and you can get plugged into the Association net!

In our art,
Grandmaster Peter M. Rose