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From the Desk of the President

July 2, 2007

Hello Everyone,

As the newly elected President of Karate Ontario, I sincerely hope that our new administration will be recognized by all as a Board that accomplishes a great deal.

The new Board of Directors has been elected by the membership in unison and after the previous, very exciting election; we are obviously in the period that will solely be devoted to constructive work and the spirit of cooperation. In order to achieve these goals, we will certainly need understanding and help from all our members: our organization is based on volunteers contributing their effort and precious time.

I would like to thank everyone in the previous administration for all of their hard work and dedication, especially to all of the committees (standing as well as temporary ones) that have provided a great deal of guidance and expertise for the betterment of Karate Ontario during their mandate.

There are a few very important points I would like to make at this time. Currently, we are planning to adopt a general direction to continue the positive development of our organization. I believe that fresh initiative and certain dose of leadership is required and necessary, besides regular “maintenance” of KAO.

Listed below are some of the challenging initiatives that we plan to accomplish, in no particular order. I hope that, in the broad sense of the word, our visibility and strong presence in public eye could significantly increase. We have a responsibility, as the only government recognized sport karate governing body, to raise public awareness regarding our role. This, we plan to achieve through increasing the quality of karate instruction and sport competition provincially. We will first try to establish permanent communication with school boards, municipalities and community centers, public libraries and cultural centers. Our main purpose is to firstly inform the public and offer our assistance in disseminating appropriate knowledge about our sport and martial art as necessary. We will approach these bodies of authority offering partnership, not by making demands or criticizing past practices. Our major goal will be to increase general participation of a school age population (from elementary school, through high school to university age) in the martial art and karate sport.

Karate Ontario should also find an appropriate way to establish the instruments that provide official recognition for all volunteer work that is selflessly donated, not for profit, to our membership and the public in general. At the same time, a nationally recognized achievement of Black Belt (properly awarded through unified criteria) might have a potential value for a high school credit.

Our contribution to physical development and general health of karate practitioners is not to be underestimated. Vigorous activity that karate provides is self-evident: the benefit is recognized in all civilized societies. In these times, when nations have problems of child obesity, it is more than opportune to point out our positive role in youth development. We will try to reach our possibly strongest partners: parents, through our campaign: “Who is teaching your children karate?” We hope that these ideas (and many more) will find a strong support among KAO members and have a positive and lasting impact on our organization.

The membership at large is invited to contribute to our Karate Ontario. All interested parties have an opportunity to express their wish to participate by indicating in writing or by e-mail a desire to belong and contribute to a specific Karate Ontario Committee (listing your special qualifications or ability) or a willingness to volunteer for one of our future special projects.

Below is a list of committees with a short description of what their responsibilities will involve. If you are willing to make a commitment to serve our members of Karate Ontario, we are looking forward to hearing from you.

Please reply no later than July 20, 2007, by mail or e-mail to my attention. All Committees should be formed by August 6, 2007.

I am available to you by email info@karateontario.org or by calling my personal number 905.274.7852.

Dragan Kljenak
President KAO

Committees

The standing committees (1-4), committees (5-9) and sub-committees are:

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1: Technical Committee
The Technical Committee shall provide learning and instructional opportunities regarding karate as well as evaluate and make recommendations to the Board on all new club applications. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

1.2 TC Regional Development sub-Committee
The Regional Development Committee shall consist of those members that represent the underdeveloped and under serviced regions of the province. They shall be charged with representing and promoting the goals and values of the Karate Ontario organization. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

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2: Referee Committee
There shall be a Referee Committee to develop, maintain and implement a program for instructing and certifying provincial officials. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

2.2 RC Regional Development sub-Committee
The Regional Development Committee shall consist of those members that represent the underdeveloped and under serviced regions of the province. They shall be charged with representing and promoting the goals and values of the Karate Ontario organization. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

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3: Coaching Committee
The Coaching Committee shall identify prospective adult and junior athletes and encourage training and competition opportunities. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

3.2: Junior Development sub-Committee
The Junior Development Committee will consist of members that will develop and implement strategies to develop and maintain those junior members for successful tournament competition. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

3.3: High Performance sub-Committee
The High Performance Committee shall develop a program and strategy to identify and develop competitors to participate at a high (elite) level of competition. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

3.4: NCCP sub-Committee
The NCCP Committee shall consist of those competent members charged with maintaining to the membership at large those criteria and standards of the NCCP program specifically in the Karate stream. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

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4: Constitution Committee
There shall be a Constitution Committee to oversee compliance with the Bill of Rights attached hereto and administration of the Constitution. The Constitution Committee shall oversee voter registration and voting procedures at general meetings. It shall review the constitution or by-laws from time to time, to determine whether changes are required by way of amendment, alteration, variation, replacement, repeal or re-enactment, and shall make recommendations to the Board. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

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5: Dispute Resolution Committee
The Dispute Resolution Committee shall act as an intermediary group to assist in the settling of disputes arising from associating and participating events of Karate Ontario. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

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6: Medical Committee
The Medical Committee shall consist of those competent members that will provide assistance on issues of competitor’s medical safety and act as a liaison to its national counterpart to ensure compliance to drug and anti-doping standards established for athletes. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

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7: Women’s Affairs Committee
The Women’s Affairs Committee shall consist of those members that will assist in the furthering of women’s issues in terms of martial art development and competition. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

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8: Communications Committee
The Communications Committee shall act as a body to assist in communicating to the membership at large and the community as a whole those values, goals and objectives of Karate Ontario. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

8.2: Marketing sub-Committee
The Marketing committee shall develop strategies to promote innovative partnerships that will compliment the goals of Karate Ontario and advertise to the public at large the excellence of the organization. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

8.3: Web Page sub-Committee
The Web Page Committee shall consist of those members that wish to contribute to the design, development, update and maintenance of the official Karate Ontario web page. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

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9: Awards Committee
The Awards Committee shall consists of those members that will develop, list and publicize criteria for selection, accept nominations and determine those recipients of awards, public recognition of accomplishment and achievements for Board approval. This committee shall assist other committees as appropriate and perform other tasks as requested by the Board of Karate Ontario.

There may be more committees and projects in the future. For now this is a good start !

Following are the purposes, objectives and goals of Karate Ontario as per our Constitution:
i.    Promote and perpetuate karate as a martial art and as a lifetime activity
ii.   Promote karate for physical fitness, mental fitness and as a way of life
iii.    Develop standards, programs, and encourage participants to safely achieve
their potential level of recreational or competitive interest and ability
iv.    Provide competitive opportunities for karate-ka wishing to participate in
the sport aspect of karate
v.    Govern amateur sport of karate and conduct of karate-ka under its jurisdiction
vi.    Represent Ontario as provincial branch of The National Karate Association of Canada
vii.    Cooperate with and adhere to Government of Ontario and Ministry guidelines

We wish to continue along these lines while developing and maintaining all of our existing and new projects for the betterment for Karate Ontario and all of our existing and future members. Each of the Board members will be available to you at all reasonable times. We cannot accomplish the will of the membership if we do not know what the will of the membership is…

Ontario pride and dignity should remain strong in us; the concerns of all our members shall be of the utmost importance. We envision an organization that will bring out the best in itself by encouraging the best from its members.

Looking forward to all of the challenges and success that you will bring to this; your provincial sport governing body - Karate Ontario.

 Dragan Kljenak
President KAO