Niketa Wells - International Taekwon-do Federation of New Zealand

REGULARMr Ian Campbell V Danbe involved in all ITFNZ activities at sometime during their tenure as senior dans. Ianhas organised his share of extracurriculargradings, training seminars and beeninvolved in IICs, tournaments and so on, butthe balance between brigade and TKD hasalways been difficult to resolve. But hereI hark back to my earlier comment aboutour obligations to society at large – as weare exhorted to do in the Student Oath. Ineffect this is exactly what people like Ian do,if not specifically for ITFNZ, then certainlyas an explicit response to the requirementof the ‘way’, which to my mind amounts tothe same thing.How does activity outside the specificITFNZ purview fit the ideal of serviceto, and recognition by ITFNZ? Whatconsideration is given for senior dangrading? From a ‘points’ perspective therearen’t too many problems for peoplelike Ian; regular community volunteeringcan garner a large number of points(the Handbook lists 1 credit point forcommunity service, but Master PaulMcPhail has indicated that this can beread with some flexibility as one pointper event) .The ‘recognition’ perspective is perhapsa bit more problematic. Most communityvolunteers do not seek recognition – mostbecome involved for altruistic reasons orbecause a particular service interests them.ITFNZ exerts a significant amount of timeand effort recognising the achievementsof its students, whether it be the result ofgrading, tournaments or service – this isas it should be. However, we (and here Imean all students and stakeholders in theorganisation) should make similar effortto recognise those who provide servicesoutside the immediate influence of ITFNZ.I reiterate a statement I made earlier but ina slightly different way – that in full pursuitof the Student Oath, ITFNZ cannot beinward-looking; the Student Oath was notinserted into Taekwon-Do protocols just tomake us feel good; I expect that GeneralChoi meant it to be taken seriously.Ian continues to work towards his owngrading toVI dan, while at the same timeproviding the Te Awamutu Volunteer FireBrigade with leadership. I’m not sure wherehe finds the time for all this, given that healso works full-time for the Departmentof Corrections and helps his wife Sharleenrun a retail business. And at the risk ofbeing repetitive, I have no doubt there aremany other Taekwon-Do students in ourorganisation who commit large portionsof their lives to the benefit of societyat large, and students whose careers orinterests may be outside, but intertwinedwith Taekwon-Do. Perhaps we could hearfrom them.ISSUE TWO, 201235