Note: This was originally supposed to be published in late December 2018, as one would expect a year in review piece to be. However, thanks to a crashed computer and then lacking time to finish it off, this review is now being published in mid-January. Ah, well; c'est la vie, non?
All in all, 2018 has been a great year for the club. We've had our ups and downs, as does any club (or any person, for that matter), yet here now at the end we are very happy with what we've accomplished and are looking so forward to 2019. Let's take a look back at 2018, shall we?
As the new year started we had just finished up our very first Novice Longsword Course. This was, for us, a major turning point. It proved to us there were enough people in our small Pennsylvania town and surrounding areas interested in sword fighting to make offering classes on a regular basis a reasonable thing. That, obviously, would then mean that the club wouldn't need to subsist solely on dues, which would, in turn, mean we could purchase more gear and different weapons, offering more classes, earning more tuition, etc.
For some larger, more well-established clubs -- especially those in major urban areas -- this might not seem like such a big deal. But for us, a small and relatively unknown club in small-town America, this truly was huge. Up to that point, we could have been forgiven for believing that the three of us who comprised the club were just oddballs (OK, I mean, clearly we are oddballs, but that's not the point here!) and that no one else at all would want to learn these antiquated arts. But in this, we were delightfully wrong, and so since then, we have offered four novice courses, two intermediate courses, and one advanced course. As time goes on we plan to add more course, both by weapon system and age groups and in that we are quite excited!
But it wasn't long after that before we started something else we've worked towards as much as possible this year, which is collaborating with other HEMA folk to accomplish more together than we could ever do apart. Very early in the year, we hosted Patrick McCaffrey and others from L'Arte Della Bellica so those crazy Fioreists could put on their infamous "Fiore Dagger Hell." It was, I believe, a great success, and certainly a great deal of exhausting fun. But more importantly than just being a great way to spend a Saturday or a chance to learn about Italian dagger, it was our first experience with cooperating with another club to pull off something we couldn't do ourselves. This has been a goal of ours ever since and something we explore any chance we get.
Not long after that, we had our second experience with collaboration when we invited Rebecca Glass from NYFHA to plan and run a four-part workshop focusing on using HEMA to help achieve women's empowerment called "Being a She-Wolf." This proved to be an interesting series and a fulfilling way to use HEMA in a way that goes far beyond a martial art or a sport or anything of that nature.
At the beginning of 2018, we also started this very blog. This has become what I personally believe to be a vitally important aspect of running a club because it gives us a chance to discuss what we're doing or what our opinions are on things, to explore various historical links to our modern practice, as well as some things are just goofy and fun.
This blog has also provided another opportunity for us to communicate and collaborate with the larger HEMA community. During 2018 we had the chance to interview some truly fascinating HEMA folk, such as Richard Marsden, Brittany Reeves, and Jess Finley. Reaching out to these folks provided a great chance to learn more about a variety of interesting subjects, as well as how easy going and down to earth so many of the well-known HEMA people are (with the exception of one cheeky bastard who agreed to do the interview, then not only did he never return the questionnaire he unfriended me from Facebook!).
Not only have we been able to chat with some really great people doing HEMA we have also been able to have some guest writers, most recently Patrick McCaffery and John Rothe. Collaborating with others is the best way to learn things about which you know noting while at the same time combining strengths for greater results than you could do alone.
Spring brought the next two novice courses, which reinforced the idea that this small club of HEMA guys could successfully bring these arts to people. It was obviously a relief to know the success of the first class was not some weird fluke.
We continued training and teaching as spring turned to summer, and for the first time in 2018, we decided to have a spar-b-que as a fun way to get together and to spend some quality time together as a club -- mostly by cutting a lot of things in half!
Summer also brought about something we considered to be a terrific opportunity, the chance to offer our regular novice course through a local state university. Now, unfortunately, we weren't offering the course as a regular college course (although who knows if that might not be a possibility for the future?) but rather as part of a mini-course, no-credit program the university offers. These classes are typically things like photography, reiki, basic computing skills, etc. You can bet German sword fighting skills from the Middle Ages has never been offered there before!
But more importantly was the idea of getting attention. Any club or organization can disappear into the background of the people's busy lives, especially when you offer something most people don't consider vitally important to them. As such we take any chance we can get to put our name out there, our logo, and what we offer folks. Getting your class in a university mini-course catalog was a great way to do that, even if it was between Reiki 101 and Basic Excel.
Fall brought one of the prouder moments for the club. The epically-named Mid Atlantic Rookie Tournament: Fighty McFightface was held in September, and as the name implies this was a tournament designed specifically for rookies. We were thrilled to learn that our own Clint Shaaf successfully coached the winning fighter, Jonathan Paulino. He also coached two other top-placing fencers, John Armitage, and Bill Gollatz.
As the year wore on we were feeling strangely confined in the gigantic space in which we trained. It certainly wasn't because of space itself, but rather because there were so many limits on what we could do. We were allowed to be there only specific times, we couldn't offer additional classes without taking away from our own training, and there were times when we couldn't train at all because the hall was being used by someone else.
So, though it was with some trepidation and fear, we finally made the decision to move to our town's downtown shopping area as of December. The space itself is significantly smaller than where we were and we now need to come up with an honest to goodness monthly rent, which has caused some level of anxiety among us. Yet, in the end, this has already proven to be a far better option for us, and one that will only lead to greater and greater chances for us in the future.
So there you have it, a somewhat quick-and-dirty year in review. Had I been given the time to go through the year properly I would have been able to expand on several things I'm sure I'm missing, but suffice it to say 2018 was a good year for the club and we are all looking forward to 2019.
Bring it!
Stay loose and train hard.
-- Scott
All in all, 2018 has been a great year for the club. We've had our ups and downs, as does any club (or any person, for that matter), yet here now at the end we are very happy with what we've accomplished and are looking so forward to 2019. Let's take a look back at 2018, shall we?
As the new year started we had just finished up our very first Novice Longsword Course. This was, for us, a major turning point. It proved to us there were enough people in our small Pennsylvania town and surrounding areas interested in sword fighting to make offering classes on a regular basis a reasonable thing. That, obviously, would then mean that the club wouldn't need to subsist solely on dues, which would, in turn, mean we could purchase more gear and different weapons, offering more classes, earning more tuition, etc.
For some larger, more well-established clubs -- especially those in major urban areas -- this might not seem like such a big deal. But for us, a small and relatively unknown club in small-town America, this truly was huge. Up to that point, we could have been forgiven for believing that the three of us who comprised the club were just oddballs (OK, I mean, clearly we are oddballs, but that's not the point here!) and that no one else at all would want to learn these antiquated arts. But in this, we were delightfully wrong, and so since then, we have offered four novice courses, two intermediate courses, and one advanced course. As time goes on we plan to add more course, both by weapon system and age groups and in that we are quite excited!
But it wasn't long after that before we started something else we've worked towards as much as possible this year, which is collaborating with other HEMA folk to accomplish more together than we could ever do apart. Very early in the year, we hosted Patrick McCaffrey and others from L'Arte Della Bellica so those crazy Fioreists could put on their infamous "Fiore Dagger Hell." It was, I believe, a great success, and certainly a great deal of exhausting fun. But more importantly than just being a great way to spend a Saturday or a chance to learn about Italian dagger, it was our first experience with cooperating with another club to pull off something we couldn't do ourselves. This has been a goal of ours ever since and something we explore any chance we get.
Not long after that, we had our second experience with collaboration when we invited Rebecca Glass from NYFHA to plan and run a four-part workshop focusing on using HEMA to help achieve women's empowerment called "Being a She-Wolf." This proved to be an interesting series and a fulfilling way to use HEMA in a way that goes far beyond a martial art or a sport or anything of that nature.
At the beginning of 2018, we also started this very blog. This has become what I personally believe to be a vitally important aspect of running a club because it gives us a chance to discuss what we're doing or what our opinions are on things, to explore various historical links to our modern practice, as well as some things are just goofy and fun.
This blog has also provided another opportunity for us to communicate and collaborate with the larger HEMA community. During 2018 we had the chance to interview some truly fascinating HEMA folk, such as Richard Marsden, Brittany Reeves, and Jess Finley. Reaching out to these folks provided a great chance to learn more about a variety of interesting subjects, as well as how easy going and down to earth so many of the well-known HEMA people are (with the exception of one cheeky bastard who agreed to do the interview, then not only did he never return the questionnaire he unfriended me from Facebook!).
Not only have we been able to chat with some really great people doing HEMA we have also been able to have some guest writers, most recently Patrick McCaffery and John Rothe. Collaborating with others is the best way to learn things about which you know noting while at the same time combining strengths for greater results than you could do alone.
Spring brought the next two novice courses, which reinforced the idea that this small club of HEMA guys could successfully bring these arts to people. It was obviously a relief to know the success of the first class was not some weird fluke.
We continued training and teaching as spring turned to summer, and for the first time in 2018, we decided to have a spar-b-que as a fun way to get together and to spend some quality time together as a club -- mostly by cutting a lot of things in half!
Summer also brought about something we considered to be a terrific opportunity, the chance to offer our regular novice course through a local state university. Now, unfortunately, we weren't offering the course as a regular college course (although who knows if that might not be a possibility for the future?) but rather as part of a mini-course, no-credit program the university offers. These classes are typically things like photography, reiki, basic computing skills, etc. You can bet German sword fighting skills from the Middle Ages has never been offered there before!
But more importantly was the idea of getting attention. Any club or organization can disappear into the background of the people's busy lives, especially when you offer something most people don't consider vitally important to them. As such we take any chance we can get to put our name out there, our logo, and what we offer folks. Getting your class in a university mini-course catalog was a great way to do that, even if it was between Reiki 101 and Basic Excel.
Fall brought one of the prouder moments for the club. The epically-named Mid Atlantic Rookie Tournament: Fighty McFightface was held in September, and as the name implies this was a tournament designed specifically for rookies. We were thrilled to learn that our own Clint Shaaf successfully coached the winning fighter, Jonathan Paulino. He also coached two other top-placing fencers, John Armitage, and Bill Gollatz.
As the year wore on we were feeling strangely confined in the gigantic space in which we trained. It certainly wasn't because of space itself, but rather because there were so many limits on what we could do. We were allowed to be there only specific times, we couldn't offer additional classes without taking away from our own training, and there were times when we couldn't train at all because the hall was being used by someone else.
So, though it was with some trepidation and fear, we finally made the decision to move to our town's downtown shopping area as of December. The space itself is significantly smaller than where we were and we now need to come up with an honest to goodness monthly rent, which has caused some level of anxiety among us. Yet, in the end, this has already proven to be a far better option for us, and one that will only lead to greater and greater chances for us in the future.
⚔
So there you have it, a somewhat quick-and-dirty year in review. Had I been given the time to go through the year properly I would have been able to expand on several things I'm sure I'm missing, but suffice it to say 2018 was a good year for the club and we are all looking forward to 2019.
Bring it!
Stay loose and train hard.
-- Scott
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