Nice to have some support
Published: Wed, 02/28/18
When I was running the Stav Centre in Somerset there was council noticeboard in the middle of town. When I tentatively inquired about displaying a poster for Stav classes I was told, in no uncertain terms, that the notice board was not for profit making activities. Profit making was not exactly what I saw the Stav Centre as. Here in Beverley I have been admiring the council notice boards, again in the centre of town. It took me a while to make the effort but I decided to email the town clerk and ask about displaying a poster advertising a Stav Martial Arts Class. The response was.... ‘That sounds like an exciting project, send me the pdf and I will print off your poster and get it displayed.’
Doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result is usually a form of madness. (I believe Albert Eisenstein is credited with a quote along those lines.) However, it is also a mistake to assume that similar situations will necessarily afford exactly the same opportunities. The town clerk here has a very different attitude to assisting local activities than her opposite number seemed to have in Somerset. I have no idea what difference the poster will make when it does appear but it is nice to feel supported. You can see the pdf of the poster here https://www.screencast.com/t/NuDj9T9m
I have also approached a local free newspaper and they seem to be keen to run a feature on teaching Stav locally. We have a new website with the domain name http://www.beverleystav.uk which is now live and I have been running a local Facebook ad campaign which is getting some interest.
I also have a course planned for Saturday morning. I was hoping to do some staff training outside. That might be a little optimistic since the only thing missing round here from the arctic experience is polar bears. Luckily we have indoor space too. Although, if we are confined to indoors, we will be working with something smaller than the staff. It will have to be cudgel, sax, tein or five principles knife defence depending upon who comes. Either way I don’t intend to let a bit of snow interfere with Stav training.
I have also just completed the 8th module of the foundation programme. The theme for the latest module is the craft bind rune and I have retold the story of how Thor got his hammer. I will be distributing this latest module on Monday morning. The 9th module will go out on Monday the 11th, then on the 24th of March we will have the first Foundation day course with 6 people who have received (and hopefully studied) the nine distance learning modules. I will then be ready to trial the automated version of the Foundation Programme. If you would like to be involved please see http://iceandfire.org.uk/foundation.html for details of the next foundation day on the 26th of May. Or you can just sign up for the distance learning modules if you are unlikely to be able to make it to Beverley on that date.
Regards Graham
PS If you want to do some martial training then please get along to Beverley on Saturday morning. Or you could come to Buckland St Mary in Somerset on the 7th of April http://iceandfire.org.uk/somerset.html .