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from the February, 2014 issue of Kiai!

State of the Organization

 

by Senpai Ryan Libel
Director of Operations and 2nd Degree Black Belt

Since Thousand Waves incorporated as a not-for-profit in 2002, we have taken the New Year’s martial arts tradition of Kagami Biraki to hold a membership meeting to report out to our training members on the work, successes, and challenges of our organization.  We thought we would use this, our first Kiai! issue of the year, to also report out to our many dedicated supporters who are not training members.  We hope this State of the Organization report allows you to see your support in action.

Programming Updates

In 2013, our ongoing Seido Karate program was enhanced by the return of a Little Kicks program for children age four through kindergarten.  It’s been going well – so well, in fact, that for 2014 we’ve added another session.  In addition to being thrilled to start kids on their martial paths at such a young age, the growth in our membership numbers as a result of this returning program has been quite welcome.

Our Adapted Seido Karate program continues to serve kids with disabilities weekly – 2014 is ASK’s 10th anniversary year.  Sensei Rebecca Angevine serves as head instructor for the program, and Senpai Denise Coleman also teaches and handles the administrative side of things.  Senpai/Dr. Max Kuroda, who helped start the program, retired from active participation in 2013.  The program maintains an extremely low student teacher ratio due to its large, dedicated corps of volunteers.

The National Women’s Martial Arts Federation/Self-Defense Instructors Conference was held in Naperville this past July, and Thousand Waves members turned out in force to support the event.  2014’s conference will again be in Naperville, and Thousand Waves is serving as the host school, with Sei Shihan Nancy and Senpai Amy Jones serving as coordinators.  This year’s conference is called PeaceWorks – for more information see Sei Shihan Nancy’s article, also in this issue of Kiai!

Our Violence Prevention Program served dozens of community groups in 2013, and we also focused our efforts on programming for youth.  We’re especially proud to have served Courtenay School in Uptown with an 8-week program for two classes of 6th graders; there’s some chance e’ll be back at Courtenay in 2014.

wnother exciting program was for the Mt. Prospect Public Library system; we served about 150 staff in a full day of programming featuring four Thousand Waves Violence Prevention instructors.  We continue to welcome member efforts at connecting us to organizations that can benefit from our life-changing Violence Prevention programs.  All told, we served over 1,600 individuals in 2013.  Importantly, we also hope you know that Thousand Waves is a nationally recognized leader in the field of Violence Prevention.  We participate in conferences and conversations happening nationally that keep us at the fore of a continually evolving and vitally important field.

Our Scholarship program provided about $30,000 in assistance to individuals and organizations in 2013.  25 kids and 18 adults received ongoing tuition assistance for their Seido Karate training, while many educational and not-for-profit institutions received assistance enabling their participation in our violence prevention program.  Thousand Waves remains deeply committed to affordability and accessibility in all of our programs.

Membership and Financial News

Thousand Waves’ two main sources of revenue are karate tuition and contributions.  Thank you so much for making our 2013 contributed income stronger than ever.  Our Plum Blossom Society’s ranks swelled from 34 inaugural members in 2012 to 41 households in 2013. The Plum Blossom Society is a way we thank donors whose cumulative annual contributions total $1,000 or more.  Spirit Challenge, the Punch & Kick-a-Thon, and our end-of-year appeal are the three annual campaigns that drive the bulk of our contributions, and all were strong in 2013.  In 2014, one of our volunteer fundraising committee’s main initiatives will be to cultivate sponsorships for our major fundraising events and for our free Community Violence Prevention Workshops.  Please speak with anyone at Thousand Waves for more information on sponsorship opportunities.

Despite stronger than ever contributed income, we are finishing 2013 with an operating loss of about 5%, due to karate tuition not meeting budget.  It’s a simple fact of membership – our current membership of about 340 students is not enough to support the class schedule and other programmatic opportunities we provide.  As noted above, we have recently been able, due to shifts in staffing, to bring the Little Kicks program back, the loss of which contributed significantly to our diminished membership, and doing so has already begun to help a lot.  But that’s not the whole picture – our adult membership also experienced a decline beginning in 2011 and continuing through 2012.  Happily, our increased marketing and retention efforts have allowed us to start turning the corner.

To build on the momentum, throughout 2014, we’ll be holding a membership drive with the goal of getting our membership back up to 400 – a number that we know from past years will better meet our budgetary needs with respect to karate tuition.  We are hoping to get 25 new Adult members, 25 new Little Kicks (filling the new session), and 10 total additional child members in the Junior, Youth, and Teen programs, for a total of 60 new members.

In response to our member meetings, where we launched our membership drive, members are already taking action to ensure we meet with success.  Adults are speaking with friends who might wish to train.  Parents have approached us about ways they can get our literature into the hands of parents and children at their schools.  And some parents are stepping up to become training members themselves.  In short, we know we can get back to 400!

Strategic Planning

Thousand Waves has a long history with strategic planning, and our last plan took us through 2012.  During 2013, we began a strategic planning process that is ongoing.  Thanks to our members for your responses to our membership survey – that survey has informed our process; we learned that our members are overwhelmingly happy, engaged, and aware of the programs we deliver. 

A big part of our conversations to date has been succession planning.  For 2013, Jun Shihan Sarah reduced her work schedule to 4 days per week, and for 2014 Sei Shihan Nancy is doing the same.  Both are committed to at least that work schedule for three years.  These shifts have allowed us to reallocate monies to develop teachers who will allow Thousand Waves to continue long into the future.  In 2013 we were able to build capacity in the kids’ program with more part time instructors, and for 2014 we’re happy to be bringing Senpai Jordan Garcia into a larger teaching and administrative role within the organization.  Developing teachers takes time, and is the key to a sustainable future.

We are on track to complete our Strategic Plan in April.

Thank you, again, for your steadfast support of our wonderful organization.