ITF England held its annual general meeting on 10th February at Eldon leisure centre in Newcastle upon Tyne.
The AGM weekend is a time to celebrate our martial art and to plan for the future. The weekend started with an open national squad training session on Saturday 9th February, with the national coaches training our current international competitors and sharing their training practices with students who hope to compete on the international circuit.
On Sunday, Master Mckenna led a training session called “ A disguising repetition master class “, which allowed masters and senior grades to train together and share their taekwon do expertise.
There then followed a presentation from NEST martial arts management, who gave an insight into tax, the General Data Protection Regulation and safeguarding in taekwon do.
The annual general meeting then followed, which resulted in the following people being elected to serve on the board of directors for the next two years.
PRESIDENT - Master Anthony McKenna VII
VICE PRESIDENT - Master Iain Ridley VII
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR - Miss Carly Wilson V
TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR - Master Nick Symonds VII
SECRETARY - Mrs Patricia Gray V
ETHICS AND DISCIPLINE DIRECTOR - Master Paul Cook VII
TREASURER - Mr Jeff Brider IV
Master Mckenna outlined his priorities for the next two years – which are to concentrate on two areas
Technical development: giving support for our masters and grand masters to spread their expertise: Developing our national championships so we can make this into a flagship event; and support for the national team so we can maximise our performance at international competitions
Improved management of ITF England; Developing a series of offers for our members so ITF England can add value, such as business support, child safeguarding and teaching courses.
Master Mckenna thanked the outgoing Vice president, Master Bernard and the outgoing technical director, Mr de Silva for their support in what had been a difficult period for ITF England.