a couple of questions...

[Indar]

for Anders....or anyone else in the know;

1. How are WSKO councilor's selected ? Is this a democratic process within each federation ?

2. How are WSKO country representatives selected ?

3. How does someone become a WSKO instructor ?

http://www.shorinjikempo.or.jp/wsko/...tor/index.html

[Anders Pettersson]

for Anders....or anyone else in the know;

OK, since I am mentioned I have a go and answer this.

1. How are WSKO councilor's selected ? Is this a democratic process within each federation ?

The statutes for WSKO are available here: http://www.shorinjikempo.or.jp/wsko/...es/kiyakuE.pdf

As for Councilors this is not anything that each federation are (directly) involved in.
This is from the statutes:

Chapter VIII Article 25
(4) Councilors: The number of councilors shall be not more than ten (10), from among whom the President of the Organization shall designate three (3), appoint another four (4) who are elected at the General Meeting and appoint the remaining three (3) or fewer through the resolution of the Board of Directors. Selection of the above four (4) councilors at the General Meeting shall be resolved by a majority vote of those in attendance.

If I remember correct it used to be set a certain number of councilors from each region (Europe, North America, etc.), but this is not the case now (I have to check if I have any old copies of previous statutes).
To be honest when the European country representatives during the General Meetings I have attended have choosen (elected doesn't seem to be the correct word) the councilor from Europe, it has more been the situation that a senior person had suggested one, and asked if everyone agreed, and of course no one would argue with this.

2. How are WSKO country representatives selected ?

That is also answered in the statutes:

Chapter IV Rights and Obligations of Members
Article 9
Members of the Organization shall have the following rights.
(1) Each group member shall select one representative who may attend General Meetings of the Organization thus: A country that is a regular group member shall select such a representative from among the members of its federation and a country that is an associate group member shall select such a representative from among the members of its branches.

A regular member means a country with a National Federation and associate group is a country with no National Federation.

There is a form for this and if I remember (have to check some old files to 100% sure) it need to be signed by several federation officers. For associate members I think all shibu-cho need to sign, but I am not sure about this, someone in USA or Canada migh be able to answer that better since they have that situation.

3. How does someone become a WSKO instructor ?

I don't think this regulated in any statutes or bylaws (as far as I can remember), but from what I have heard they are appointed by the WSKO board of Directors.
In Japan (since most WSKO instructors are Japanese, only since the last term their we have a few non Japanese instructors), I think instructors hve had the possibility to apply to get appointed. Of course they had to be of certain standard in rank etc.

For other instructors in Japan, such as Gakusei shidoin (that teach at the universty gasshuku at hombu that many WSKO kenshi attend) one can apply and then have to do a test (at hombu) in order to get appointed. From what I have heard this is a little bit similar to a grading, where you are asked to do certain techniques and demonstrate how to teach etc.
For Busen instructors (I am not sure of the correct Japanese term, but it might be busen kyoshi) the level that travel to different regional busen courses and teach, (The regional busen always have one instructor from another region that do the main teaching and lecture, when splitting up in groups/classes the local busen instructor teach each group.) there is a similar way with tests.


In my opinion it would be a good way to have something similar for WSKO isntructors. In other words, if anyone has the minimum rank required he/she could apply to take a course and then do a test (at hombu, or at the international koshukai held every forth year).
If a person pass they would become a WSKO instructor for the upcoming four year term. As it is now it is just an appointment, so it is more a political decision rather than based on technical ability (and by that I am not saying that the people that now are appointed don't fulfill the standard one would expect).


I hope this answer your questions.

/Anders

[Indar]

To be honest when the European country representatives during the General Meetings I have attended have choosen (elected doesn't seem to be the correct word) the councilor from Europe, it has more been the situation that a senior person had suggested one, and asked if everyone agreed, and of course no one would argue with this.

of course

thanks; one more question, if I may;

are minutes of the meetings available for WSKO members ?

(I would guess that meetings are conducted in English ?)

thanks again,

[Anders Pettersson]

thanks; one more question, if I may;

are minutes of the meetings available for WSKO members ?

(I would guess that meetings are conducted in English ?)

Sorry for not being able to reply sooner, but you wrote not one question but two.

Anyaway, the minutes for the meeting (if I remember correct) are sent out to the people who are attending in advance. So in one sense they are available, (through each country representative), but not publically.
The Daigi-in (country representative) are asked by WSKO Hombu before the meeting to collect opinions from branches in his/hers country and send them in before the meeting. So accordingly one could expect that each daigi-in also report what topics will be discussed when he/she recieves the minutes from WSKO Hombu.

As for your last question the meeting are held in the official language for WSKO which is Japanese and English, everything is done with simultanous translation to the English if the person talking speaks Japanese, and the other way around.

/Anders