Australasian Sokeship Council

Chairman: Grandmaster Ramon Lawrence OAM

REPORT FROM THE CHAIRMAN –Sydney 2021

Congratulations to all 2020 and 2021 Inductees and I look forward to meeting you and our returning
members in Sydney. I have been fortunate to have been able to attend every AMAHOF Awards
ceremony since it commenced in 1996 but was very disappointed that the 2020 event due to be held
in Perth had to be cancelled due to Covid boarder closures. This will be remedied with the 2023
event being held in Joondalup Resort, Perth.

It has been a long period of association with many Inductees whom I manage to meet up with on an
annual basis only. As my “twilight” years are getting on, and my body keeps reminding me, it is
becoming more difficult to participate in the seminars or conduct demonstrations but are very happy
to leave this to the later generations and still be able to share any knowledge with them when
requested. I continue to enjoy the discussions that always arise at these events. I finally sold my
businesses and the Willow Pond complex in mid-2020 and retired to Port Coogee, near Fremantle
and the coast, and I am looking forward to moving around Australia and visiting many of my senior
students and continuing passing on my knowledge to them.

This past three years I have been trying to recover the full use of my legs again but it has been a
slow and painful journey and the realization that this is as good as it is going to get and finally
dawned on me. However I have still managed to continue training in my arts and traveling interstate
to run limited seminars. The personal trainers at the gym have been great in assisting my recovery
under the Veterans Exercise Program of which I am grateful. It is my 61 st year of continuous training
in martial arts and probably past time to start clearing my “bucket list” and traveling after I turned 76
this April.

Keeping a challenging mind and improving knowledge in the arts is extremely important – you never
stop learning and improving, although in different aspects to your past youthful days perhaps.

There have been several enquiries for upgrading our members and many more for Acknowledgement
of Current Grades by AMAHOF. These have been investigated in detail and motions set in place for
the applicant’s final assessments during a demonstration of their skills and to showcase their art at
this years awards event in Sydney and more in Perth in 2023 planned.

I must re-emphasize that the ASC has an obligation to the Industry and our members not to interfere
with the balance of good quality leadership and achievement so that the right people are correctly
rewarded, and seen to be acknowledged, by good performance over a long period of time and
showing all the elements associated with the martial arts concepts. We will not interfere with any
organization responsible for holding gradings for specific arts that the members belong to or have just
left the organization. ASC is not to be seen as an easy alternative to doing the “hard yards” within
authentic organizations responsible for such circumstances. As each year progresses I have tried to
involve new senior members onto the grading panels and identifying such members to take over from
me when the time comes. We have moved on from doing assessment gradings to more formal panel
gradings. New and younger membership blood from our current senior members is important for this
purpose but we must make sure the achievement of being inducted into AMAHOF and being
upgraded in ranks by the ASC maintains a high level of ethics, achievement and notice-ability to the
public as well as to members of the martial arts industry. In this area I strongly urge members to give
the Executive their continued support and recognition to this important re-development.

Again, congratulations to our new Inductees and grading applicants and we hope to see many of our
past Inductees and friends in Sydney and for all of us to share in our small wisdoms gained over
many years of hard training in our specific arts. Remember, “if it comes too easily, it is not worth
having” and “do your first as if it is your last, and your last as if it is your first”. These two ethics of
training will always hold you in good stead for the future.

I am also looking forward to hosting the 2023 AMAHOF Awards in Perth at the Joondalup Country
Club in August, 2023. We have already put in place great plans to make this an exceptional event
with high level entertainment and Inductions of new members.

I would also like to thank the outgoing ASC and Executive members for their support across past
years to both AMAHOF and the ASC.

Kind regards to all
Ramon Lawrence, OAM

Australasian Sokeship Council Chairman
Hanshi Hachidan, Budokan Bujutsu Australia
Perth – 16 th June, 2021.