"President's Report, Fall 2004" --  By Mr. Nick Favorito, 1st Gup

Over the past several years I have seen our club go through many changes and it has been a long time since we have had a close and dedicated group as we do now. This semester has been difficult for many people, but everyone has stepped up at one time or another to help the club. We not only have a group of hard workers, we have a group of leaders. It may not seem like much to the people who do it, but it makes a huge difference in how the club operates. At the Region 8 Tournament everyone worked hard, even our newest members, and we were able to quickly and efficiently take care of all of our many responsibilities. We were able to contribute money to the WTSDA building fund because of our work at the building fund table selling books. By working at the football games we were able to bring in more money per game than past years, which will go towards all of our club activities and parties.

At the start of this semester, Club Sports, the University’s organizer of clubs, was reorganized, given more employees, and asked to become more “active” in how individual clubs were run. This immediately affected the PSMAG because many new rules and regulations were put in place, and there was almost no time to follow them. In the beginning of the year the officers had to attend training meetings, turn in forms to allow us to practice where we do, and ensure that we had paperwork on everyone training. If these steps were not completed the club would not be allowed to hold practices and would run the risk of being disbanded. Normally this would not be a large problem, but this all had to be done in about one week’s time. The PSMAG was the only martial arts club, and also one of the few clubs overall to complete all of these tasks fully and on time. As president I have seen many difficulties this semester because events like this have happened several times. Each was accompanied by the threat of disbandment of our club. Club Sports is constantly putting out new forms to be filled out and laying down new regulations. Simply driving to the Region 8 Tournament required 7 pages of forms. As time goes on, hopefully Club Sports will set down its requirements early on and next year’s officers will not have to deal with this.

As part of the new activities of Club Sports, an advisory council has been formed consisting of faculty members, Club Sports personnel, and club representatives. The advisory council will review each Penn State club in the spring and determine if it is beneficial for each club to continue to be recognized by Club Sports. I may have to appear before this council to justify our existence at Penn State. I am confident that the work we have done will be considered as an important part of Penn State. In addition to our regular training activities, we sponsor charities and events that help many other people, both in and out of martial arts. We are also one of the longest running clubs at Penn State, and one of the few clubs with a spotless record under the new Club Sports rules because of everyone’s hard work.

We finally have a group of hardworking and dedicated people in the PSMAG. Now that our core group is again strong, I hope to grow the club next semester by advertising and possibly running activities that will introduce our name to the Penn State community. There will be plenty of more opportunities for people to volunteer and help out in the coming semester. Our group has a lot to offer, and I hope to help make sure it will do so for many more years.

Respectfully submitted,
Nick Favorito
1st Gup