NY, 04415 now held for consideration!

[fist of fury]

Found this on another board I thought I would pass it along

NY, 04415 now held for consideration!
A04415 is now under consideration in the committee on higher education in Albany (held on 6/3). It proposes to license all martial arts instructors and schools in New York State. Not only will this mean more hidden taxes in the form of "fees", but the criteria could well put many out of business. Remember the NYSAC "approved list"?

The following is a list of people on the committee with phone numbers, many are New York City and Long Island people. Feel free to call them and express your disapproval of A04415. You can call ALL of them. This (their phone numbers) is public information, on the assembly web page, so you can circulate it. Pass it on

Debrah Glick 212 674-5153

Richard Gottfried 212 807-7900

James Conte 631 271-8025

Patricia Eddington 631 207-0073

Steve Englebright 631 751-3094

Steve Levy 631 589-8685

Michael Fitzpatrick 631 724-2929

Nick Perry 718 385-3336

Anthony Seminero 718 847-0770

Scott Stringer 212 873-6368

Mark Webrin 718 428-7900

Ron Castrari 518 455-4474

Darryl Aubertine 315 786-0284

Mara Butler 518 762-6486

Kevin Cahil 845 338-9610

Joan Christensen 315 449-9536

Brain Kolb 315 781-2030

Barbara Lifton 607 277-8030

William Magee 315 361-4125

Joel Miller 845 463-1635

Joseph Morelle 585 467-0410

Amy Paulin 914 723-1115

Robert Prentiss 518 877-7113

Call and express you opposition before this becomes a law!

[Disco]

What criteria are they proposing? Just from a limited viewpoint, there could be some good that possibly could come out of this. If it would eliminate all the fly by night ninja's and phony grandmasters, would'nt that be a plus for all the legit Instructors. Mabey then they could receive a fair price for their teachings and the students would receive honest training. Just a thought.......

[Jay Bell]

Would it be possible to put more information on this in this thread? It would be much better having people call that are educated on just what it all boils down to before calling committee members...

If they are targeting fake martial artists, what will poor Ronald Duncan do?! :D

[chufeng]

This came up before...
There was a list of "accepted" martial arts...
Chinese martial arts were NOT included in that list...

I agree with Jay...let's get more details on this...

:asian:
chufeng

[A.R.K.]

Why wouldn't Chinese martial arts make the approved list?

That just doesn't make sense. :mad:

[Jay Bell]

Chufeng,

I remember that thread a long time ago (another board maybe? I don't recall). I'm curious though if any modifications have come with it. Removing Chinese arts from New York...it'd be absolutely insane.

Yet I'm sure the local "Airfist Master" would have a lot of promise...

On one end, it's a fantastic idea. Manymany fraud based martial art teachers would see their end. However...who do they use as the "governing board" to who is fit? That's what scares me...

Uncle Bob down and NY House of Karate probably has never heard of Bagua Zhang or Systema...does that mean they're out?

*shiver* Pretty scary stuff...

[A.R.K.]

'Government big enough to provide all you want...is big enough to take everything you have'.

Just a thought.

:asian:

[chufeng]

I think this underscores the importance of EFFECTIVELY policing our own ranks...

If people are being defrauded of their money, the state should step in...but if we were more effective in shutting down "bad schools" the state would have no reason to step in.

How we do that is a very difficult question to answer.

The thread I saw on this before would have a TaeKwonDo guy in charge of the "department" that regulated MAs...THAT is VERY scary.

I've got nothing against legitimate TKD, but the system is so VERY different from many Chinese systems, that a "conflict of interest" would surely crop up when state-licensure became law.

:asian:
chufeng

[TLH3rdDan]

how about they set up a department to cover each major country of origin like a department of japanese arts, department of chinese arts, and so on... then within each department you could have subdivisions being comprised of the major styles from each country.... just a thought... and i would recommend that they elect the members that head up each department...

[fist of fury]

here's the thread I posted on it a while back
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6365

A link to the bill
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A04415&sh=t

[Despairbear]

Scary stuff. What if I run a dojo out of my back yard and don't have a licence are the cops gonna come and arrest me? It also worries me that they did not define what they contiser a MA.



Despair Bear

[lvwhitebir]

Originally posted by TLH3rdDan
how about they set up a department to cover each major country of origin like a department of japanese arts, department of chinese arts, and so on... then within each department you could have subdivisions being comprised of the major styles from each country.... just a thought... and i would recommend that they elect the members that head up each department...

What if I created my own art, where would that fit in? What about non-traditional MMA?

We can't define what's a legitimate martial art, so really the public at large has to define it for themselves. There's no way that the law could work.

WhiteBirch

[lvwhitebir]

I admit I didn't read the whole bill, but from the amount I have it only appears that they want to make sure the MA instructors use correct/safe teaching methods. It sounds similar to the requirements of aerobic instructors, such as yearly training and testing on safe strength, stretching, and cardio methods for certification.

In this light it looks harmless, except that it means more money in somebody's coffers.

I'm not sure what need this addresses, other than keeping kids from doing dangerous exercises. It won't weed out "McDojo" or illegitamate instructors.

WhiteBirch