Varsity 2010

Due to a sudden change of program due to the lack of organisation of Oxford University Kickboxing Club this year’s Varsity fight will be held in Cambridge on Sunday 2 May (tomorrow!!!).  The fight will be held at the Fenner’s Gym, Gresham Road, starting at 2PM.  Spectators will be accepted just if prebooked.

CARISMA at The Martial Arts Show 2010

CARISMA has been invited to take part in two demonstrations of Kickboxing and Multicombat at the The Martial Arts Show that will be held at the NEC in Birmingham on 22 and 23 May 2010.

The Festival will have a section with exhibitors presenting their own products and services as well as running a number of workshops and demonstrations from both national en international martial artists and personalities.

A small group of CARISMA member will be selected to represent the club in the 2 shows to be held on Sat 22 May.

Please express you interested in being part of it (minimum technical standard and rank required) or if you would like to visit.  Those intending to be part of the show should consider to be busy for the whole of Sat, leaving Cambridge at about 7:30am.

Announcing Summer Camp 2010


Description
Agenda
Notes
Suggestions & Hints
What to do Next?

The Summer Camp (SC) is a special training event lasting one or more days where all students of the club have the opportunity of practicing together in a relaxed environment. This is a preliminary announcement to raise awareness and interest about the event and establishing the approximate number of participants.

Given the great success of previous years, we decided to organize the sixth
SC at the same place: a pleasant location in the Hungarian countryside. The whole event will be based in a village called Csokonyavisonta in the Somogy region, in the South East area of the country, by the Croatian border. You can have a look at where it is by clicking on this link.

Participants

Every member of CARISMA is invited to the Summer Camp: lower ranked people usually benefit of the high percentage of instructors and high ranked people that help their development and knowledge. There is no charge from CARISMA to participate to this event: just the costs associated to travel, substistence and fun.

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Provisional Agenda

Date Time Activity
12-8-2010 09:00-16:00 Flight out, travelling, lunch, rest
17:00-19:00 training by the pool
20:30-late dinner, night out
13-8-2010 09:00-12:00 training by the pool
12:00-19:30 Activities
20:30-late dinner, night out
14-8-2010 9:00-12:00 training by the pool
12:00-19:30 Activities
20:30-late dinner, night out
15-8-2010 09:00-12:00 training by the pool
12:00-19:30 Activities
20:30-late dinner, night out
16-8-2010 9:00-12:00 training by the pool
12:00-19:30 Activities
20:30-late dinner, night out
17-8-2010 Flight back

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NOTES

The most suitable route to Csokonyavisonta is flight Stansted to Budapest and then rent cars; at the same time as we are publishing this post the possible alternatives are flying to Graz (A) or Zagreb (HR). The distance between each of these places and the final destination is approximately the same. Transportation means renting cars in groups of 3-4 people per car to be arranged once it’s known who is going.
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SUGGESTIONS AND HINTS

  • activities: aim of the Summer Camp apart from training is to have fun: what is described above as Activities can be anything between chilling by the local pool or visiting a nearby town or forest for some hiking: it’s easier agreeing day by day what to do rather than rearranging things later because of weather or other reasons.
  • money: local currency is the Hungarian Forint that changes to the GBP at about 302.65 (Google 24/4/10) to 1. Try to have plenty of cash with you. The best way to have local currency is carry some GBP cash and change it locally: alternatively you can draw cash with a maestro, delta card or credit card: all ATM are opened to international circuits such as VISA and MASTERCARD. Please do not rely entirely on plastic for payments over the counter because it cannot be assured that bars and rural restaurants will accept them. Changing at the airport in the UK is also possible but surely less convenient.
  • food: Hungarian cuisine is not necessarily the lightest and most balanced in the world. They eat lots of meat, mostly pork, turkey and chicken. The area where we are going is also rich in game so dishes based on venison and wild bore are fairly common. Vegetables are usually very fresh and good. Eating in restaurants costs probably 20-40% of what it costs in the UK. At least one of the nights we’ll have a traditional goulash (or gulyas as it should be correctly spelled). A pint of beer costs between 60p and £1.50 and wine is also very reasonably priced. We let you work out what the budget should be for each of you.
  • vegetarians: given the negligible percentage of vegetarians in Hungary most restaurants do not really have special menus to cater for vegetarians. In any case pizzas are fairly common, salads and vegetables are available everywhere even if they are usually considered side dishes. Fish dishes are also widely available: mostly fresh water fish from the local lakes and rivers.
  • driving: we will have cars so please make sure to carry your driving licence: it makes life easier for everybody if more than one person per car is insured to drive the same vehicle.  Many car rental companies want drivers aged at least 25 and with a full driving license for a number of years: please check with the company you are choosing to avoid bad surprises.
  • Accommodation: the village has a small tourist resort with villas and a Camping: prices for villas will be in the order or £15-20 PP/night: for a couple of pounds you can have breakfast in the nearby restaurant.
  • uniform: we are going to be CARISMA ambassadors abroad therefore everybody’s uniform must be impeccable. CARISMA T-shirt, Gi trousers, belt, shoes. Needless to say that you should carry your full kit of pads.
  • shoes: training will be outdoor, either on concrete or grass so please wear shoes. Martial arts shoes are probably the best solution. If you don’t own a pair of those the any kind of light weight trainers (not high top) will do just fine.
  • sun: middle of August, Hungary: it’s likely to be very hot and sunny. We will be
    training outdoor so don’t forget strong sun protection if you have sensitive skin.
  • clothing: evenings are pretty cool as the village is surrounded by forests: make sure to have reasonable warm clothing and a wind/water proof coat.

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What to do next?

If you are interested in participating to the Summer Camp 2010 or would like to ask questions about it please send an Email to info (at) carisma.org.uk stating [Summer Camp] in the Subject.

CARISMA EGM Apr 2010

Please note the change of date!

We would like to invite every member of CARISMA to an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on Thursday 6th May 2010. The EGM will be held on the first floor of the “Clowns” coffee house on King Street, at 8:30 for a 9pm sharp start.

The sole item on the EGM agenda is to bolster the CARISMA committee’s numbers with some fresh faces to bring it back up to its full complement of five. A committee member’s most important responsibility is to help take decisions regarding the direction and running of the club for the benefit of its members – it’s a low time commitment, but a valuable contribution to the club.

So if you train regularly and would like to help CARISMA to continue to grow & improve, consider standing for the committee!  The aim is to have 2 new members. All candidates will be considered, and should be prepared to explain to the meeting why they should be chosen as members of the committee, after which there will be held a vote.

Please try your best to be there as we value your opinion as a member and as a possible candidate to relevant position in the committee.  We aim at finishing the whole meeting within an hour in order to allow people in a hurry to leave:  please try to be on time.