Venue Found!

I visited the perfect venue today! Mirrors both ends of the hall, a rail down the length, perfect size for tournaments and club nights!
The best part is that the venue owner is happy to let me hire it on the days and times I requested!

I'm just waiting to hear back on hire price and insurance info.
I'll announce the venue ASAP :)


P.S. The plan is for beginner courses to start on April 12th, but we'll have to wait and see.

Beginner Courses

Hello!

Beginner courses will commence in April.

The course will cover ages:
5-10
11-15
16+

Adult courses will run for 90 mins a night and run for eight weeks. Seven weeks will be classes and the final night will be a tournament to practice your new skills.
Childrens courses will run for fifty minutes to an hour a night and will run over ten weeks.

The venue will be announced as soon as possible. The manager of the venue we're hoping for quit and didn't tell me so I was awaiting his e-mail. I'm meeting with the new manager next week.

Dates and prices soon to come.

To be added to the list of interested persons, please e-mail us:  van.diemen.fencing.club@gmail.com

We look forward to meeting you!

*Photo is not property of Van Diemen Fencing Club



Van Diemen Fencing Club at the Celebrate Clarence Expo

Saturday February 27th, Van Diemen Fencing Club held a display a the Celebrate Clarence Expo.

We provided foam sabres and masks for people to have a go.

We had kids, parents and grand parents having a stab (excuse the pun) at fencing and we had more than enough positive feedback to decide to hold beginner courses on the Eastern Shore in the near future.

 

We had a display about our club, and about fencing in general. We had posters from Commonwealth Fencing Championships, posters from fencing suppliers, photos of all ages fencing and photos of a recent fencing taster for 5-8 year olds.

 

We had thongs hanging at different heights for target practice.

 

 

 

We also ran a free raffle with six prizes of one introductory fencing lesson. The man in charge of the Archery stall next door drew the six winners from a sabre fencing mask. Georgie very kindly held the mask :) The winners will be contacted on Monday.

We all had a great day and enjoyed meeting some of our future members!

Cheers

Avril
Club President

Interview on Huon FM.

We just had a great interview with Tim on Huon FM. It would be great to run some beginner lessons down that way so if you're from the area, please send us an e-mail and if we get enough interest we'll do it.

Venue: Meeting with the YMCA next week to hopefully organize a room then we'll be ready to start lessons!

Cheers,
Avril

January 2011 Update!

Hello :)

I hope you are having a happy 2011 so far! 

We are in the process of booking a venue so soon we can announce dates for the first Bronze Certificate Epee courses!

So far we have had a lot of interest in the Adults and Primary Schools aged courses, but we're hoping to run a course for high-school ages, so if you know of anybody in high school who might be interested in fencing, please be sure to let them know!

I am actually away until January 15th, so I will answer your e-mail as soon as I'm back.

Regards,

Avril Holderness-Roddam

President, Van Diemen Fencing Club

WELCOME! - Dec 2010 Update.

Hello :)
Time for the December Update!

I now have enough people to hold the first adult Bronze Certificate Epee Course in February 2011.
If you are interested, or have younger people inerested, please e-mail the club and I will send you details. We have classes designed for several age ranges.

The club launch is in mid February, I'm calling the venue to book the date this week.

Completely unrelated, Scullduggery Fencing Club (run by Mark Scully) in Launceston has invited all fencers to compete at their tournament this Sat Dec. 18th.  President of the TUFC, Isaac Laredo and I are going to travel North to compete. Next year there will be more opportunities for clubs to meet and compete in friendly competitions and in the State Champs.

If you are intrsted to see what fencing is like at a National level, check out http://www.ausfencing.org/, they have a list of state orgs. and links and current news.

Bed time for me now :)

Another update when exact dates for courses are organised.

Cheers,
Avril Holderness-Roddam,
President, Van Diemen Fencing Club.

Update for Nov. 2010.

Time for an update

I have been receiving quite a few e-mails from people interested in fencing for themselves or their children. If you find the club through this blog, I would love it if you could let me know in the e-mail so I can see which marketing tools are working best.

The main questions have been about prices and classes.

From mid to late February 2011 we will be running Bronze Certificate Epee Courses for various age groups.  These will run over eight weeks. Adults Courses will cost $100 for the eight weeks (this includes equipment use) and on completion, students will be qualified to compete at clubs and in State tournaments.

We will have several age groups for kids and we are still planning these. The lessons will be shorter for the younger age groups and will be around $85. We are discussing maybe doing it differently for kids, and having colour ribbons to work their way through. So once they learn the very basics, for example, they would get a red ribbon, once they learnt certain drills and moves, they would earn the next ribbon up. This approach is used in Britain and is very popular with the young students.

I am also in the process of approaching schools about th possibility of offering fencing as a sport in 2011.

So there we are :) 

Also, the Celebrate Clarence Expo is possibly going to be held on February 27th 2011 (it was cancelled earlier this year) so we are looking forward to having our stall there!
________
P.S. We are also putting flyers for the club in bags at a Santa Photography centre in the city. This will hopefully lead to, at least awareness of the sport and at best more students :)