The Chi Kung/Qigong Association of America

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In November of 1996, a small, but significant, gathering took place in Boulder, Colorado.

A conference entitled "Chi Kung/Qigong: Developing Energy-Cultivating Life" was presented by The Chi Kung School at The Body Energy Center. Produced by Jim MacRitchie and Damaris Jarboux, it brought together a group of teachers and practitioners from around the country who, over the last four years, have been engaged in a dialogue to create a viable national association.

The presenters were Jesse Dammann, Russell Des Marais, Roger Jahnke, Damaris Jarboux, Mark Johnson, Richard Leirer, Hong Fei Lin, Jim MacRitchie and Gunther Weil. Shantike Lammanno, Thompson Chen and Ellen Raskin had intended to come, but due to circumstances, could not. Initially another half-dozen well-respected teachers had been invited, but did not end up participating for various reasons.

The conference was a wonderful weekend of presentations, workshops, training and discussions, attended by large numbers (for this small mountain town) who braved adverse Winter conditions to get there. On Friday and Saturday it took place at The Masonic Temple-joining the Taoists and the Masons.

On Saturday evening, we gathered together in the Law Offices of Berkley Freeman, our legal counsel, signed the papers and presto, created "The Chi Kung/Qigong Association of America", a 501(c)(3), nonprofit corporation. We drank American champagne. The three others not able to attend in person "signed-on" later.


The Objects and Purposes of the Association are:

a. To promote and disseminate the understanding and appreciation of the principles and practice of Chi Kung/Qigong and Asian Body-Energy development and cultivation in the USA and internationally.

b. To work to establish and integrate Chi Kung/Qigong into the mainstream of education, medicine, health, healing, sports, recreation, entertainment, mental health, social services, eldercare, industry, commerce, personal development, consciousness training, spirituality, social evolution and the general public awareness.

c. To create a forum and network for the community of practitioners, teachers and students of Chi Kung/Qigong.

d. To establish, represent, promote and maintain a presence of Medical Chi Kung/Qigong in the Health-Care community.

e. To work on behalf of, and for the greater benefit of, all humankind and the global population, to help relieve human suffering, restore national sanity and promote the pursuit of both personal and communal happiness.

f. To give citizens a wider access to the Chi Kung/Qigong self-healing, self development and personal transformation arts, and thereby to facilitate "health self-reliance" and personal empowerment.

g. To provide educational and training opportunities for students and practitioners, and affiliated health professionals with regard to Chi Kung/Qigong.

h. To establish Chi Kung/Qigong standards, guidelines and basic requirements of training and competence, and the certification of practitioners and teachers.

i. To unify the classical and contemporary branches, schools and traditions of Chi Kung/Qigong, and assure that the understanding of the essence of Chi Kung/Qigong is transferred from the "East" to the "West".

j. To recognize, explore, create, and establish the unique forms of American Chi Kung/Qigong.

On Sunday morning, the conference was held in Boulder Community Hospital... so the first act of the first national Chi Kung/ Qigong Association took place in a major county hospital-joining Chi Gong with the Western medical establishment; proving beyond doubt that the Tao works in strange ways.

The conference was enthusiastically enjoyed by everybody present, and was a great success.


So, how did this all come about? What happened?

Following a series of phone discussions between the above provocateurs between 1993 and 1996, a range of options were explored. It was agreed that the best and most effective way of launching a national organization was to send in a "special team", a combination of Kelly's Heroes, The Wild Bunch and The Marx Brothers and Sisters, to "Just Tao It", kick the ball, get the game started, create the best organization we could using our collective intelligence... and then invite everybody to join.

We figured that most organizations of this nature were legally and formally pretty much the same (standard stuff with a few particulars thrown in) and that the important work began when everybody was sitting around a table, in person, together.

The alternative to this method was too ghastly to comprehend... years of consultations with every possible interested party involved; forests of documents and photocopies; $1,0000s of dollars in air fares and phone calls getting everybody together; innumerable hours as everyone negotiated their position; painstaking diplomacy; all of the needs and wants and objectives and special interests and visions all worked together into a document that would most likely look identical to the one that any lawyer could get out of a standard law book off the shelf. (I seem to remember this happening, once or twice before, to some other organizations).

We had a different plan which got to the same end, and saved four or five years.


Our plan...

1. Fall 1996. Gather the initial group together in one place, at a small local conference.

2. Sign the documents and create a National Association, and appoint ourselves, as the incorporators, to the "Initial Board of Directors".

3. Summer 1997. Hold a public national conference, as widely announced as possible, and invite anybody with the faintest interest in Chi Gong/Qigong to attend.

4. Those people who met the criteria of "voting member" (criteria unavailable at this time of writing, but to be available at the conference itself) to gather in a large room together.

5. The Initial Board of Directors to perform their first (and last) item of business-RESIGN! (stand up, bow, and walk off the platform)... leaving a completely empty stage, and thereby opening the floor for voting of a new democratically elected Board of Directors--selected from, and chosen by, the gathered membership.

6. The new, formally-elected Board of Directors and Executive Officers, will then address its first item of business-discussing, accepting, changing, adding to, and eventually...ratifying the Bylaws.

What could be more equal, fair, even, participatory, democratic...or American?

There is only one thing remaining to make this plan an astounding success, and launch Chi Gong/Qigong and The Tao into the mainstream of America-YOU.

To take part-as an attendee, member, teacher, or participant, YOU have to be there. To vote, YOU have to show up. To make this happen, YOU have to participate.

...if you want to be a player, and help create and shape one of the most important, effective, and exciting organizations for introducing Chi Gong/Qigong into the west...
...if you want to participate and contribute your Chi/Qi, to everybody's benefit...
...if you want to become a Charter Member of this most worthwhile endeavor
...if you want to join the club and community of practitioners and students...
...if you want to get the best Chi/Qi in town...
...if you want to take part in The Woodstock of Chi Gong, and be able to tell your grandkids about it...

YOU have to come to Minneapolis/St. Paul on the weekend of 18th, 19th and 20th of July. We invite you to join us.

Be There. Jimi and Janis will (in spirit).

We look forward to hearing from you and meeting with you.

Best Wishes,
 
James MacRitchie
Interim President
 
Russell Des Marais,
Interim Secretary-General
 
For further information:
The Chi Kung/Qigong
Association of America
c/o Three Rivers Crossing Center for Qi-Gong & Traditional Chinese Healing
569 Selby Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102
Tel: 612-291-7772
Fax: 612-291-7779