Shintaido of America

By Connie Borden, the Shintaido Of America Board President

Welcome Jim Sterling and David Palmer as new SOA Board Members! Shintaido of America board has had several vacancies in the past few months, so we thank Jim and David for agreeing to an interim board appointment until June 2025. Board members serve two-year terms and we appreciate that Jim and David would complete vacancies until our next board elections in August 2025.

Meet these two people:

Jim Sterling

Jim Sterling is ranked in Shintaido as General Instructor, Yondan Kenjutsu, Sandan Bojutsu and Nidan Karate. Most recently he has been serving as an officer of SOA as Editor of Body Dialogue and is a member of the SOA National Technical Committee (NTC) and International Technical and Examination Committee (ITEC). Jim has worked as a writer, consultant, and project manager in San Francisco for many years. Since Jim started practicing Shintaido in 1976 he has been a guiding force of the Pacific Shintaido group and interested in advancing Shintaido both through keiko and organizational structures.

Read this interview with Jim.

David Palmer

David Palmer has been involved with Shintaido since 1984 when he met H.F. Ito and asked him to critique the first iteration of his seated massage protocol. Both Shintaido and massage are movement forms, one active (you move yourself) and one passive (someone else moves you). The interplay of these two sides of the movement coin have been foundational to his professional and personal life.

Prior to entering the field of massage, David spent ten years as a developer and administrator of social service programs for nonprofit agencies in Chicago and San Francisco. His work included the creation of the first nationwide social service hotline in 1972, the National Runaway Switchboard. While working for the Wieboldt Foundation, in 1974, he staffed the development of the first association of private family foundations in the United States, the Donor’s Forum, a model that has been duplicated in major cities throughout the country.

David began his professional massage career in 1980. Before his teacher, Takashi Nakamura, returned to Japan in 1982, he prepared David to assume operation of The Amma Institute. The Amma Institute was the first school in the United States exclusively devoted to traditional Japanese massage. It was here that David first began experimenting with teaching his graduates to work on clients seated in a chair, rather than lying on a table. In 1989 David stepped down as Director of the school to focus full-time on the development of the Chair Massage industry.

Listen to the episode of the Shintaido of America podcast with David Palmer published on September 20, 2023.

Spring 2024

Greetings from the board of Shintaido of America! It’s time to renew your membership.
This past year has seen many changes for our organization. The most important were the loss of our beloved co-founder, Ito-sensei on 30 December 2023, and the sad passing of our Treasurer Brad Larson in November 2023.

As we move forward in a world filled with an urgent need for peace, we rededicate ourselves to our practice of Shintaido.

The annual membership subscription of $60 has not changed for several years, and it now offers more benefits than ever.

Electronic payment can easily be made at http://shintaido.org/docs/membership.htm

Alternately, a check for $60 payable to SOA can be mailed to:
Shintaido of America
426 Day Street
SF, CA 94131

We strive to support our community of practitioners by providing members with:

1. Full access to the Shintaido of America Website. Check it out! New things are happening all the time! We now feature a media page that includes all our newsletter, YouTube and Podcast links.
   
2. Body Dialogue is now completely digital and appears in real-time as postings on the website.
   
3. The Shintaido of America YouTube Channel presents new videos every few weeks.
   
4. Access to episodes of the Shintaido of America podcast. We are now in the third season of the Shintaido Podcast! The podcast is available on all the usual platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and many others. On the podcast, producer and host General Instructor David Franklin hosts interviews on Shintaido-related topics with various people around the globe.
   
   General Instructor and SOA Board President Connie Borden hosts a monthly podcast discussion group on the last Tuesday of each month. Please contact Connie Borden at president@shintaido.org if you’d like to join in!
   
5. Liability Insurance for instructors and students – so you and your students are covered no matter where you practice. This is available to members at no cost!
   
6. Several senior instructors – from the UK and the US – hold regular classes on Zoom which members can attend. A full listing of these is available on the SOA website.
   
   Access to the most up-to-date changes to the curriculum, which continues to develop, especially the Kenjutsu curriculum.
   
7. Support to our instructors and the National Technical Committee.
   
8. Communication with International Shintaido Technical and Exam Committee (ITEC)
   
9. Leadership by SOA and ESC as the organizing and sponsoring organizations for international activities.
   
10. SOA examinations and SOA Diplomas.
    
11. Access to grants for travel and education scholarships for Shintaido events worldwide. British Shintaido is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and hosting an international gasshuku in August in England. Grants are available from SOA to help with the cost of attendance at this significant event. Please contact Connie for details.

For ALL of the benefits listed above, your annual membership works out to only $5 a month, or 16 cents a day!

We sincerely hope you will consider renewing your membership, and join us as SOA moves into the future!

Connie Borden, Chair SOA Board of Directors
Robert Gaston, Chair SOA NTC
Sandra Bengtsson, Treasurer pro tem
Nancy Billias, Membership
David Franklin, Podcast
Michael Thompson, co-founder

Links

Proceed with the electronic payment of the membership here
http://shintaido.org/docs/membership.htm

The Shintaido of America Website
http://www.shintaido.org/

The Body Dialogue
http://www.shintaido.org/body-dialogue/

The Shintaido of America YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMF5wKhxvnO4_tj2bsZ8OvA/videos

The Shintaido of America podcast
https://linktr.ee/shintaidoofamerica

Liability Insurance for instructors and students
http://www.shintaido.org/membership/member-resources/