Quick Question

[Jonathan Newhall]

Hah, yeah, I kind of thought about that once!

Doesn't the color of the shirt change with the rank, though? Or has that changed since the original explanation of uniform was published?

[Sal Bertucci]

In Star Trek?

[Jonathan Newhall]

No, in ARMA. I can see how that'd be confusingly worded, though!

I think it was written that ARMA recruits wear a white T-shirt, the basic scholar rank wears a red t-shirt with black pants and the more advanced scholars wear a black t-shirt with red pants?? Or something like that?

[Sal Bertucci]

Yeah, it's a bit more loose than that but that's about right. The black shirt with red pants is only for high level instructors.

The white/red shirt thing kinda varies by group.

[Randall Pleasant]

The ARMA guildlines are that a person who is applying for membership is required to wear a white shirt at ARMA practices. Once a person is granted membership then they are required to wear the red shirt.

[Sal Bertucci]

Yes, but some people who are members don't wear red shirts immediately. I know a few people who are members but are wearing white shirts b/c they still feel "too new", or want to pass some proficiency test, etc.

[Stacy Clifford]

Right, smaller groups of roughly equal experience generally all wear the red shirt. Larger groups such as ours in Houston with more senior members can require and administer a basic proficiency test for members to earn the red shirt. It's not a huge deal, but essentially with smaller groups of a few people we want to emphasize their unity with the larger international body of ARMA to help recruit new members, whereas in larger groups we're emphasizing the professionalism of our system a bit more.

[Randall Pleasant]

Stacy

I understand the point of the proficiency test and we have also tested our white shirts. However, once a person has paid their fee and been granted membership, should not that alone grant them the privilege of wearing the red shirt? Is not all members full members regardless of their proficiency?

[Jonathan Newhall]

Theoretically yes, I suppose they are. Can't speak for Stacy's study group, but I'd say that the "proficiency test" probably wouldn't prevent you from wearing the red shirt as a member if you really wanted to, no matter how poor you were with a sword.

[Stacy Clifford]

As I understand it from John, it's at the study group's discretion to decide if they want to whiteshirt new members or not, there's no official policy on it since it's not an official rank in our system. It started more as a tradition back when John was teaching here in Houston. The main thing is not to get carried away with it, whiteshirt status isn't supposed to last long. A student who attends weekly and is a decent learner should be able to test for redshirt within 2-3 months of starting, the proficiency level required is very basic. Unofficially I would say your study group should have at least one person of Scholar-Adept rank who has attended a 1.0 to administer the whiteshirt test with some degree of authority, and I would recommend having enough people to look like organized levels and not a motley trio of randomly dressed sword geeks. Since it's unofficial though, you're not wrong in allowing paid members to wear the red shirt as soon as they are accepted, it's your group's prerogative.

I should add that if you are accepted as a solo member, obviously there is no one to test you and you have the right to wear a red shirt as the lone representative of ARMA in your area. You could theoretically wear a white shirt at first if you wanted to until you felt satisfied with your proficiency or found someone to test you, but since most of us practice in public places, showing that you are part of a larger organization demonstrates that you have resources available to you to give authority to your studies and helps you recruit training partners, so wearing the red shirt takes on a little more importance when you're out there by yourself. We can never forget that part of our organizational goal is to represent our Art to a largely uneducated public, so every member is in a sense an ambassador of the craft.

[Jaron Bernstein]

In Star Trek?

In old Star Trek episodes whenever the crew would go to a planet, they would bring a red shirt wearing nameless crew member (along with Spock and the main folks). That "red shirt" typically came to a bad end.

[Jaron Bernstein]

No, in ARMA. I can see how that'd be confusingly worded, though!

I think it was written that ARMA recruits wear a white T-shirt, the basic scholar rank wears a red t-shirt with black pants and the more advanced scholars wear a black t-shirt with red pants?? Or something like that?

Pretty much. However, lets not get too wrapped up in uniform/belt rank issues. Even in Japanese martial arts there weren't such things until Judo was codified in the 1800's.

[CalebSlagle]

You know in my last post about the security clearance I may have mislead some of you. John does kind of work these things in batches. He can’t process all of them since they come in significantly faster than he can review them. So John simply picks the ones that have the best answers to the questions (most reflective of ARMA values) and then has to leave the rest. So it is very possible that you can apply for membership and never hear back.

Which considering the reason you don’t hear back, inquiring about your application does little good either. Sorry to put things a bit grim but I would rather not impose any false expectations.

As for Star Trek and red shirts, I think its rather fitting. I don’t know who you guys free play with but I get wasted more than I care to admit, at least as often as red shirts do on Star Trek.

[John R. Schmidt]

I can understand that, however I have wanted to be involved in ARMA for sometime now and I don't give up easily, I do know desire is one of the qualities you guys look for and Im brimming with that

[Sal Bertucci]

Best recourse then is to follow Aaron's advice.