Are We a Community?

Yes, we are a community. We are a group of people with something in common; we have a bond, energetically and concretely. We are teachers and students who practice T’ai Chi Chih (TCC). We do it because we value it in our lives and we wish for others to enjoy the benefits we have experienced. We support the community through giving our time, talents, and financially. The community gives back in fellowship, scholarships, and inspiration — through avenues for sharing our thoughts and experiences, to support each other in our practice and our teaching.

This is the 50th year since Justin Stone held the first TCC teacher training course. We are celebrating that milestone this year in Albuquerque with our Teacher Conference on July 25-28. Efforts are being made to encourage all teachers to attend this celebration and we would like to extend a special invitation to our teachers beyond North America. We are offering additional scholarships to cover conference hotel rooms using the conference scholarship fund. If you are a teacher living outside of North America and would like to attend this year’s conference, please register and when filling out the registration on taichichihfoundation.org, indicate that you are paying by check. Do not use PayPal. Your conference and hotel fee will be paid by the scholarship fund and by donations from teachers who would like to meet you at conference.

Teachers, if you would like to assist teachers coming from overseas, please send a check to our conference registrar, made out to: TCC Foundation c/o Jim Maple, 1345 Prairie Valley Rd., Deerfield, WI 53531. Make a note that the donation is earmarked for conference fees for overseas teachers. Any amount is welcomed; it all adds up. We we hope that through the generous support of our North American teachers that many or all overseas teachers may attend.

Another exciting opportunity this year? The move back to in-person Intensives (a prerequisite for moving forward to the Teacher Accreditation course) and in-person Accreditations. The sticker shock of moving from Zoom to in-person is presenting a challenge, but there is so much to be gained from an in-person connection. To encourage in-person events, we are adding an extra scholarship this year for both courses. (This is on top of the standard scholarship which is half the course fee for each course.) The additional scholarship will help folks with airfares. Each course is allotted a certain number of scholarships. Contact the course hosts if you would not be able to attend if not for the additional scholarships.

Because there are limited funds for scholarships and we want to be able help everyone who is interested in becoming a TCC teacher, I would like teachers to consider sponsoring a candidate working toward their accreditation. For example, the San Francisco Bay Area teachers have a fund used to support local TCC activities. We will be considering using some of those funds to go beyond our community. Please contact an Intensive or Teacher Accreditation host and offer what you can to help someone achieve their teacher goal.

For teachers not attending the conference this year, please consider supporting the conference scholarship fund at $25, $50, or whatever you can afford — either to the general fund or to the overseas fund.

If teacher communities around the country manage a local fund for their use, please consider contacting one of the events and supporting someone who would like to attend who is outside your local community.

I know this is asking a lot from the community, but this is a year of moving ahead and unfortunately that takes money. If you could afford a small or substantial amount — to help teachers attend conference, serious students and teacher candidates attend intensives and accreditations — your generosity will be greatly appreciated. Strengthening the community through teachers continuing education and supporting new teachers is a lovely way to give back. Spread the joy.