Patrick

Please vote for the Staff Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2015. Award Description: This award is the same as the Member of the Year award, except that this award is for current staff members only. Here are the nominees: Wastelander DWx sensei8 Zaine bushido_man96 Voting will be closed on November 19, 2015 at 9 PM EST (GMT/UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Funniest Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2015. Award Description: Humor is an important aspect of the forums, and this award recognizes the member who has brought a smile to your face many times. Here are the nominees: Hawkmoon Titanium Judodad_karateson sensei8 mazzybear Spodo Komodo Voting will be closed on November 19, 2015 at 9 PM EST (GMT/UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Karate Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2015. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Karate forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: JR 137 sensei8 Judodad_karateson Kusotare Spartacus Maximus Wastelander Voting will be closed on November 19, 2015 at 9 PM EST (GMT/UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2015. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: tallgeese bushido_man96 Voting will be closed on November 19, 2015 at 9 PM EST (GMT/UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Equipment Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2015. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Equipment forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: JR 137 neoravencroft Judodad_karateson chiliphil1 Voting will be closed on November 19, 2015 at 9 PM EST (GMT/UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2015. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Health, Training and Fitness forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: bushido_man96 tallgeese Nidan Melbourne Luther unleashed mazzybear Voting will be closed on November 19, 2015 at 9 PM EST (GMT/UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Instructor Central Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2015. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Instructor Central forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: Spartacus Maximus Luther unleashed JR 137 sensei8 Voting will be closed on November 19, 2015 at 9 PM EST (GMT/UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Article of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2015. Award Description: This award distinguishes your favorite article that was published in the KarateForums.com Articles section on or between October 19, 2014 and October 18, 2015. Whether the article enlightened or inspired you, this is the place to recognize it. Here are the nominees: Ulu Knife Techniques and Lessons from How It Is Used by cathal 5 Ill-Advised Things Every Brown Belt Should Do by Lupin1 Taekwondo by Kevin Hornsey (Book Review) by bushido_man96 Voting will be closed on November 19, 2015 at 9 PM EST (GMT/UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Hey rum pirate, I think you might receive a better response if you started a thread in the Getting Started in the Martial Arts forum that included Montreal in the title of the thread, listed what you are looking for in an art and possibly what is available closest to you (though I'm sure Montreal has a lot of schools). Even though you aren't getting started, per se, you will have a better chance of having people in the Montreal area see it. Best of luck. Patrick

Haha. Thanks JR 137. Voting will open this week, for sure. Just need to tally the nominations and prepare the poll threads. Patrick

Thank you for sharing this with us, Nidan Melbourne. Best of luck. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. The November selection is... Kyonovice. Congratulations! Thank you for the great contributions that you have made to our community. Sincerely, Patrick

Welcome to KF, rum pirate! Patrick

Nominations are now closed. Thank you to everyone who nominated. Stay tuned for ballots as voting will begin soon! Liam, it looks like the number of members who nominated is 9. That may seem like a small number, but it'll be great because all 9 are members who know the community well, and we'll have a nice variety of members on the ballots. Voting is always easier than nominating, so the vote counts will be higher. Thanks again, Patrick

We have just two days until nominations close. Please get those last minute ballots in! Thanks, Patrick

Thanks Liam and Bob for being a part of this process. Patrick

Welcome, harithapa.

Welcome aboard, 126barnes. Glad to have you. Patrick

We now have a little over a week until nominations close. Please submit your nominations soon. Thanks! Patrick

Congrats chiliphil1!

Sounds like a fun time, Bob.

Hello, Welcome to the 14th annual KarateForums.com Awards. Through these awards, we recognize just a few of the individuals who have made outstanding contributions to KarateForums.com in the past year. Over the last 13 years, we have honored 128 different members with a nomination and 44 with an award. Both of these numbers will grow again this year. Your participation is vital. It is the members of this community who select the nominees and vote for the winners. What You Should Know Before Nominating 1. These awards take into consideration all community activity between October 19, 2014 and October 18, 2015. Members must be nominated based upon their activity in this period and articles nominated for Article of the Year must have been published in this span. 2. To nominate, you must have a KarateForums.com account with at least 25 posts made on or before October 18, 2015. 3. Only one member or article can be nominated for each award. In other words, you cannot nominate the entire staff for Staff Member of the Year. You have to pick one person. One person can be nominated for more than one award, however. 4. You cannot nominate yourself, or an article that you wrote, for any of the awards. 5. Your nominations will be kept private. We do not publicly reveal who nominated for whom. 6. Please do not attempt to artificially inflate our nomination totals in any way. This includes, but is not limited to: trading nominations, encouraging people to nominate indiscriminately (publicly or privately), sending spam and any other behavior that could lead to results being artificially skewed. Members found to be participating in these activities will be disqualified from nomination in any category. 7. Though it is unlikely to occur, a banned member cannot be nominated. 8. Please note that you do not have to nominate in every category. You can nominate for as many or as few as you would like - please go for as many as you feel comfortable with. The more valid nominations that we receive, the better! From these nominations, the ballot for each award will be chosen, consisting of the top 4 nominees plus ties. Through the poll system available on these forums, you will be able to vote for the winners! Categories Important note: all members (including Sempais and Senseis) are eligible for nomination in any category, except where otherwise noted. However, I (Patrick) am ineligible for nomination in any category. 1. Member of the Year This award is intended to acknowledge the member who you feel best exemplifies the qualities that KarateForums.com puts a premium on. Knowledge is valuable, but most valuable is a kind and helpful nature. You don't need to be a martial arts expert to be nominated for this award - you need to be someone who is kind and who shares what they know in a productive fashion that helps others. Current staff members (Sempais, Senseis and Patrick) cannot be nominated for this award. 2. New Member of the Year This award is the same as Member of the Year, except that this one is strictly for members that registered on or between the dates of October 19, 2014 and October 18, 2015. Eligible members must have made at least 50 posts by October 18, 2015. Current staff members (Sempais, Senseis and Patrick) cannot be nominated for this award. 3. Community Spirit Award This award should go to a person whom you feel has a strong passion for this community. A person who is all about the home team - in this case, KarateForums.com. 4. Staff Member of the Year This award is the same as the Member of the Year award, except that this award is for current staff members only (except Patrick). If you are unsure of who is on staff, please visit http://www.karateforums.com/staff.php for a complete listing. 5. Funniest Member of the Year Humor is an important aspect of the forums, and this award recognizes the member who has brought a smile to your face many times. 6. Karate Contributor of the Year This award is for your favorite contributor within the Karate forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. 7. Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts Contributor of the Year This award is for your favorite contributor within the Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. 8. Equipment Contributor of the Year This award is for your favorite contributor within the Equipment forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. 9. Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year This award is for your favorite contributor within the Health, Training and Fitness forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. 10. Instructor Central Contributor of the Year This award is for your favorite contributor within the Instructor Central forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. 11. Article of the Year This award distinguishes your favorite article that was published in the KarateForums.com Articles section on or between October 19, 2014 and October 18, 2015. Whether the article enlightened or inspired you, this is the place to recognize it. Here are the articles that are eligible for nomination, in order of publishing date: How Not to Get Hit by Nathaniel Cooke (Book Review) by Lupin1 The Martial Arts: Where Egos Go to Die! by sensei8 Traditions by Dave Lowry (Book Review) by Wastelander Karate by Hidetaka Nishiyama and Richard C. Brown by sensei8 5 Ill-Advised Things Every Brown Belt Should Do by Lupin1 The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu by Wong Kiew Kit (Book Review) by Zaine Lessons in The Art of War by Martina Sprague (Book Review) by DWx Martial Arts Nutrition by Teri Tom (Book Review) by ninjanurse The Secrets of Kalis Ilustrisimo (Book Review) by tallgeese Taekwondo by Kevin Hornsey (Book Review) by bushido_man96 Ulu Knife Techniques and Lessons from How It Is Used by cathal Please note: we have decided to remove the Korean Martial Arts Contributor of the Year award, due to a lack of activity in that section. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to bring it back. Ready to Nominate? Please nominate. You will find a blank ballot at the bottom of this message that you can copy and paste. You nominate by sending a private message to the account with the username Awards through this link: http://www.karateforums.com/privmsg.php?mode=post&u=2715 - nominations will be closed on November 2, 2015 at 9 PM ET. Please do not post your nominations publicly in this thread or elsewhere in the forums. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to private message me or reply here. Thank you for reading and for visiting KarateForums.com. Your participation in these awards is what makes them meaningful. I can't wait to see who you choose to honor this year. Here is a blank ballot that you can use:

Thanks Bob. What all did you do? Patrick

I appreciate the kind words. Patrick

Happy birthday, Bob! I hope that you have a great day. It's a bit ironic that the Cowboys are on a bye week. Thank you for all of the great contributions that you have made to our community. Patrick