Dear Membership,

We have begun a new year with much exuberance and confidence gained from our productive first year. The AHF has hosted two well-received events: The Weekend of the Rapier this past January, and the Weekend of the Small-sword this past July. Both of these events provided unique opportunities for education and the honing and testing of skill in the art and science.

We are planning and projecting a full calendar of events for the coming year. Some of the events planned are a reprise of the Weekend of the Rapier and the Weekend of the Smallsword, along with the Weekend of the Sabre, which will focus on the Italian dueling sabre. The AHF intends to continue more and increasingly varied events to provide the fencing community with more educational opportunities for the benefit of members and non-members alike. As President, I am asking members as well as non-members to submit ideas for AHF sponsored events in the future.

In October of 2001, the AHF will we hosting the Third Annual Western Martial Arts Workshop in New York City. Taking the lead from David Cvet (our newest Board member), whose own organization, the AEMMA, is hosting this year's workshop, we will have three full days of seminars, lectures, demonstrations and classes.

We held the annual membership meeting in two sessions this past July 14th and 15th. They were productive meetings, where several amendments to the bylaws were made. We also voted on the changes to the categories for historical fencing. The new changes are reflected in the mission statement section of the Website and in the bylaws section. The new changes will serve to give us a better working relationship with other international associations and with our members abroad.

I look forward to continue working for this Association, and I again remind all that the AHF is an association of fencers for fencers, to serve the fencing community. I urge all members to give the AHF Board feedback so that we may better serve all of you.

Sincerely,
Maestro Ramón Martínez
AHF President