School Membership Information (Student Membership here)

Type	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years
Club*
School*

Greetings to all,

I am happy to inform you that the long awaited new passports are at the printer and will be completed within the next 2 weeks!

With the help of Dan Baker, Tim Mousel, Derrick Dockary and Scott Anderson, we are ready to initiate the new TBA membership guidelines. 

I have spoken with Ajarn Chai and he would like me to implement the following directives to organize the TBA membership. The reason for these changes is to ensure that all passport applications are completed properly and received by the TBA office. 

( Per Ajarn Chai )

1. Effective immediately, the preferred method of payment for all memberships is through Pay-Pal. There is a link to Pay-Pal on the top of this page.  (Tim  has been a huge help with this!)   NO personal checks will be accepted. For those who cannot pay online,  money orders or cashiers checks will be accepted. 
The  New T.B.A. Office P.O. Box has been established. Office of the T.B.A. P.O. Box  358 Saint Charles, MO 63301-9998

This is for memberships only, not for instructor testing applications. They must still be submitted to Ajarn Chai,  P.O. Box 4585 Carson CA 90749, 60 days before the seminar / test date. 

2. All REGION and STATE REPRESENTATIVES need to complete their School or  Club Affiliate membership application (including payment) within 30 days of receiving this email.  This can be done at the TBA website: www.thaiboxing.com.

            *A School is an establishment leased and/or owned by the instructor with his or her school name on the lease. The annual School affiliate membership fee is $200.

            *A Club is a membership for instructors who are teaching out of a building or space that they do not own or rent. For example, an instructor who is teaching a Thai Boxing class out of a Tae Kwon Do school, community center, or health-club. The annual Club affiliate membership is $100.

Again, per direction of Ajarn Chai, all REGION and STATE REPRESENTATIVES need to complete their School or  Club Affiliate membership application (including payment) within 30 days of receiving this email. This can be done at the TBA website: www.thaiboxing.com.

3. REGION REPRESENTATIVES need to create a list of their students and instructors. The list should be broken down into 2 groups: (1) those who have Passports, and (2) those who have sent in an application but never received a passport. (Please do not list students who have never had or applied for a passport. We are just trying to catch up on current members). This list should be done in either a Word doc or Excel spreadsheet. In addition, for every person who has NOT received a passport, they need to collect a digital (electronic) passport photo, as well as the paper photo's you can get at Kinko's or any U.S. Post Office.. The completed list and passport photos should be sent to office@tba.com , and the paper application and two passport photo's need to be mailed to Office of the T.B.A. P.O. Box  358 Saint Charles, MO 63301-9998 within 30 days of receiving this email.

4. REGION REPRESENTATIVES need to contact their STATE REPRESENTATIVES and request  that they complete (A) their School or  Club Affiliate membership using the TBA website (www.thaiboxing.com)  (B) a list of the State Representative's students and instructors.  The list should be broken down into 2 groups: (1) those who have Passports, and (2) those who have sent in an application but never received a passport. (Please do not list students who have never had or applied for a passport. We are just trying to catch up on current members). This list should be done in either a Word doc or Excel spreadsheet. In addition, for every person who has NOT received a passport, they need to collect a digital (electronic)  passport photo, as well as the paper photo's you can get at Kinko's or any U.S. Post Office.. The completed list and passport photos should be sent to office@tba.com , and the paper application and two passport photo's need to be mailed to Office of the T.B.A. P.O. Box  358 Saint Charles, MO 63301-9998 within 30 days of receiving this email.

5. STATE REPRESENTATIVES need to contact ALL INSTRUCTORS  within their state and request  that they complete (A) their School or  Club Affiliate membership using the TBA website (www.thaiboxing.com)  (B) a list of their instructors students and instructors.  The list should be broken down into 2 groups: (1) those who have Passports, and (2) those who have sent in an application but never received a passport. (Please do not list students who have never had or applied for a passport. We are just trying to catch up on current members). This list should be done in either a Word doc or Excel spreadsheet. In addition, for every person who has NOT received a passport, they will need to collect a digital (electronic) passport photo, as well as the paper photo's you can get at Kinko's or any U.S. Post Office.. The completed list and passport photos should be sent to office@tba.com , and the paper application and two passport photo's need to be mailed to Office of the T.B.A. P.O. Box  358 Saint Charles, MO 63301-9998 within 30 days of receiving this email.
The instructors should email the completed list and passport photos to the STATE REPRESENTATIVE. The STATE REPRESENTATIVE who will retain a copy for their records, and will forward the information to the REGION REPRESENTATIVE. The REGION REPRESENTATIVE will forward the lists to office@thaiboxing.com, and the paper application and two passport photo's need to be mailed to Office of the T.B.A. P.O. Box  358 Saint Charles, MO 63301-9998 within 60 days of receiving this email. 

( Per Ajarn Chai )

6. The REGION REPRESENTATIVE will email all of the completed lists and passport photos to office@thaiboxing.com, and the paper application and two passport photo's need to be mailed to Office of the T.B.A. P.O. Box  358 Saint Charles, MO 63301-9998. 

7. Effective immediately, ALL Individual Memberships will be due in the month of October. Payments will be made via the Pay-Pal account on the website. You will be able to pay for a 1 - 3 or 5 year membership. We have had many problems with people moving and leaving no forwarding address. To alleviate this issue, we will mail individual passport renewals to the instructor's school. This will ensure that the passports will get to the student and it will save the TBA money on postage and returned passports.

DEADLINES (per Ajarn Chai)

--Region and State Representative School Affiliation Application and payment - within 30 days of receiving this email.

--All other School Affiliation Application and payment - within 60 days of receiving this email.

--Region and State Representative instructor/student lists - within 30 days of receiving this email.

--All other instructors'  instructor/student lists - within 60 days of receiving this email.

PASSPORT PHOTO INFORMATION

Please ensure that all  passport photos meet the following criteria:
 2"X 2" HEADSHOT (neck up). White background.
No family or group pictures. No vacation, work photos, or 8"X 10" glossies.
You can get these photos at any U.S. Post Office or Kinko's

If all goes well, within 60 days from the time of this notification, ALL schools will have a current Affiliate membership and the TBA Office will have an accurate list of EVERYONE who still needs a passport. Dan and I plan on taking a weekend and completing ALL passport request and mailing them to their respective instructors. We are also having a window sticker made featuring the Thai Boxing Association logo that says "This is an Official TBA Training Facility" (similar to Erik's stickers). This sticker will be sent to  all affiliate schools and clubs.   

We will also use the completed lists to create an accurate list of all members and students, under the appropriate school/instructor,  on the TBA website. That way, the instructors that teach clubs or at other schools can get the recognition they deserve, and people who are interested in training can get accurate location and contact information for instructors in their area.  I also spoke to Ajarn Chai about setting up the membership/school section of the website with a list of current schools, instructors, and members (similar to the way the Inosanto website lists their instructors). If everyone is listed on the website, when an Instructor calls and asks why he/she/the School is not listed, we can say that they will be listed as current as soon as they send in their membership application and fee. 

Please keep in mind that we will be processing all individual memberships as groups or schools. This makes the instructor directly responsibly for there students memberships, and makes it much easier for the office to keep track of payments.  For those individuals who do not have an instructor or a school to train at, we will process yours as well, but they will be grouped by your state for record keeping and tracking.

These new policies, once instituted, ensure that this outstanding organization will be able to keep going long into the future, and continue to grow.

I would like to thank you all ahead of time for your cooperation. ( Per Ajarn Chai )

If you have any questions that your State Representative or, Regional Representative are unable to answer, please feel free to call me at (636) 577-7230.

Respectfully,

David R. Rawlings
T.B.A. Office Manager /
South West Regional Director