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2nd Letter to AUSKF

Timeline:
SCKF's letter (sent 2/24/17, see email header at end)

Dear Yoshida sensei,

We at SCKF had very similar testing results to SCKO. In addition, we realize that an important issue remains from our previous security concerns email thread: the need to comply with the laws of each state in which AUSKF members live.

We, too, feel the system should not go live until it has undergone many more rounds of technical development and testing. This should be done in parallel with legal review. It is a matter of due diligence; otherwise, we may all be liable for negligence and dereliction of duty.

In the meantime, we at SCKF will stay with the "old way" (excel spreadsheets and checks). To the federation presidents cc'd on this thread: if any of you have come to the same decision, could you please let us know (reply-all)?

To reiterate what SCKF said in our letter of concern to the AUSKF Board, we sincerely appreciate all the hard work going into developing the new AUSKF online membership management and database system. We look forward to the day when it is solid and ready to use. Most of all, we respect and admire Yoshida sensei's vision and leadership in making it happen.

Sincerely,
Jean Kodama
President, Southern California Kendo Federation

From: Jean Kodama
Date: Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 7:01 PM
Subject: Re: New Membership Management System
To: Kotaro Yoshida
Cc: CJ Chaney, "Yatomi, Carolyn", Natsuki Hosotani, AEUSKF N Kataoka, Tim Funaoka, Hiroko Matsuyama, KEN WA KAN, Gordon Small, Tsuyoshi Inoshita, Bobby Lee, Zia Uddin, Chris Thompson, Doreen Mita-Juanitas, Brian Blomquist, Monica, Kevin Tadasu Abe, Jewon Lee, "Tina L. Canada", Shinobu Maeda, SU SKIF, Kim Porter, WKF Dongsoo Lee, Stanley Cho, "David Yotsuuye (PNKF)", "Court Tanouye (NCKF)", "Hideki Iwakabe (RMKF)", "Jin-Kee Hyun (SEUSKF)", "Michio Kajitani (SWKIF)", "Mark Kerstein (SUSKIF)", "Mozart Ishizuka (EUSKF)", "Shuhei Ito (ECUSKF)", "Norman Otani (CCKF)", "Yuka Saathoff (MWKF)", "Tsuyoshi Inoshita, M.D. (GNEUSKF)", "yoshiteru.tagawa@auskf.org", Yuji Onitsuka, Chris Yang, Tim Yuge, Kotaro Yoshida, Tomoji Kato, Shinichi Koike, Jeff Marsten, Atsushi Hori, Shuntaro Shinada, "Harada, Brandon", Shozo Kato, Shinobu Maeda, "Jeff Marsten (AUSKF-EVP)", steve hoff, Travis Stronach, Taro Ariga


SCKO's letter (sent first, on 2/21/17)

From: Carolyn Yatomi
Date: Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 6:45 PM
Subject: Re: New Membership Management System
To: Kotaro Yoshida
Cc: (similar to sckf's letter)

Dear Yoshida sensei -

As requested, last week members from several SCKO dojos and our Officers tested the online registration program, including SCKO Director of IT Taro Ariga (Ccd). Although some people were able to set up their account, no one was able to complete their registration. Many of those who participated sent their error details to Travis and Steve.

Several of our members who tested the system are working in the IT industry, or are very experienced computer users. We all were unsuccessful to varying degrees—no better than the average person. This has raised another concern, that those who may have very little computer experience will have a hard time using the program.

If this program were to be published prematurely there will be a tremendous amount of work required for troubleshooting. Furthermore, this is housing a lot of personal information and we do not feel comfortable exposing our membership to the risks we feel exist in its current state.

It may be late too ask this question but, were existing application such as membership management system used by Judo, Karate or other sport organizations reviewed? For example Jackrabbit Technologies – or other Cloud Based Class Management Software? This could also alleviate some or all of the liability issues.

In order to prevent any further delay, please consider using the old way for this coming March 2017 registration drive, giving Travis and Steve the time needed to correct the programing. Or reconsider the “batch upload” as was originally proposed. We appreciate the amount of work already invested and are looking forward to helping retest a fully functional and completed system later this year.

Once again on behalf of all our members, I respectfully request that AUSKF does not launch the online registration until it can be revised, retested and cleared of legal concerns. Until that time, SCKO will not be able to implement this new registration program.

Sincerely yours,
Carolyn Yatomi
President


RMKIF's letter (sent 2/26/17)

From: Monica Iwakabe
Date: Sun, Feb 26, 2017 at 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: New Membership Management System
To: Kotaro Yoshida
Cc: (same as sckf's letter)

Dear Yoshida Sensei,

RMKIF also ask that we spend more time testing the system.

We need more time to test the system as federation and dojo administrators. Doing the testing period I did not see a way for us to test the system as administrators.

In addition before we go live, we have a few more questions:
  1). How often will AUSKF reimburse the regional federations? This is important to know because some financial institutions charge extra fees if an account holder exceeds a number of transactions.
  2.) Will members be notified when their membership has expired?
  3.) If a member registers in January, will the system notify the member their payment is only good to the end of March or will they have a full year of membership regardless of when they register?
  3.) Will federation representatives be required to use this system to verify an individual is a current AUSFK member, i.e. - for cross federation shinsa, taikais, etc.?

With such a short turn around time of teaching our members on how to use the system, RMKIF will collect memberships dues as a group, submit one check to AUSKF and add the updated spreadsheet to our Dropbox file.

I would like to reiterate what others have said about your vision of making the registration process easier for both our members and federation/dojo representatives in the future.

Sincerely,
Monica Iwakabe
Rocky Mountain Kendo/Iaido Federation


SUSKIF's letter and memo (sent 3/1/17)

From: Mark Kerstein
Date: Wed, Mar 1, 2017 at 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: New Membership Management System
To: Kotaro Yoshida
Cc: (same as sckf's letter)

Mr. Yoshida:

I and all of the officers of the SUSKIF have scheduling conflicts this week and will not be on the skype. We need more notice than a few days as all of us have overriding work and family schedules to work around. In addition, I was asked to look at the legal issues involved with the website activation and have done so briefly. I have attached what my analysis of the issues presented and I only touched on a few major issues. There are many other potential problems. Please consider my analysis prior to implementing the usage of the website, to do so without addressing these issues could easily create some serious problems for the AUSKF.

Also fyi, my federation is going to conduct its membership drive manually, just as other federations have indicated they would, until all of this gets sorted.

Thank you.

Respectfully,
Mark A. Kerstein

attachment: cyber research


SWKIF's letter (sent 3/7/17)

From: Michio Kajitani
Date: Wed, Mar 1, 2017 at 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: New Membership Management System
To: Kotaro Yoshida
Cc: (same as sckf's letter)

Yoshida sensei,

I tried the system myself, and I don't feel comfortable either. Electronic system has advantage over the long term, but it has to be secure. Although optional, there are so many personal and confidential information to be entered, and AUSKF can expose itself to huge liability in case it is hacked by a third party. The system is far from complete or practical yet. I think the new system should be optional, rather than mandatory, at least for this year, considering it is already March, and next board meeting will be in April. SWKIF will be preparing the membership application manually for 2017, as done last year.

Thank you,

Michio Kajitani
President, SWKIF


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