This year, I’m trying something new. Instead of trying to cram all my news into a letter, I gave people the instruction to go onto this website (http://cjrhoads.com) to read my annual newsletter. That way, only those who are truly interested will be forced to hear my update.

Part of the reason is that this year I may trip over the line into unmitigated bragging. Rarely have I had so many great things happen to me all in the same year. Since most people had a pretty hard time this year (what with the economy being the worst, and unemployment being the highest it’s ever been - at least in my lifetime), I’m sure the last thing some people want to do is read about all the great things that happened to me. And yet, I’m sure there might be one or two people (my grandparents, perhaps) who actually want to hear all the good stuff that’s been happening.

2009 in Review

The year started out great. In December of 2008 I was given the John P. Schellenberg award for excellence in teaching. Okan Akcay had nominated me. What a shock! I almost missed the awards ceremony because I didn’t know that I had won and I had a lot of work to do. At the last minute I decided to go ahead and attend anyway, but I wasn’t wearing a suit and hadn’t even washed my hair. Of course, they had to take pictures of me in that state – not a pleasant sight for those who have to see the pictures. One kind person commented that they liked the "disheveled" look.

Within the first quarter of 2009 I found out that I had been chosen to be one of Pennsylvania’s Best 50 Women in Business. Don Martin had nominated me, and in May I was invited to a luncheon at the Governor’s mansion in Harrisburg and a huge reception at the Hilton in the evening. I was surrounded by 18 of my friends and family, and they put a series of pictures on the projector while they talked about my accomplishments when I walked up to receive my award. It was phenomenal.

The following month I received the letter saying that I had earned tenure at Kutztown University. I was very pleased. (I did not, however, get promoted, so I’m applying for promotion again this year.)

I've also seem to have successfully gotten a series of gatherings called the "Seeking Solutions Series" off the ground. In the Spring of 2009 we had three of them, and this past Fall we had 2 more; all very successful. The idea was fostered from an experience I had when I was a new business owner. I attended a series at the Chamber of Commerce called "Business Owners Seeking Solutions". Every month we would gather, have lunch, and go over a particular challenge of one of the members, providing a bunch of potential solutions for the member to try. At a later lunch, the member would report on how well the solution(s) worked and his or her progress on the problem. I am hoping to reproduce that sort of camaraderie in this series which is hosted by Students In Free Enterprise, one of the student clubs I advise at Kutztown University. They have been terrific - doing much of the work in organizing and running the series. Of special note is Caity Vill, Nicole Hawxhurst, Chelsea Isbel and Balbina Herman who do most of the work. I predict a great future as employees for these industrious students.

2009 Tai Chi Stuff

In May, in Florida, I competed in a Tai Chi Chuan tournament for the first time since my accident in 2002. Before my accident, I had competed in two tournaments; the national tournament at A Taste of China in Virginia, and the Chen Man Ching International Tournament in France. I did not do very well in either of them, but I really enjoyed the experience. One of the most difficult and depressing aspects while recovering from my back injuries was not being able to compete for years and years.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that the reason I didn’t do very well in those tournaments, (the same reason I was injured so severely in the car accident) was that my abdominal and neck muscles were very weak. In an effort to combat the severe daily pain that I suffered because of the accident, (after I realized that the physical therapy exercises I was being given were the same as the exercises I did in my Pilates class) I started doing Pilates three times a week. It made a huge difference, and I was able to compete on a much higher level because of the extra conditioning of my abdominal muscles.

Nonetheless, I wasn’t expecting to do very well in the Florida International Chinese Martial Arts tournament because I hadn’t competed in over seven years; especially when I found out there were no other women in my weight class (under 130 pounds). They were going to combine weight classes, so I would be doing push hands with someone who was bigger and heavier than me.

Well, I surprised myself. Although I didn’t win any medals in the form, sword, and fan divisions, I did extremely well for me (even garnering a 9.0!), and I won the push hands match. (A technical error caused them to list me as the silver medalist instead of the gold. However, I have a tape which clearly shows the more accurate results; I won the match). Gold or Silver didn't matter; because I placed in Florida, I was then eligible to compete in the national championship in Washington DC in October. This time, not only were there no other women in my weight class, there were no other women competing. Woody Allen said that eighty percent of success was just showing up. Well, in my case, 100% of success was just showing up. They did make me do push hands with one of the men, but even if I were to lose, I would still get the Gold medal for the division. And because I had also placed in Florida, when I competed in Washington DC, I became the female national champion, the gold medal winner, in Push Hands.

That’s not all. I also placed (third place, but hey- I’ll take Bronze over nothing any day) in three other divisions; Yang style, Sun style, and Fan form. Who would have thought that someone like me; uncoordinated, unathletic, and not very strong or fast – someone like me could become a champion in Chinese Martial Arts? It was a dream come true.

Of course, to be accurate, there wasn't much competition, and I did not do it alone. Betsy Chapman, my Tai Chi teacher was instrumental in coaching me to be a winner. My Pilates teacher, Tracey Tancredi, was also essential to my training regime. Sara Gellhorn helped quite a bit with my push hands work, as well as Jan Gyomber, my Tai Chi brother. Julie Nieznay, my Tai Chi sister, also helped lots with my form, especially the fan. Of course, my previous Tai Chi teachers, especially Janet Louise and Maggie Newman, had provided me with the foundation necessary to excel. And Robert Kline and Kirsten Erwin started and ran the push hands meets I attended the first Saturday of every month for years. Howard Peck and Richard Hamilton run the push hands meets I attend the second Saturday of every month.

Wait, there’s more!

If you are not too tired of hearing about all the great things that happened to me yet, then keep on reading. The other four Tai Chi related events last year were phenomenal. First, I was able to get to the Zhang San Feng Festival in early June for the first time in years. This festival is the successor of the "Tai Chi Farm", which was a wonderful annual event the first weekend of June every year on Master Jou Tsung Hwa's Farm in Warwick New York. Then, in later June, the Kutztown University Tai Chi club and the Taijiquan Enthusiasts Organization (the non-profit member society which I helped found) put on the best yet Taijiquan Health and Martial Arts Festival. We'd had several one day Festivals in Philadelphia, but this was the first time it was more than one day. We had over 78 workshops, over thirty highly talented Tai Chi teachers, and almost a hundred attendees. Except for a few glitches (like having to run to Walmart and buy 50 blankets so people wouldn't freeze at night) we did extremely well. (Well, okay, we didn't do extremely well financiall - we lost money. But hey - the evaluations were really spectacular!) We had people from all over - California, Canada, Florida, Connecticut, Minnesota. It was great!

Just one week later I traveled to Nashville Tennessee for the most amazing Tai Chi event of the century: The International Taijiquan Symposium. Three years earlier I had attended the International Taijiquan Forum in Canada with the Five Masters (the top lineage holder for each of the five major styles of Tai Chi), but this was even better. In Canada I presented an academic paper on Pacem In Vita, (the leadership program for children based on Tai Chi), but in Nashville I not only presented a paper, I was asked to help the organizing committee for the academic program. The paper on my new research in Leadership and Stress Reducing Practices like Tai Chi was also well accepted, and I got lots of great feedback.

Furthermore, in a panel on Tuesday evening, the Five Masters (world's top practioners) had some great discussions with the experts on Integrative Medicine (world's top health research scientists). It was beyond spectacular; a truly world-shaking opportunity for those of us in the world of Tai Chi.

Two weeks later I was back in the mid-west - this time for a course in Evidence-Based Tai Chi, a form developed for research purposes by Dr. Yang Yang, a world-renowned Chinese Martial Artists based on the Chen Style.

2009 Next year

There was only one down side to my fabulous year (almost the best I've ever had - following a close second to the year I married the love of my life, Bob Rhoads, which was followed even more closely by the year I sold my first business). I didn't do very well in expanding my current business, ETM Associates, Inc. Because of the economy, it was difficult to get clients anyway, so I only had three clients the entire year. Next year, of course, that has to change, so I'll be putting my Tai Chi stuff on the back burner while I go back to focusing on the other thing I love to do: helping businesses figure out how to be more profitable.

Well, if you've made it all the way to the bottom of this very long and probably boring year in review, you are to be congratulated. If this works well, I'll do this next year too - and save all those Holiday Card readers the difficult task of pretending to be interested in my newsletter.

Happy New Year.