** This thread discusses the Content article: Picking up the pieces **

The following is the transcript of a discussion held by many of the traceurs in the Texas area. We're asking for help from the entire community on this as it'll take quite a few people to replace the void left by Matthew. And so it begins:

Hello all,

As of 1:37 this afternoon, Matthew has resigned as the executive
director of Texas Parkour. If you have not done so already, we
suggest you visit the Texas Parkour website and read his letter of
resignation, as it is salient to the rest of this email.

If you are on the recipient list, it's because you are a leader in
your parkour community, either because others believe you are or
because you have taken action to organize your local scene. This is
also not a complete list, because we don't know many of the local
communities, and we apologize for this.

The purpose of this email is to address the question: what now?
Should there be a formal leadership of Texas Parkour? If so, what is
the best way for us to serve our communities? Should Texas Parkour
even continue to exist? If so, what will its function be?

As we see it, these are the tasks before us. Feel free to add to this
list or to tell us we're wrong:
(1) Address the Texas Parkour community with some damage control.
(2) Figure out how to structure the new leadership of Texas Parkour.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Patrick & Desmund


PS: Please note that this is not a bid for power. I'm not trying to
take Matthew's place. I don't have time to steward an organization
like Texas Parkour was under Matthew. --Patrick

Patrick: I spoke to Desmund yesterday. He believes — and I agree — that we should find a way reässure the community that their community is still coherent, just as before. He suggested a round of jams around the state like we did near the beginning of the year. What say you to this?

End

K guys, I just want to share my thoughts...
I want to say I wish things could have transpired differently, and to lose Matthews large dedication will be noticeable and surely missed. But with that said I think this is a golden opportunity, for this community to pull together. By no means do I think the leaving of 1 person (as central as he might be) will make this community crumble. We are all here because we enjoy parkour, and unless that has changed, I don't see why anything else would. I believe this may be what the community needed, and when a door closes... a window opens.. in which we can vault through (doors aren't so helpful in that aspect).

I ask if you enjoy parkour.. you give your two cents, because I see a bright future, but we need everyones help in this. You Can make a difference.

-Nic

The biggest problem is member involvement. And as we have seen countless times there is only so much leadership can do. Without members leadership doesn't exists. This isn't exactly a "rant" about what the leaders of the community can do. More as what the members can do. We should really step up and get involved. We don't need admins and mods to set up jams... Lets do it ourselves. Lets keep in contact with our fellow Traceurs maybe even make friendships outside the Parkour community. I feel a effective and productive community treats each other like family.

I admit my involvement has been nonexistent. I'm going to change that.


-Unique

Unique wrote:
The biggest problem is member involvement. And as we have seen countless times there is only so much leadership can do. Without members leadership doesn't exists. This isn't exactly a "rant" about what the leaders of the community can do. More as what the members can do. We should really step up and get involved. We don't need admins and mods to set up jams... Lets do it ourselves. Lets keep in contact with our fellow Traceurs maybe even make friendships outside the Parkour community. I feel a effective and productive community treats each other like family.

I admit my involvement has been nonexistent. I'm going to change that.


-Unique


I agree with this 100%.

Unique has it right on the money.
We shouldn't need a formal leader of Texas Parkour. If anything, this site's only purpose is to unite us on a state-wide level. We all have one thing in common: we all love parkour. As long as we have that, we don't need an official designated leader to keep this organization running smoothly. We are all family here in one way or another and that's not going to change anytime soon I think.

I completely agree with this. Nobobdy up in Denton is considered an admin or a "leader" in any sense but through this site we've been able to throw jams, travel around the state, and meet a lot of traceurs who we are still keeping in really good contact with. The Denton crew, like most other crews we've met, have pretty much become family and it all started by a few posts on this site. The members really can make a difference if we all step up.

I should mention that part of the reason member involvement isn't high on this board is because we're a community spread over a large state. This will always be an issue. I'm not saying we shouldn't address it, but it will always provide an obstacle for us. Many of the people on this site are in college 170+ days a year, and still more work at full time jobs.

With forums, you often have people from different places actively involved with one another, but here, we're trying to bring the people together physically at times that aren't optimal for everyone. This will be difficult. Maybe we're aiming a bit too high a bit too fast. Maybe the main goals should be to bring together the cities individually, at first. I mean, I've been in three of the cities listed here, and I know that they have enough trouble getting guys together as it is. I think if we build up our team at the more basic level, that is, the level within our cities, we can slowly make the physical connections.

This probably seems redundant, as if I'm stating the obvious, and something that's already been done, but I think it takes a long time for these things to happen. In the meantime, we could try to schedule the yearly or biannual state parkour tours, but I believe trying to build the infrastructure up more solidly should be first priority.

Hope this helps.

Having had my share of difficult experiences in community building (worked in social services and non-profits for 3 years), I feel that a community structure cannot be forced onto the members of that community, before they realize the value and are willing to help. No one can be forced to see "what's good for them". That said, I believe that organization is good insofar as it promotes better training, communication, fun, and bonding.

The foremost question for us to each answer for ourselves is:

What should our parkour community be like? Our goals? Worrying about resources and organization is putting the cart before the horse. Some possible descriptors:

- Friendly (to new would-be traceurs physically talented or not, as well as the greater community; includes courteous and respectful, so that we don't get labeled as troublemakers by close-minded people who make snap judgments)

- Involved (community volunteering, clean-up, teaching, demos, exhibitions)

- Safe (I am 100% backing up Patrick's regular insistence on more rigorous training on basic landings, rolls, falls, precisions, balance, etc.)

- Informative (weekly / monthly articles and features re: videos, training, health, philosophy of parkour, events, training times and spots, etc.)

Involvement is by far the main thing that would require real resources and organization. Information ranks second. For everything else, a community forum and the merch sales (t-shirts, beanies, wrist sweat bands, knee braces, water bottles, Ibuprofen, do-it-yourself splint and cast kits, whatever) to support said site and forum are all we really need.

I have been taught (and recently reminded) that a greater sense of community begins at home, by making new people feel more welcome. Whether that's offering a little water, sunscreen, tips, or just making friends with every newbie, it's all good. I hear good things about the other cities, but I feel Houston is still hit-and-miss about this. We do have some guys who are great about this.

And that's it. For me, keeping in touch with other cities and bringing jams together is what a parkour community means. We seem like a freewheeling, low-maintenance crowd.

Do we want to become more than this? A major APK affiliate? Make the local news? Train and produce respectable stunt performers and performance teams? Open parkour / freerunning schools a la Parkour Generations / Primal Fitness?

Answer this for yourselves. I don't think we have the critical mass of widespread, positive recognition and attraction yet to support a higher level of organization.

And I don't think anyone should feel forced to work more than 3-5 hrs a week for free on what should be a passion and hobby. More than that, and people tend to get burned out after 6-18 months. (5-10 hrs is possible if someone *really* loves PK, but serious organization takes more than one person to make it happen)


I am morally super-kapow in favor of a jam circuit / tour. However, bear in mind I'm 31 with a fair number of life commitments, so I can't actually go to most jams. Talk is cheap.

A caveat: I usually read the forums exclusively to follow and post training times and places. I have very little idea what sorts of politics and flamewars have been going on, and give the above opinion as strictly my own, with no expectation that anyone else follow my drumbeat.

Cheers,
Dakao

I think the big question right now is: what do we do now? Well, my answer is: I don't know. My point here is that we're Traceurs and Traceusess; we're supposed to be able to overcome any obsticale in any situation, no matter what. I know that we're a community and a family because we all love parkour. If Matthew's resignation tears us apart then what, then, is the meaning of TXPK's existance?

There is a quick and efficient way to overcome this obsticale, we just need to find out what it is and work tward it. Our goal, as a whole, is to overcome this, and if we don't have what it takes to do so, then we, for lack of better terms, condition ourselves to this situation. I actually think that was a good way to say that, because that about sums it up. What do we do when we come up to a challenge? We give it our all, and if it fails we try harder. We train to improve on what we tried, and if, after so long, that dosen't work, we come at it from a different angle or even try something different all together. The point is that even when things get hard, we find a way to work around it, even if we don't get it right the first time.

I hope that using Parkour terms will help this idea(even though the idea itself is quite vauge and open for sugjestions) to sink in better to us as Traceurs and Traceusess.

Screw big, overarching structure. It has not worked, and is a beast to manage.
Plus, there is no reason to unless something big happens...
And when something big does happen, we can come together as a community to see it get done.
If the greater community is not behind it, it becomes a local thing.
If the local community is not behind it, it does not happen--"for better or worse".
If it was already a local thing, let it stay a local thing.
Yes, I am talking about buzz fest.
"That is all I have to say about that."

Training events can continue to be done in a local sense, and it is not just about how TXPK does it.
I do not see much changing as far as training goes, and now is definitely not the time to be making sweeping changes.
If you have been relying on TXPK for each individual training session, stop. It is just a non-profit.
The forum provides a way for the community to interact, but you can just as easily do so by personal email or phone.
Do it your own way, or call a friend you trust and respect to help.
There is no "right" or "best" way to do parkour--arguably the person(s) with the greatest skill, and with the least number of debilitating injuries is "better".

For "leadership":
Would you like someone coming into your house and telling you how to run things? Especially, when they barely know the people involved?
(This implies that people who want to take on a leadership role, in a local sense should get to know them outside of training--depending on the circumstances.)
Whatever works best in your city is the best way, and you know that better than anyone outside your city, town, area etc.
Learned that from involvement in Houston, and hanging with the SA crew.
Hopefully the round of jams will be to build community, not homogenize training etc.
We should not appoint another "leader of TXPK"--not that we appointed one to begin with; there is no "great overseer"--no religious or philosophical implications intended.

For the board:
Appoint (preferably at least three, and certainly not just one) practicing, seasoned, mature traceurs/traceuses (no not someone who just acts mature) to administer/manage events, donations, and other clerical tasks for the non-profit.
They will manage those "big" issues collectively (and hopefully democratically).
Make it such that "at any time" and "for any reason" that person can be voted out, and another voted in (yea I know, but still...), the local (community) vote should outweigh (slightly) the board vote for appointing that member.
Make this formal and in writing.
Transition should not be hard this way. Someone could step down and another step up rather smoothly.
Do not make it a popularity contest or political, make it about the best person for the job.
This person would in no way have control, or probably even any influence over the local training sessions...
That stays local.
Best case is someone gets busy with whatever and wants someone else to take his/her place, that can be done easily and smoothly, without any great upheaval anywhere.
Should not be some huge emotional and cataclysmic event.
Also, the number of advisors/non-board members should never outweigh the number of actual board members...

I am not advocating a representative system; they would really just be organizing and facilitating etc.

The most experienced traceur in your community is not necessarily the best fit for the board...

Best case? One from each city... Better case? One from each defined "troupe".

We do not "need" a non-profit (or any formal structure) to keep in touch.
Along with some form of communication, and the will to do so, that is easy...

We might "need" a non-profit where events, fund-raising, merchandise, PR, marketing, etc. is involved.
Legaly we only "need" a non-profit where money, over the cost of expense, is involved--seriously that is it.
501(c)3 simply gives better tax breaks...

I am willing to operate in an advisory position only--formally or informally.
I do not want the power.

Hope this helps.

Please let me know if you agree.

Sincerely,
Jonathan

I agree and please excuse for not explaining my ideals and my opinions.
I have just learned that i "apparently" do not have the best interested for Texas Parkour.
In which case i can that this is true, only because i believe in parkour first above all, and i refuse to make organization the top of my list for priority.

I don't mean to get into a long shpeal so i will just say that i enjoy reading the post from the community members and love seeing people step up and voice their opinions

Can't really say if TXPK's best interests match the local traceur's--or even parkour's--best interests lately.
If they don't, hopefully that can change.

Thanks for the response though.

If someone chooses to do something, independent of an organized practice, unless they're wearing some form of TXPK paraphernalia, I don't see how it's any of TXPK's damn business what they do as an independent traceur.
Conversely, I don't see how a traceur's actions, outside a training session, acting independently, should reflect on TXPK--whether good or bad.
And we are all independent.
The community may have an opinion, but that does not make it TXPK's opinion, unless stated--in writing--someplace where the members can easily access it. One person is not a community.

Whether or not we have the skills to do everything on our own that we do in the group training/conditioning sessions, or vice versa, has a lot to do with our own personal maturity as traceurs.
And differing training "styles" shouldn't really be a bone of contention at the organizational level, in other disciplines, instructors rarely compare notes. That's something we have, if we can keep it civil... I doubt a skilled traceur is going to share his or her knowledge with someone who doesn't have the skill to attempt it; or won't (or can't--yes I said it, I'll do 20 tomorrow, check with Desmund to verify) really appreciate or benefit from the effort. The same applies for almost any discipline, physical, academic, or otherwise.

*deep breath*

I do like to remain accountable to my friends though.
If they are my friends, it's never a bad idea.

I like the fact that Texas Parkour has a relatively cohesive community, and don't like seeing it disrupted.

Ok i am going to put my self on the proverbial sword edge here and go out on a limb.
About two months ago I got hurt while training in austin at the tower. That's all well and all, but during my down time i still trained hoping to come back just as good as when i left. Little to not knowing the situation with matt, i came back two weeks ago to find out this less than appealing news. Patrick did inform me a bit, but the very very very few people that were there informed me the rest of the situation. They also told me that alot of our regulars had fallen of the wagon in training. I give those few who were there some credit for trying to come up with ways to train.
No one person should make this community crumble.
I appreciated matt, devin, patrick, ann, and the many others that help many coming to the tower in austin. I didn't meet devin until a jam in may but still... sorry if misspelling names. Since i was informed of this i got a little down but still training lightly due to pain from the injury, but i can say that this community has been one of the best things i have been apart of. i work 50 or so hours full time and the drive to the tower is about thirty minutes both ways so dedication is a big factor for me to do this.
I would like to say, in no way in offense to anyone, the state of parkour in austin has deterred massively since the time i have been gone whether it be from this or other circumstances i would hope we can fix this so the community is austin and in other places doesn't just crumble away. I think parkour has a bright future that can be fueled to keep on going by its members and community. I live in round rock and there is liitle if any parkour here so building and spreading this community would be great for everyone. I don't exactley have a good imagination when it comes to trying to structure training and what not, but i do try to spread the word about parkour to any that are interested, so hopefully we can all work this out to keep parkour going. Any feed back would be great . ThanxB)

Syes, this is largely my fault, and I'm sorry to have neglected the community as I did in the last few months. I've been recovering from two major injuries and one less major one, so I haven't been as active in the community as I'd like to be. I've seen some degradation of the Austin community too, but I'm not sure what I can do in my current condition.

I love teaching and leading training, but I would feel presumptuous telling people to do things when I'm not going to do it myself due to injury. Why should people listen to me unless I have some kind of credibility, you know?

The way that our community bonds is by training together, by learning together, by accomplishing things together. It's very hard for me to do that right now. But I promise you this upon my honour: when my injuries have healed, I will be out there again running the guys through some excellent training. I've been thinking up different training methods, and I'm eager to put them into practice.

Patric, a man's honor is a dificult thing to make a promise on, but I beleive that you will hold up to what you say, and for that, I honor you. I can't wait to at least read about your new ideas, considering I have virtually no way to go to any training sessions/jams/workshops ect.. I know about your abilities and I know that you could teach, even with injury. I hold you credible for what you have done, not for what you will do.

I know that I have yet to actually be involved in any actuall activity, and although I do train whenever I can, I still need to become more involved in the Parkour community in whatever ways I can. You, though, have valid reason for temporary inactivity.

Major injuries need time to heal, and no one can be upset with you for that. But I respect and honor you for continuing to train, even if not physical, when, to most, doing anything of the sort would seem impossible. Again, I would love to at least read about your latest ideas, because I know that when you break the dam of a still river, it pours out with more ferocity, power, and even a kind of natural, though epic, beauty.

I have called myself a Traceur for more than a year now, but I have yet to really unlock my true potential and test my limits, but the first chance I get, I will do whatever it takes to learn whatever I need to improve.

@Syes: Sorry to hear about the injury, man. Be sure you take the time to let it heal properly. It's much better to have it heal well and be able to build your strength back up than to train on it and risk permanent injury. (That's where I've been as well: rehabilitation.)

@Shaneige: The honor largely depends on the man and his past actions. I know Patrick to ba a man of his word. I read in the other thread about your overprotective parents. I know how that feels. All I can say is college/growing up/freedom is awesome in that respect.

@Patrick: You'll get better faster if you do the streches the doctor gave you. The ones she gave me were ridiculous in the amount of time they said, but she told me even doing a little bit would help. *nagnagnag*

Seems like most of us just want to work out and get along. That's cool.

[Edit: Guess this message is me saying I am willing and have been trying to lead in my own way. Lead by example, and if they don't follow, I'm probably doing it wrong. :D]

I am responsible for my own training and satisfaction. So should everyone else. No one *needs* to listen to me, but I hope someone will benefit from it. I hope others will share this attitude, but I cannot force it. I've tried, and been frustrated every time. Knowing me, I'll probably keep trying.

Some new people can totally do safety vaults, handstands, flips, etc. They already mostly know their safe limits. This is not about them, the can-PK folks.

To paraphrase Uncle Ben, "With great parkour comes great responsibility." I'm not great, but I am modestly good. With my very modest parkour and teaching ability, I feel an obligation to share what I know with the can't-PK folks. I see physically ungifted people, unfit people coming out to Houston's practice all the time. Some of them have gotten hurt, significantly or not. (Where significant = days or weeks of lost training time) This can't be prevented, but it can be minimized through safe progressions of training. Some of the can't-PK folks drive 20+ miles to practice, and I want to match their dedication with my own.

I can't teach or demonstrate many of the more aggressive and complex moves, but I sure hell have patience for and can break down broad jumps, climb-ups, landing, QMs, and etc. for people who, like me, began this sport / art with no or little body awareness. Reducing impact, joint damage and pain, learning to listen to the body after a sedentary lifetime of Super Mario Bros or WoW...

I realize my limits as a teacher, and anyone who I feel can stay reasonably safe is free to move on, to train however and with whomever they choose. But if they stumble or flub basic safety vaults, easy monkey vaults, or etc., I will pull them aside and try to steer them to exercises more suited to their current ability level. Of course, as an obnoxious type-A personality, I always try to push people beyond their comfort zones.

Because I want to help the can't-PK folks become can-PK folks.


Re: organization, my past work and community experiences have taught me that the concept of the spontaneous community upswell of support is a pretty idea, but almost never works out that way. I understand why other people on here may like or truly believe it can happen, but I don't believe it myself.

If (If!) I or we want to have more public events like the K-Swiss exhibition, to raise public awareness and positive opinion of our activity, someone has to take the reins. Not forever, not for everything. But at least per event. And when that person asks, begs, demands, or invites others to help and participate, you may like it or you may resent it. Remember that parkour is bigger than you, and bigger than me. As an example, if I start nagging people about who's going to be at an event, it's not b/c I want to make your life miserable, or I think you are a loser who will never score chicks. It's b/c the event people will not reserve our booth if I can't promise them at least 6 people will show up each day. If I only hear promises from 4 people, I would have to cancel by the reservation deadline -- which is usually a long time before the event day.

Similarly, I will not be offended if only 3 people RSVP. The event just won't happen. The lesson for me will be that the community obviously didn't want that event.

Who will bring water, cups? How will the SA crew get their awesome obstacles down to Houston? Etc.

Enough rambling. I'm going to go do my C A N ' T push-ups now.

Although, I did not want to comment on this thread anymore I would like to state that for the last three weeks on wednesday trainings we have had over 15 people there each time yes, even with it raining. I am not exactly sure how that is a detriation of the scene in Austin. Thursday nights were canelled for a small time and then started back up just recently, that might be the night you came. Monday trainings have been moved to Olympic Hills Gymnastics. We had about 10 there on Monday

Honestly, I only have only seen Parkour Grow in the last two months. Am I bias? Maybe, but we have more people coming out and we tried some pretty advanced things today at training and it was one of the best trainings our group has had since we lost privalegies. I commend all of those that are still coming out even though we dont have the facility like we use to

We would love to see you back on a wednesday.

Are we seriously still stuck on internal politics?
I hope that's simply a misconception on my part...

Glad to hear Austin has a present and growing community.

well im glad to say that as far as i can see we are getting more and more people into parkour and training safely