An iceberg somewhere in the Antarctic: Penguin Fred and his fellow penguins have lived here for many generations. One day an alert Fred discovers that the colony is in grave danger. The iceberg is melting. And somehow Fred already knows that nobody will want to hear the bad news.
Penguin Fred finds out what happens when you want to change things, or have to. As the story unfolds, it clearly shows that there are always several groups with different attitudes towards positive and necessary changes:
1. those who help to bring about positive change with enthusiasm and commitment
2. those who keep quiet and first wait to see what happens
3. those who are against it in principle.
All these groups need to be united if the survival of the colony is to be assured.

And what has all this got to do with the EWTO’s school owner’s meeting?
Penguin Fred is one of the main characters in the book “The Penguin Principle“ (ISBN 978-4-426-27412-5), whose subject matter is resistance to change and decisive action, enormous obstacles and overcoming them.
It was with this story that Dai-Sifu Oliver König welcomed those attending the EWTO’s 6th school owner’s meeting on 9th April, 2007, in brilliant sunshine and early summer temperatures.
How do we cope with change? Where are the risks, and what are the new opportunities that present themselves? How do we confront the challenges of an increasingly rapidly changing world?
This little story well illustrates a virtue which will be all-too familiar to WT people, namely the ability to adapt successfully to changing situations!

During the course of the day, the attending school owners were able to find out the specific changes and new arrangements on which the EWTO has embarked, as well as the status of current projects and plans for the immediate future:

EWTO violence prevention
The new poster and a comprehensive brochure for EWTO violence prevention were presented. The brochure is aimed at facilities for children and young people who wish to offer violence prevention courses with professionally trained EWTO teachers. The brochure can be obtained from local school owners or from EWTO head office (link address).

Kids WingTsun
General information folders and the poster for Kids WingTsun are now available.
The Kids WingTsun grading badges were also presented as a means of documenting learning progress in visible form. These can now be ordered from the clothing and equipment supply department. There has been a significant, positive increase in the number of kids attending the Kids WingTsun groups. The Kids WingTsun instructors not least ascribed this to the excellent training provided by Sifu Peter Thietje and Martin Bacher, as well as the support by head office when restructuring the groups.

New advertising methods
The newly designed business cards, A4 versions of the existing posters, the letterheads and the design templates for EWTO school signs and newspaper advertisements were equally well received.

New Internet site for WingTsun
More targeted and clearly laid-out information about WingTsun for potential students is now available on the new EWTO homepage, which can be accessed at www.wingtsun.de. This contains basic information, and focuses on an easy search function for the nearest EWTO school.

Training uniform
In every sense of the word, many members of the EWTO have been able to experience another change within the organisation at close quarters: the new training uniform.
The clothing department was confronted with a much greater demand than expected, which led to initial supply bottlenecks. As this exclusive production required high quality standards, compromise was not considered acceptable.
Sifu Lutz Trabert reported that production was now keeping pace with demand. The range of sizes has also been supplemented with so-called W-sizes for those of a stouter build, which means that everybody will find the right outfit.
Nonetheless the department is by no means resting on its laurels, but is actively engaged in complementing the range with training equipment and protective/recreational items as quickly as possible.

Optimising an EWTO school
During a compact seminar, Dai-Sifu Oliver König described his own experiences in optimising a WT school. The participants were given checklists and instructions for not only offering the best possible training, but also improving the training conditions on a continuous basis.
 
Practical instruction
The programme was rounded off by Dai-Sifu Schembri, who went through the fifth WT student programme with the school owners to ensure standardised training within the EWTO.

The EWTO is forging ahead
Changes have taken place, and will continue to do so, in order to keep the EWTO abreast of the times. In some cases this has led to reservations, or even fears that we might lose the fighting aspect in the process. However, anybody who has taken part in lessons given by Si-Fu/Si-Gung in recent months can more than ever confirm that there are no grounds for concern. It is not the fundamental quality of our martial art that is changing, but only the quality of the conditions surrounding it.