Maybe not disturbing but should be cause for concern by the AUSKF membership because this new group will be a regionless regional federation. All KKA dojang will make up this new AUSKF member federation. So it strengthens the AUSKF's move toward non-geographic based regions for member federations. Any group with dojo(s) located in any state can form a federation and join the AUSKF. A string of affliated dojo are now possible. No longer are regions forced to be based upon US geography. You simply put together enough people from anywhere in the US and that is a federation. In my opinion, this move further fractionates (is that a real word?) the AUSKF instead forcing people to work together. We now have multiple federations in California, in Colorada, on the East Coast that overlap geographically which does not help strengthen the US kendo skill pool. It seems to me that if the AUSKF forced people to join a single federation and insist that they work out their political differences and cooperate that would strengthen kendo in the US more than adding federations on top of federations. What motivation is there for this new group to simply join in and become a part of the existing kendo federations in each of their respective states? If you want to strengthen US kendo the federation should be building larger regional groups that are expanding and supporting kendo in their geographic region, this will give member kenshi more opportunity to practice. How do you practice when others in your same town are in a different federations and holding different events, etc?