Tuesday/Sundays 5-6:30pm
Thursday 6:30-8pm

Our first practice will be held Tuesday, September 4th in the Goolrick Hall Auxiliary Gym.

The Renaissance Club puts on Masquerade every year, and it’s always super fun. Come to the Trinkle Foyer on Saturday, November 12 for an evening full of dancing, costumes, and fun!

We will be going over electric equipment and how to fence on a strip on Sunday, November 13, so please try to make it to practice on that day.

During practice on Friday, November 18 there will be a general club meeting. Everyone is encouraged to make an effort to come and voice your opinions. We want your feedback! This is the time to discuss any comments, questions, or concerns that you have, and an opportunity to share information.

The German Club is hosting a Christmas Market on Wednesday, December 7 on Ball Circle. The Fencing Club will have a table and sell all manner of crafty things. This is a fun way to raise money for the club, so if you find yourself flooded with knitted things and nothing to do with them, this is your lucky day! And if you find yourself wanting to make baked goods but don’t have an audience? There isn’t a better opportunity!

The Dark Horse scrimmage is Thursday, December 8. If you are interested, please sign up. We are allowed 6 people max, so get your name on the list quickly!

We need people who are UMW Van certified in order to get to tournaments that are far away. If you are already certified or would like to be, please email the club.

If you are interested in becoming an armorer, Lea McLaughlin will be holding an information session. Please also email the club if you are interested.

You may have noticed that our lovely new t-shirts have come in, but the fun doesn’t stop there! We’ll be ordering “Caution: Death” jackets in a couple of weeks, on February 22nd. If you want a jacket, e-mail the club or get yourself on the list at practice ASAP! We need 25 orders to get the jackets! The cost will be about $30.

Tournaments and other Dates

The Valentine’s Day Sabre Massacre, Thursday February 17. We’re leaving campus from the Westmo lot at 5:45pm.

The Virginia Cup, at Sweet Briar over the first weekend of Spring Break. Sign up if you’re interested!

Movie Night is on February 25. Suggestions for movies are open! (This is the Friday before Spring Break, so if you want to bring a movie, please be sure you’ll be in town that night.)

Epee Scrimmage, Thursday, March 17. We’ll be announcing sign-ups for this soon!

Alumni Tournament, Saturday, April 16.

Officers

Do you want to be an officer? Of course you do! Elections are coming up!

On Tuesday, February 22, we’ll have a club business meeting, to revise the Constitution and discuss officer elections. Please be there! On the same day, officer nominations will open. You can nominate yourself. (We’ll discuss qualifications for positions at the meeting.)

On March 6, elections will open, and they’ll close on March 13.

Enjoying the snow? Here are some things which are going on in the coming days and weeks which you should participate in!

Movie Night:

We’ll be gathering on Sunday, January 30 after practice to watch Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring EXTENDED EDITION in Apartment 822. It’s a long movie, so feel free to bring homework if you want to come hang out but need to get stuff done! (The hosts have asked that anyone who hasn’t seen the movie not bring homework, lest you miss some of the awesome. )

Tournaments:

The Valentine’s Day Sabre Massacre is on Thursday, Feb. 17. We’ll be leaving campus at 5:45pm from the Westmo Parking Lot. If you’re interested in participating, please e-mail Fencing or tell Michelle at practice ASAP!

The VA Cup is on February 26-27,  the first weekend of Spring Break. This is an all-weapon tournament at Sweet Briar College. We need a headcount by February 6, so if you’re interested e-mail Fencing or talk to Michelle!

Club Gear:

We have t-shirts! If you’ve bought one, pick it up at practice; if you haven’t bought one and you want it, it’ll be $15! We have extras of all of the sizes.

If you want to order a jacket, you need to do so by Tuesday, Feb. 22. We’ll have price information soon.

Officer Positions:

Do you want to be a fencing club officer for the 2011-2012 school year? Nominations can be e-mailed to the fencing club e-mail, and are due Tuesday, Feb. 22. (You can nominate yourself!) We’ll be having an interest meeting prior to that so members can learn about the officer positions and their responsibilities, plus additional training for potential armorers.

~Michelle

We’re putting together a gift box for Headstart (Christmas presents for at-risk preschoolers) with winter-wear. We need all items by November 30th – We’re looking for things like gloves, scarfs, hats, etc., for 3-5 year olds. (Things like teddy bears or coloring books or whatever would be cool, too, but no food/candy or religious/Christmas items, please.)

Club t-shirt money is due TODAY. T-shirts are $15, and we’ll have a few for sale when the shirts arrive as well.

Movie night is also TODAY. In the Wash Room, after practice, we’ll be watching How to Train Your Dragon.

On November 18th we’re going to the MIDNIGHT SHOWING of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Regal Aquia Theater in Stafford. Tickets are on sale HERE.

We recommend that you get your tickets AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, because we don’t know when they’ll sell out! We’ll also be planning a trip to the fabric store for anyone interested in making Quidditch-themed robes or t-shirts with us!

E-mail fencing@umw.edu when you’ve bought your ticket to be added to the list! Also, if you have a car and are interested in driving people, include how many people you can fit in your car!

We’re also finally ordering t-shirts for the 2009-2010 year! They say “Can’t Touche This” with a bull’s eye on the front and “UMW Fencing” in awesome shashy font on the back. The cost is $15, and we need at least 25 orders by November 19th, so if you want to order one please get your money to Mike as soon as possible!

Movie Night
Friday, October 22nd is Movie Night! We picked a few possible movies, so we’ll vote on them in practice. The options are:

Pirates of the Caribbean 1: Curse of the Black Pearl

Scaramouche

The Three Musketeers

Got a vote? E-mail fencing@umw.edu and let us know what you want to watch before Friday!

Costumed Epee Tournament!

On Oct. 30, there will be an Epee tournament going on in Nova. But this is not just any Epee tournament. This is an Epee tournament IN COSTUME, in honor of Halloween! If we have enough people interested, we’ll be going, so if you fence Epee and want to prance around dressed in a costume, contact us at fencing@umw.edu and let us know at once, or talk to Michelle!

Club Tournament!

Now that the newbies have started bouting, it’s that time of year where we all get to stab each other! We’ll have an in-club tournament on Saturday, November 6th. It’ll be an all-day fencing extravaganza of two tournaments running simultaneously: A New Fencer Foil Tournament, and a tournament for older members. Watch for sign ups in the near future!

Dues

Have you paid your $10 club dues? If yes, ignore this part. If no, you will no longer be allowed to use club equipment until you pay your dues, so please get $10 to Mike or Michelle right away and make sure your name is on the list!

A week ago we had an officer’s meeting, and I am only just now getting around to passing the word onto you all. Please pardon the delay!

We mostly talked about dates; I’m currently in the process of making a fencing calendar so that all of these dates are in one place, but in the meantime here they are for you!

September 25: Family Weekend! We’ll be performing in the Club Showcase, so come watch 10 minutes of people stabbing each other out on Ball Circle, sometime between 11:30am and 2pm

October 2: Historic Combat Seminar! 11 AM – 5 PM. There is a facebook event and sign up sheet at fencing practice. Cost is $15.

October 16: Maryland Renaissance Faire! There’s a sign-up sheet going around at fencing practice, so please put your name on it if you want to come! The cost is $20, which includes the Faire, transportation, and breakfast. If you have a car and are willing to drive people, PLEASE let Michelle know as soon as possible! (She needs the color, tag, and # of people including driver, the latter being the most important.)

Once we’re at the Faire, we usually all disperse; however, anyone interested is welcome to join us on in seeing the Pirates Royale perform in the morning as a group before going off to explore!

October 22: Movie night!

November 19: Movie night!

December 2: Dark Horse Fencing Foil Tournament! This one’s a lot of fun, and is an excellent opportunity for new foilists (that’s all of you who just started fencing this year!) to get some practice bouting people outside the club!

April 16: Alumni Tournament! Far away yet, but another fun one.

Also coming up is the Club New Fencer Tournament, which will be happening sometime in the coming month now that the new fencers are working with swords, so look forward to it!

Social Events

We discussed other possible club social events, such as a club clean-up of the Ampitheater as a service project, a club picnic, or a cooking night (sword and dragon shaped lollipops, anyone?) If you like these ideas, or have any other ones, feel free to e-mail the officers! I’ll also be posting the dates of the upcoming officer meetings on the club calendar, so if you ever want to come talk to us about something there please feel free.

As always, we meet for dinner before practice on Tuesdays and Fridays in the Washroom, and the same place after practice on Sundays. Everyone’s invited, so if you want to grab a bite to eat before stabbing things you should join us!

Meeting Information

We’re going to start having Armory Workshops about once a month! Dates aren’t decided, but we’ll be learning things like safety information (such as how to spot a warped blade) and how to care for equipment.

Dues

Yes, it’s that time of year where we ask you for money. Dues are $10, and can be given to our treasurer Mike at practice. We only ask for dues once for the entire year.

New or old to the club, you must fill out the Liability Form, Student Code of Conduct form, and sign the Club Roster (available at this weekend’s meetings, or send a message to the club’s email). All documents must be completely filled out and filed with the Athletic Director, Mark Mermelstein, before you can participate in practices. If one of these is not complete, you will be notified.

If you would like to hang out with the fencing officers and some of the other club members, you are welcome to join us for an unofficial gathering at the Club House, located in the center of the old UMW Apartments on William Street. Don’t know how to get there? Check out this google map. The club house is the smallest building in the rectangle of buildings when you zoom in.

Our first official practice is Tuesday August 31 in Goolrick Auxiliary Gym, 6:30-8 PM.

Questions? Our email address is “fencing” with the usual UMW email tag.

It was great seeing so many new faces today, as well as familiar, and I can’t wait to meet and see all of you again this coming week!

~Michelle, MWFC President