Where Your Membership Fee Actually Goes

Your subscription doesn't just buy you a discount code. It funds three things that genuinely matter to this industry:
putting martial arts in front of the public,
protecting instructors and clubs from real risk
giving instructors the tools to build a stronger business
Here's exactly what that looks like -

Promoting

We put martial arts in front of the general public at a scale no individual club could manage alone. That means filming events and broadcasting them across Martial Arts TV, Kapow TV, and local television networks,  a tradition going back to 2006, when we first recognised television as the single best way to showcase instructors and grow interest in the sport. It also means producing content across magazines, newsletters, and radio, published throughout our network of websites, and building the kind of social media following and website traffic that means real audiences engage with the stories we publish.

The philosophy behind all of it is simple: the more popular we make martial arts as a whole, the more students walk into dojos everywhere, not just at MAA member clubs, but across the entire industry. A rising tide lifts every school.

Protecting

We provide the most comprehensive insurance packages available in this industry, along with risk management and OH&S policy documents, instructor training courses, helping clubs, discounted insurance and making sure instructors genuinely understand their obligations, not just tick a compliance box.

This is also where your fees fund direct, practical support: guidance when an insurance incident actually happens, and help finding insurance cover appropriate to your specific business, rather than a generic policy that fails you exactly when you need it most.

Beyond individual clubs, we act as a united voice with government, the corporate sector, and the public, sometimes rallying to prevent unfair legislation before it's introduced, sometimes correcting public misunderstanding directly (one real example: publicly clarifying that cage fighting is actually safer conducted inside a properly regulated cage than the alternative outside one). This isn't hypothetical advocacy, it's the same work behind our formal submissions to government departments during COVID-19, where we represented the industry's case for a safe, sustainable reopening using real data from thousands of member clubs. No single instructor has the standing to have that conversation alone. A united membership does.

Empowering

We bring multiple business tools and services together under one roof, insurance, billing, software, marketing, finance, and accounting, so instructors aren't left to find, vet, and negotiate every service separately. That's the genuine substance behind calling ourselves a One Stop Shop, not just a slogan.

We also invest directly in instructor education: coaching, management, and business qualifications through our AMACS courses, and ongoing Business Mentoring Programs, so members are equipped to grow their schools, not just stay compliant enough to survive. Where a club is genuinely struggling, membership funds have also gone directly toward subsidised or fully sponsored insurance for clubs in need, real financial support, not just a discount code.

Recognition matters too. Membership funding supports the Instructor Accreditation and Star Rating system, and events like the Industry Master Awards, which celebrate genuine, lifetime contribution to this industry, the kind of recognition that raises the standard for everyone watching.

The Truth About How This Works

Without membership subscriptions, we simply wouldn't be able to do very much of this at all and that would be a genuine loss for thousands of instructors who rely on it, whether they realise it or not.

We don't receive government funding. Every dollar of what we do comes from subscriptions and the products and services we sell and we manage that revenue carefully and deliberately, precisely so it can go further and help more clubs than a smaller, less focused organisation ever could. When you renew your membership, you're not just buying access to a directory listing or an insurance discount. You're funding the only organisation in this industry doing all three of these things: promoting, protecting, and empowering at scale, on behalf of every instructor who can't do it alone.