Ben
These might be interesting to look at from a historical point. Scroll to the bottom of the page in the link and you will find a bunch of old Ki Society Australia news letters (late 90s).
http://www.northsideaikido.com/index...dojo-downloads
Patrick,
As Dan pointed out, more eloquently than I, for the grunts on the ground like myself, we are happy to train with like minded aikidoist regardless of affiliation, and make friends across organisations. Its at the organisational level things get sticky, competing ideologies for the same limited students. I think Dan James did some great sums at one stage working out how many dojos an area could support. Although I say its more open in the US, I still hear the friction, X shihan dosn't like us training with Y shihan because they split away, doesn't seem to stop anybody at the lower dan ranks though