Your first idea is good in my opinion, as for the second one, well ya, as snake just said being mainstream is not an option for this organization because of this:
And I'm kind of agree, I mean being an 'easy to enter' without any principles is just not like us. We've been doing what I think is best for us, like being picky and stuffs. As we know most of our members are ya, we could rate their skill with an 8 or even 10. And I also don't really like that new way to enter the council members, it's kind of not aikido related but ye, it could be, but not really.

I think we should wait.