Positive organizational stuff!

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!


There has been much talked about the failings and omissions of the USFA recently. While I certainly know the importance of problem-stating, I think that everything would benefiit if we brought up good examples also.

So - what has your local/regional/national fencing organization done in the recent years, which is worth copying?

I will start:
1. The secretary of the Swedish Fencing Federation, Monika Gårdström, is always available during posted phone hours. Not only that, she always has an answer to every query.
2. A few years ago, the Swedish state made a new program for sports clubs and federations, called "Handslagspengar". The Swedish Fencing Federation has managed to avail itself of those monies much better than many - even bigger - sports federations.
3. The Swedish Fencing Federation website is always up. Furthermore, it has new info in a timely matter. They always publish a lot of interesting info from the EFF and FIE meetings during the meetings, and shortly thereafter.



Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[Amadeus]

Originally Posted by PeterGustafsson

1. The secretary of the Swedish Fencing Federation, Monika Gårdström, is always available during posted phone hours. Not only that, she always has an answer to every query.

also, the accents on her name are cool.

[Zilverzmurfen]

Originally Posted by Amadeus

also, the accents on her name are cool.

She has no accents in her name...

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Oh, how wonderful. Positively positive. Perhaps you should rename the thread "Its great to be swedish".

[CvilleFencer]

Well speaking on a local level this year we raised entry fees for tourneys to $15, which was not super popular at the time, but it has allowed us to book better venues for our larger tourneys (our biggest tourney this year had something like 250 fencers), buy new scoring equipment (we can run up to 12 strips now) and bring in George K for a referee seminar that has gotten us several new referees and allowed some of the older referees to increase their rating.

We also changed around the way the division handles club run tourneys to make it more attractive/easy for clubs to run their own events which gives more tourneys for the division and takes some of the load off of the division board. This year we make the schedule with an eye towards having an average of 1 open per month and one ratings rally (Usually a U or E foil, D saber, D or C epee and C foil, all in one weekend) every other month. Also one of our long time clubs has a new space so that has opened up a new venue that has some very active/experienced members (who usually do the events there as club ran events). Since this club is very centrally located it makes it easier for our fencers at the far end of the state (who have felt a bit disenfranchised by the fact that in the past tourneys tended to be in the northern part of the state) and has helped attract fencers from the other Southeast divisions.

We have also been working on establishing a high school fencing league in the state that I am really excited about. All in all the past couple of years have been very positive for us and we are growing and going strong as a division.

[oiuyt]

An updated website.

2 Olympic medals, including 1 gold.

Formalization of a chaotic regional youth system that, with improvements and refinements, will hopefully lead to a consistent structure below the national level for high-quality tournaments in a variety of age-groups.

Growth from 14,000 members (July 2003) to 24,000 members (July 2005).

Massive growth in the number of qualified and certified referees (~40-60% over 2 years?).

Expansion of the Coaches College program to include a program for non-experienced (with fencing) physical educators to learn how to effectively and safely incorporate fencing into more general PE curriculae.

Successful changeover from mostly rolled copper pistes to all sectional aluminum pistes for all national events.

Dramatically improved financial position, including resumption of running a budget suplus rather than deficit spending.

Dramatically increased USOC funding.

Strong international presence, including, as of 2 years ago, a member on every FIE committee.

A fought-for committment at the most recent FIE congress for gender-equity in events selected for Beijing -- despite a generally-held prevailing opinion towards another Games with 3 men's teams and only 1 women's team.

An improved national magazine.

Ever-increasing numbers of particpants at international events in a variety of age-groups, numbers of coaches, numbers of clubs, numbers or athletes participating nationally and locally.

Hosting a very successful Veterans World Championships, including a number of American medalists and the first-ever (official) women's sabre events at Vet Worlds.

The list can continue to go on and I haven't even begun to touch on anything done locally or regionally. Some of the items above (notably #1, #3) can be reasonably considered debatable (and they're included as such intentionally), most of the rest should fairly comfortably be generally accepted as improvements or examples of good being done by the USFA.

-B

[CvilleFencer]

Wow, thanks for the reality check Oiuyt! I guess a lot of us get stuck in looking down the road towards the goal and forget how nice a place we are in right now compared to where we were a few years ago! Can't wait to see what we have accomplished by 08 or 12.