In various countries and internationally the governing bodies of hockey are months away from their Annual General Meetings, Council Meetings or Congresses.
By Steve Jaspan
For many years hockey administrators have pondered the question ÔÇ£How do you make these productive as possible for the members and how do you ensure that the vast amounts of money spent are justified via the delegates full participation, ability to gain valuable information and to return home not only to inform their constituency impart knowledge but also to be more effective administrators?ÔÇØ
Wow, that's quite a mouthful and it seems like an unattainable wish! But is it really?
I don't think so!
My colleague on the FIH Executive Board, Aaron Sher, who chairs the Communication and Information Technology Committee (CITC) is one of those people who has been researching this for many years and looked at the approach adopted by other sports bodies.
He has been very instrumental, amongst others, in adding a Forum to the FIH Congress to involve as many National Associations, impart knowledge and obtain important feedback.
In the good old days the FIH Congress took a morning and then everyone had a finger lunch and went home! Of late a further full day has been added to the Forum and many believe that with suitable subject matter and if properly structured, including workshops, information kiosks, etc this should be expanded to two days.
The Congress is the business part and generally a sterile environment for debate, but not the Forum! No relevant sports body can possibly ignore the needs of its members and what better way of really hearing concerns from grassroots level than to create the right forum, the right ÔÇ£climateÔÇØ or milieu in which members feel comfortable and motivated to share these views and help sow the seeds for problem solving. If people have flown halfway across the world at great expense to attend let's use the time effectively.
I am sure the FIH Executive Board would like to hear your ideas on making the Congress and Forum more effective and ensuring that the problems of hockey are addressed and the opportunities maximized!
There may be National Associations who already do this, others may learn from these new ideas but, we need to ensure we have a suitable ÔÇ£melting potÔÇØ to come up with a special hockey recipe of how to mast cost-effectively use this valuable time and expertise.
Steve Jaspan is FIH Executive Board member and chairman of the FIH High Performance Committee.
