On Friday 15 January 2021, ISF held its annual Technical Commissions (TC) meeting, online, bringing together 30 ISF Technical Commission Presidents and Coordinators from 24 different countries, representing 29 different sports.
The participants were officially welcomed to the meeting by ISF President Mr Laurent Petrynka, who delivered his opening remarks: “I wish to thank you all for the hard work and dedication you have continued to show. The year 2020 was undoubtedly a tough situation for everyone, but we can all be very proud of what we were able to achieve. With our energy, innovation, and spirit, we were able to continue to create opportunities in the world of school sport. Now moving into 2021, we all have high expectations and hope for this year to be full of optimism, building upon ideas and discovering new opportunities. I believe that with your help, we will be able to achieve this, as your motivation continues to inspire us all to keep working hard. Thank you once again, and I hope to see you all soon at ISF events.”
As in past ISF TC meetings, members of the sport committee were also present, with Zeljko Tanaskovic as committee Chair and Serbian School Sport Federation President, following up with some welcoming words of his own: “I am very glad to see you all here again, after such a difficult year. I am hopeful that we can continue to bring back school sport, and invite you all to come to Belgrade for the U15 ISF World School Sport Games, for which we are doing everything we can to be a good host and provide opportunities for youth to have unforgettable experiences.”
Led by ISF Secretary General/CEO Hrvoje Custonja and ISF Sports Director Josip Kosutic, the meeting was an opportunity to present and explain the recent activities and projects newly implemented within ISF since the previous ISF TC meeting which took place in February 2020, when 29 TC Presidents and Coordinators gathered at the ISF headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
The year 2021 is an important year for ISF, thanks to the hard work and dedication of ISF members, many events that were originally scheduled to take place in 2020, will now be available in 2021. This year’s calendar will consist of five World Schools Championships, one International School Cup, the second editions of the innovative projects, She Runs Active Girls’ Lead, ISF Online Chess and Cool Games, as well as the third edition of the ISF E-Sport Games. Furthermore, this year will see the organisation of the two largest ISF events in the U15 World School Sport Games in Belgrade, Serbia, and the 18th Gymnasiade Jinjiang 2020 in P.R. China. Therefore, the Local Organising Committees for both events were honoured guests to this year’s TC meeting, in order to further present the state of affairs regarding the preparation of these two events.
Following the difficult circumstances surrounding the majority of the year 2020, the meeting provided the chance to review ISF activities and events that took place despite the adversity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with the cancellation or postponement of all original events. Participants were given an overview of the three projects that were therefore newly created in 2020, with overall statistics for the ISF Stay Active Campaign, the ISF World Schools Taekwondo Poomsae Virtual Championship, and the ISF World Schools Championship Online Chess.
Having created alternative opportunities for ISF events, further adaptations have also been implemented within the event and sport strategy. With ISF events having the capacity to welcome more teams and participants, a new participation policy has been introduced with the aim of reaching additional audiences through Directly Applying Schools (DAS) who will join ISF member participants that are already registered in the events.
In addition to presenting the new and adapted features within ISF, the meeting was also an opportunity to emphasise the responsibilities and mission of TC members in the framework of ISF events organisation, sharing with them all the event management guidelines and requirements for each functional area that have been developed and updated, thanks to all their hard work and expertise within their sport.
