I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the participants from around the World who competed in Ottawa, Canada, for the 2012 World Broomball Championships in the Men, Women, Mixed and Masters categories, and making this event very successful for the Ottawa Host Committee and the participating communities in the Ottawa Valley. Furthermore, a special thanks the Host Chair Mr. George Brown and his Hosting Team and specifically to John Dalgity who put many personal obligations aside from his business and life to work behind the scenes managing the administrative affairs for the Ottawa Host Committee. Leading up to the event he ensured communications links to the event were continuously updated on both web sites (Host site and IFBA), and monitored the stats program designed by John for Broomball Canada, throughout the event.There are many complexities to operating a not-for-profit organization and at the Ottawa Governors meeting, the IFBA Executive Team were mandated with registering the IFBA with a National Government, as required to be recognized as an International Sport Governing Body for the Sport of Broomball. To ensure proper steps were taken, a legal team specializing in sport administration were commissioned and we are now in the final stages of completing the necessary documents including changes to the Constitution and Bylaws. Once this process is complete, it will make the IFBA reporting more transparent to the membership financially and present better guidelines to work from pertaining to program development and marketing the sport.It has been some time since updates had been posted on the progress of the IFBA and a report from my office. The main reason for this was the way in which the IFBA web site was being managed. Consequently, there has been a positive move to correct the situation and remedy the enormous cost to the Federation for maintaining and using the site for a better information highway base than the previous system used. In addition to the changes, a new Webmaster is providing his services to the IFBA and has now commenced the necessary changes to the site on a volunteer basis with members of the IFBA Executive. We are confident the changes will keep our members better informed for future development and provide much needed information on the sport internationally. It is important the Membership use this site for information finding as well for posting events and programs available within their countries. The goal is to have a good social media base for future broomball communications.Looking towards the future, there are three main events that are progressing very well. Beginning with the October 2013 Pacific Rim down under scheduled in Melbourne. Broomball Australia reports an increase in activity with more competitors from Canada and Japan traveling to this event. The positive showing by Australian teams at World events should make this a very competitive championships…not to mention the after competition activities the Aussies are so good at preparing.On the other side of the World, the Slovenian Broomball Association is hosting the 2013 European Championships in Bled and has included an invitational category for North American teams to participate. The IFBA site inspection for this event was very promising and has secured unique venue locations (2), accommodations and evening festivities and is totally supported by the Mayor and Council and local Tourism officials. This Sanctioned European event is showing interest throughout Europe with teams attending from Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany and the possibility of Russia and Scandinavian countries joining in as well.
2014 Host Committee MeetingRecently in July, the IFBA also completed the required site inspection in Tomakomai, Japan, and found plans are well underway to Host the 2014 World Championships. The 2014 Host Chair and Japan Broomball Association President Hajame Kubo, provided the visiting delegation a very educational, cultural and thorough site visit which incorporated support meetings with the Mayor of Tomakomai, the Chamber of Commerce Chairman, Board of Education Superintendent, Tourism officials and sports officials including the Tomakomai Hockey Federation who are researching providing officials for the event.Some of the major internal IFBA projects that are near completion are the Rule Book changes which are very close to sending to publication. Once the book is ready for distribution it will also be posted on the web site for purchase. The IFBA Technical group listened to the teams and coaches for constructive changes and feel confident most of the issues were taken into account when making the necessary amendments. The most contentious issue was the Overtime period and how to make it challenging and fair to the teams playing. The IFBA will be monitoring the changes starting with the two 2013 events.Another publication with many changes is the Bid Policy and Hosting Policy. This document is also nearing completion and should be ready to be sent to the Governors by September. I will be meeting with various organizations in Europe in August and September during my vacation. The plans are also to visit other countries and speak with Sport Federations and Recreation departments about developing the sport of broomball in other European Centres. Representatives in the countries I will be visiting will be contacted prior to the meeting dates.Internally, filling the position of Treasurer was also completed. I am pleased to announce the appointment of Shannon Drewery, from Victoria, Canada as the IFBA Treasurer. Her expertise and professionalism in the field of finance is very much welcomed.The next report will be posted at the end of September prior to leaving Europe. Sport organizers are now preparing for the season to begin in most areas of the World and I wish everyone success in the upcoming season.
Yours in Broomball,Rick Przybysz President/CEOIFBA PDF version available for download here 2013-08-01_Pres-Report-Web-Site