The AETF Women Committee was established in January 2022, shortly after the Board Meeting of the newly elected Board members. During the first year of the term, a lot happened….
The first week after the establishment the committee held its first meeting, through Zoom, to get to know each other, to set the goals and to make the planning for 2022. Shortly after, there was a second Zoom meeting between the committee members and the Secretary-General of the AETF.
On several occasions, members of the committee were able to meet in person and discuss several topics. This was e.g. the case during the IIC in Ireland (February), the European Championships in Croatia (April) and the World Cup in Slovenia (October). These events were also the ideal moment to meet and talk to the European members. It were ideal moments to receive feedback, suggestions and ideas, and to listen to the needs of the female practitioners.
At the beginning of the year an e-mail address was created for the committee: aetfwomen@itfeurope.be, but of course the members of the committee could and can be reached through other means (e.g. private e-mail address, Messenger, WhatsApp).
In March, a survey was launched on through the AETF website and social media. The purpose was to get an insight in the needs & wants of the female European Taekwon-Do practitioners. After a couple of weeks the results were analysed, and plans were made to work with these results, on the short term (2022) as well as on the longer term (2023). The participants at the survey pointed out the need for information on specific items, so the AETF Women Committee published (through the website and the social media) 2 series of publications: testimonies of female practitioners on the combination of Taekwon-Do with work and family, and information (both articles and information videos) on the female cycle.
There was also a need to have more visibility from and for women, therefore the committee published quite a lot of articles on events, activities in Europe. With the creation of a specific logo and the use of specific colours, it was quite clear as all these items were related to the AETF Women Committee.
In April, during the European Championships, there was a real celebration of the female umpires present at the tournament, with pictures and biographies. The committee was very happy to see the high number of female umpires at the EC, together with the large number of female competitors, coaches and officials. But of course, there’s always room for improvement…
The ITF Adult Harassment Policy was spread among European practitioners, a very important policy (for women and men) established by ITF.
Just before summer time a Zoom meeting was held with the AETF Women Committee and the national committees, in presence of members of the ITF Women Committee. It was an opportunity to meet and talk, to discuss on things, to inform and receive information. The promise was made to help and support the national Women Committees, and to help the countries that want to establish a committee. So far in Europe, 3 countries have a committee, while in 3 other countries the process for establishing a committee is going on.
Of course, the AETF Women Committee supported the ITF Women Committee, and vice versa.
In general, the conclusion can be made that 2022 was a very productive year and the committee did a lot of work during its first year of existence. However, the work is not finished and there are a lot of plans for 2023.
Stay tuned to read more about these plans soon……
