“Everyone around the world is watching and we need to demonstrate the highest values.”
The final day of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation’s 2021 Technical Seminar Week featured sessions on ‘Introducing the Internship & Volunteers Programme at IMMAF’ with Volunteers Manager, Jaine Shah, and ‘Championships Updates: New Team Penalty Point System and Child Safeguarding Policies’ with the Events team headed by Championships Director, Alistair Pettitt. The week concluded with a closing speech by President Kerrith Brown OLY.
In his closing talk Kerrith Brown commented:
“ Our second Technical Seminar Week online has been a huge success. Holding these events online has made them more accessible and affordable, allowing a greater number of people to attend from all around the world. I am extremely proud of the content of the week’s seminars.Through knowledge-sharing and education our organisations can greatly improve their value and their power for positive social change.”
CHAMPIONSHIPS UPDATE
In the Championships Update session, Compliance Officer Ralph Cooke and Championships Director Alistair Pettitt outlined IMMAF’s new Team Penalty Point System (TPPS) to be introduced at IMMAF Championships to address event rules violations. Under the system, teams will lose ranking points for infractions by any member of their team, tiered from category 1 level (grave) down to category 4 (that includes disorderly conduct). The system is to be finalised and piloted this year, and there will be educational briefings and workshops for federations.
In his closing speech, President Brown highlighted the importance of IMMAF taking a strict approach to rules enforcement in order to uphold its values as the world’s governing body for amateur MMA:
“Everyone around the world is watching and we need to demonstrate the highest values. The recent Council of Europe Recommendation gives a positive boost to MMA and more than 49 of our federations now have national level recognition. It is the duty of our federations to continue to uphold the highest standards and to push for recognition in their countries so that future generations in the sport can look back and be proud of us.”
The Events Team also introduced the new Child Safeguarding Policies to be implemented at IMMAF’s Youth World Championships in July in Istanbul, with registration due to open next week. Alistair Pettitt additionally spoke of a new event to be added to the 2021 events calendar, a World Cup invitational in the Czech Republic.
IMMAF INTERNSHIP & VOLUNTEERS PROGRAMME
In‘Introducing the Internship & Volunteers Programme at IMMAF’, Jaine Shah promoted the programmes’ benefits to National Federations that included filling skills gaps, enabling organisational growth and contributing socio-economically to local communities in the development of job skills. She spoke in turn of the rewards provided to participants, including personal and professional development, enhanced employability and potential job creation. She detailed how most staff at IMMAF, as a non-profit sports organisation, had started as volunteers. She further outlined the difference between IMMAF internship and volunteer programmes and was joined by current IT volunteer Vincent Pedemonte and Events Team intern, Sophie Mueller to describe their experiences at IMMAF.
Shah said: “Volunteers are the backbone of the sports industry from the Olympics down and add great value to the sector. At IMMAF, we strive to create opportunities for a mutually rewarding win:win outcome for all.”
For more information about Intern and Volunteering opportunities at IMMAF visit:
