Individual Club member
Tuesday, 14 March 2006
Dear members
You are all aware that all memberships, insurances are due 27th March 2006, some of you are concerned about visitors attending your club and whether you are insured or not. All people who use your club must be members of the IBF for your Individual; Club and Coaches insurances to be valid, most Martial Arts Associations now operate under the same circumstances. I understand that the grappling sports have historically always allowed visiting grapplers to participate and for whatever reason they may not want to grade or require an IBF License. To facilitate that, I have introduced a two level membership scheme IBF National Membership:
Full membership.
Club membership: this allows Martial Arts Players to attend IBF/ASM/BCSA clubs and IBF/ASM/BCSA sanctioned competitions and be insured, more importantly, the Clubs and Coaches are fully insured.
An IBF Club member receives no licences, can not grade, officiate or participate in an event that requires IBF National membership, but must abide by all regulations that are laid down by the IBF when participating in one of their events or attending one of their clubs.
My club at Sittingbourne often gets criticised for their hard line with regard to junior members attending other clubs or allowing non-IBF players to attend our club, once again this is an insurance matter. The club has no problem with its junior members attending another IBF club (as long as they ask) and we are sure of the standards at that Club.
All IBF clubs and Coaches have a duty of care to their members, one of which is that they are taught correctly and do not learn dangerous or incorrect techniques, this can happen if children are allowed to attend any club or competition willy nilly. Plus, what about the insurance implications for the Club Coach? Can I offer a example.
Club A does not teach children less than 14 years of age arm locks and strangles, as they are considered dangerous. Little John attends a club where they are taught he returns and subsequently breaks another child’s arm. The parents sue the club and/or coach for allowing dangerous techniques, which caused injury to their child. You protest that you did not teach the technique, yet you knew the child was attending other clubs, which you had no control over and failed to prevent the child using the technique in your class. You may be in breach of policy terms, which will result in the insurance company leaving you to defend the claim on your own, or alternatively the insurance company may meet the claim, but refuse to insure you in future as you have failed to follow the governing body guidelines.
The same applies to allowing Non IBF coaches who teach at an IBF club, who would be responsible if they taught a technique, which involved the injury of a child?
All Coaches have a duty to protect their members against abuse, this can manifest it self in many ways. Think about the parent who takes their child to Judo every night of the week and most weekends to a competition. To me this is a form of abuse, yet the child’s parent may not even realise that they are doing harm! So, we IBF coaches must be ever vigilant.
Can all Judo Coaches and Club Secretaries please let me know if any of their students will be taking Dan grade promotion examination in the next 12 months as I need to monitor there involvement within the organisation. I mainly refer to refereeing as the IBF Yudanshakai agreed in January that all those going for Dan Grades must be qualified and active referees, also there is a choice of Ju No Kata or Nage No Kata for 1st Dan over 30 years of age.
All officials of a club must have a CRB disclosure this also includes any person who has dealings with children even if that person just takes the money or serves the tea. This service is available to IBF members free,if they are not members they can approach their local council for a disclosure form normally there is a fee for this service.
Remember if you have any problems contact HQ
Marin Clarke 8th Dan