For once, Europe’s judo capital is not in Austria this weekend, as the 74th Ordinary EJU Congress will take place in Ljubljana on Saturday. However, the European judo family gathered in the Slovenian capital on Thursday. For two days, national judo federations presented best practice examples from the areas of administration, education and marketing within the framework of workshops. Judo Austria General Secretary Corina Korner was right in the middle of it all, explaining the successful member management of the ÖJV to her colleagues from all over Europe: “Only a few associations in Europe have their own administrative database or digital licensing system like we do with JAMA. We are certainly one of the pioneers in Austria and can help others with their further development with our experience.”
In return, the ÖJV general secretary – like Verena Lebinger, who was the second ÖJV representative on site to find out about the latest topics relating to tournament administration – can also take home valuable input from other judo associations: “What about the Netherlands in the area of school sport is unique in Europe. But other countries such as Hungary or Croatia have also shown some very exciting approaches by offering kata courses for children, the focused teaching of judo values or the deliberate neglect of competitive judo at a young age.”
Jointly responsible for enabling this mutual exchange of ideas is ÖJV President Martin Poiger, who initiated the “National Federation Workshop” in his function as Secretary General of the European Judo Union: “We not only want to promote the dialogue between the national federations, but also break new ground together in the promotion of judo.” The newly created workshop format was only a first step, in the coming months additional digital offers should enable a year-round and location-independent exchange.
