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As the new year approaches, we have a tendency to look back and evaluate the past year and start formulating our New Year’s resolutions – call them “goals” if you like, or “Key Performance Indicators” in Strategic Planning terms.
Highlights of the 2012 Hockey Year have to be the superb London Olympics, the inauguration of the World League and the increased hockey audience – both live and electronically.
If the FIH is to remain a suitably ambitious International Sports Federation it has to continue to expand its income and revenue base, continue the transition from a primarily volunteer based organisation to a professionally run and staffed one, with a Board guiding, advising and setting the parameters.
However, it’s a bit early to be dispensing with the volunteers – many of whom provide vital input to the affairs and progress of the FIH. The same must, of necessity, apply to our Continental Federations and National Associations – many of the latter battling to stay afloat in choppy seas with volunteers the backbone of their organisations.
So the message for the Festive Season is to pay tribute to the many thousands of volunteers across the globe for all they do and have done to keep the wonderful game of hockey alive and vibrant.
For 2013 the challenge for all of us in hockey will be to keep constructively analysing the game of hockey and our role in it and to see how we can cost-effectively improve and grow the game without discarding its essential values.
If the 2012 London Olympics was a snapshot of many of the best things in the game it will make a great Christmas card expressing our wishes for 2013.
To you all, I hope you have a wonderful Festive Season and 2013 is a great and rewarding year.
Viewpoint is a monthly column contributed by the Chariman of the FIH High Performance and Coaching Panel, Steve Jaspan
