The Fifteenth Congress of the ITF was held at the end of July in Dortmund (Germany), and I had the pleasure of presenting a report of what has been accomplished in the two years since the previous Congress Meeting.

Click here to read the full report. (144 kB)

As I explained at the Congress Meeting, over the past two years we have given the ITF the tools (the revised Constitution, By-Law No. 1, etc.) to make it an efficient well-structured organization that uses business management methods.

Now that the foundation is in place, we can build on it. This means development, because the future of the ITF depends on development. We must concentrate our efforts on the development of the ITF at all levels: the instructors, the schools, the regional associations, the National Associations, the Continental Federations, and at the international level.

For Our Instructors

Our instructors are the key to development. You should be able to work full-time as TKD teachers and earn a good living. As an instructor affiliated with the ITF, you have a big advantage, because the organization has a reputation for quality and because the ITF will help you to improve your teaching methods and develop your business skills. Programs about Teaching the Do, self defense, and other subjects of interest will result in an improved product that will attract more potential students. People are very interested in being in better physical condition; self-defense techniques are useful to everyone, and the TKD philosophy with its positive message is very attractive. There is a huge market and we can reach it if we work together. I am very happy to announce that we will soon be making available on the ITF Web site a bulletin board where ITF instructors will be able to look for work anywhere in the world.
Watch the What´s New? section of this Web site for details.

To our Instructors: Please do not hesitate to contact ITF if you are willing to share your successful teaching methods and business development experiences with other ITF instructors around the world:

• To share your teaching methods, click here to contact Master Hector Marano, Chair of the Technical & Instruction Committee.
• To share your business development ideas, click here to contact Master Alberto Katz, Chair of the Business Development Committee.
• By helping each other we will be building a better ITF and helping our students to have better lives.

For Our Organizations

To avoid wasted efforts, development projects must be feasible and well-structured, so ITF organizations at all levels need to have their own business plans. And the ITF is ready to help you. In order to use our resources efficiently, we have identified three categories of countries that we are targeting for development:

• all the countries where there is already an ITF National Association,
• countries where the potential number of new members is large,
• countries where there are as yet no ITF members.

In countries where a National Association already exists, the ITF will offer information and assistance to help the National Association to increase the number of students in their country. Where the potential number of new members in a country is large, ITF will assist existing National Associations by providing information and guidance for strategic development. The ITF will work directly for development in countries where there are no ITF members.

Remember that ITF wants to support your development efforts. We are interested in hearing about your ideas and projects for development in your country. We can provide information and guidance about how to prepare a market study or a feasibility study. We can help you establish innovative programs and approach organizations for funding. Let us know what you want to do and what you need.

Survey of National Associations

At the Congress Meeting we distributed a survey form to the National Associations, asking them about their needs and what they expect from the ITF. Our National Associations obviously appreciate having the opportunity to tell us what they want and need. In fact, many survey forms have already been returned to us. I would like to thank the representatives of the National Associations who took the time to complete the survey. After analyzing the results of the survey, we will be able to orient our efforts to give our National Associations the services that are most important to them.

I plan to write about the results of the survey in more detail in a future President´s Message.

First Administrative Seminar

For the first time ever, an Administrative Seminar was presented in conjunction with the recent Congress Meeting in Dortmund (Germany); workshops covered various subjects. One workshop was titled How ITF Can Help You to Have More Members. The methods shared at the workshop work. I know, because I have used them successfully. Documentation on the subject was distributed at each workshop, and the participants were pleased to take it home for future reference.

Click here to read more about this topic and other workshops included in the seminar.

To follow up on the success of this seminar, we plan to offer seminars on this and other subjects in the future.

In conclusion

We can all be proud to be affiliated with ITF, because we are working together to develop a quality product for all TKD practitioners.

Do you have any comments or suggestions about this month´s President´s Message or any other subject? Click here to send me an e-mail.

Master Trân Trieu Quân