Parents
One of the topics of on-going membership concern has been the role of parents of athletes in our sport. Parents are vital to the success of our organization, both directly and indirectly through their children. Yet all too often they are marginalized, whether through intent or neglect, and pushed off to the side or, most commonly, simply ignored.
That needs to stop. Parents should be not only welcomed, but actively encouraged to increase their participation in fencing. Not only will this benefit the parents and the athletes, it should pay off tremendously for the organization as a whole. Fencing parents tend to be well-educated and well-placed. Currently they are an underutilized resource. Getting more parents more involved helps everyone.
US Fencing used to have a very strong and active Parents Committee headed by Linda Merritt and Catherine Marchand. This group needs to be revitalized with an expanded role. Much of the rest of this document will discuss the guidance to be given such a Parent Advisory Council, although it’s expected that the members of that group to a large extent will determine their own list of priorities and necessary actions.
When Summer Nationals were first created as a concept in the late 90’s, it was envisioned as a grand convention of all things fencing. While it still offers much of that as far as the actual competition portion goes, most of the rest has fallen by the wayside. In part this has to do with the ever-expanding numbers of competitors and the demands of actually running the tournament, but in part pieces have merely fallen into disuse through lack of being a top priority of any specific associated group.
Intermittently in the past we’ve had various clinics and seminars presented throughout the week. The FOC continues to run a well-received series of evening sessions of the standard referee clinic. Other topics haven’t received that type of on-going support. We should have clinics scattered throughout the week and well advertised. While these won’t be open exclusively to parents, it’s anticipated that they will be one of the target audiences.
Such clinics should include:
- Basic equipment troubleshooting
- How to attend your first international event
- How the points system works/Making a National Team
- How to select/buy equipment
- Collegiate fencing
- Running tournaments
- Traveling on a budget
- Nutrition
- Injury prevention
We should leverage the thousands of hours of time that many of our parents have spent discovering for themselves the best way to travel to Germany and Croatia, what it means for an international event to be “designated”, how best to handle the unavoidable conflicts between the demands of being a competitive athlete and a frequently very heavy academic workload. Many of our parents have already struggled with the decision of when to purchase FIE-grade equipment for a child likely to have a growth spurt soon. They have knowledge about how to select a club and a coach and the optimal way to structure those interactions.
By having parent-led roundtable discussions we can help our newer parents build on the efforts of our experienced parents. We can help further foster the already vibrant community of fencing parents and welcome newcomers into the fold. Cultivating this exchange of information will help fencing parents save time, money, and perhaps most importantly for all involved, some measure of sanity in our crazy sport.
These discussion groups can also lead to increased influence on the functioning of US Fencing as an organization. Isolated voices can be missed, especially when they don’t know how decisions that will affect them (or their children) are being made. By having regular meetings, whether formal or not, there will be convenient opportunity for the flow of information and concerns in both directions. The officers will be able to increase the transparency of decisions being made and parents will be able to provide input, direction, and feedback directly. It is anticipated that not only will the Parent Advisory Council provide a highly visible and important role in such roundtable discussions, but also that there will be links with at least one of the officers who will be available for such at every national tournament.
In addition to in-person meetings at national tournaments, we need a commitment to increased information flow to ALL parents (and all members, more generally), including those not involved nationally. While initially likely non-interactive, there’s no reason that many of the clinics can’t also be provided in modified form online.
A great example of how this could work is the Armoury area provided through Leon Paul, British Fencing, and the British Fencing Guild of Armorers.
Another is the “Parent Guide to Fencing” written in 2002 by Catherine Marchand and Linda Merritt and currently the only content in the parents section of the US Fencing website.
The US Fencing website should act as a clearinghouse for information. Finding or creating useful resources and then presenting them in a coherent, well-organized, and easy-to-use format will be beneficial to all of our members and would-be members. Much of what should be presented is already available, it’s merely scattered or otherwise inaccessible. Some of it will need to be created or updated. Once the existing information has been collated, we can target areas for expansion, addition, or improvement. This can be further expanded into a regular Parents eNewsletter, much like the one produced for referees by Bill Oliver and the FOC, to provide updates, distribute potentially over-looked information, and address areas of topical importance.
Moving away from clinics, workshops, and other educational opportunities for a moment, there are a number of other areas of importance to parents that need to be addressed.
Many of the issues encountered by parents come from a lack of available information. Too many of our organizational processes are structured as black boxes. How do we select the fourth member of junior national teams? What makes THAT tournament designated, but not THIS one? Why are the qualification paths set up this way? Why can’t we do this thing over here better?
Most of that is outside the scope of this paper. Greater transparency and accountability for decisions at all levels is something to which we are all committed. Systematically changing the culture of the organization, which will not happen overnight, but which is sadly overdue, will yield considerable benefits in both improvements in the decision-making processes and greater understanding of how such conclusions are reached.
Another topic that has been raised by both athletes and parents is the need for an “Athlete Ombudsman.” US Fencing began the process a couple of years ago to create and fill such a position. In part it stalled out due to lack of qualified candidates who presented themselves for the role. It then lost some momentum, and faded out into oblivion. This needs to be restarted. We need to make it a priority to get someone in this role.
Such an ombudsman would be charged with representing the interests of the members by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individuals. He or she would report to the Board of Directors, but would be completely outside of the normal organizational and administrative structure. S/he would be a designated neutral party who can provide options to members with ethics concerns, provide mediation for disputes, track on-going areas of concern, and help to highlight areas where our current policies or structures are a subject of concern or otherwise overdue for review.
Finally, we need to address why parents should even join US Fencing. This is part of a much wider discussion of membership benefits and what people get in exchange for their annual fee. It needs to be addressed as a part of that larger topic.
Parents are one of the lifebloods of our organization. Not only are they (quite literally) the source of our athletes, they form a considerable portion of the backbone of the support of our athletes and US Fencing as a whole. Their concerns, both direct and on behalf of their children, need to be systematically addressed. They need to have a formal role in the decision-making processes, both before decisions are made and later in the evaluation and revision phases. Parents should be aided to the extent possible in educating and informing themselves so they have the information required to make the best decisions for their athletes, their families, and themselves.