NEW EHFA BOARD

Once again elections are on my mind.


No not the gladiatorial spectacle on TV – fascinating as it is – but something far more humble.

I was recently elected onto the EHFA Board and I started to think about what my manifesto promises would look like as a ‘deliverable’. I am realistic enough to know that my presence on the board is a reflection of my position at the FIA and not a testimony to any political machinations. Therefore, what are my goals.

As a representative of the UK health and fitness industry I think they are twofold:

- How can we, as a UK industry, benefit from a European health strategy, in much the same way as we have from the UK one

- Think MoreActive4Life, Let’s Dance...., Know your Limits, Fit 4The Future, etc

- How can our European peers benefit from our learnings in the UK.

The reality is that the health agenda is as important to Europeans as it is to us and European politicians are as desperate to find a pathway to a healthier Europe as ours’ are. Therein lies our opportunity.

We have much to share and much to learn – which is why I am quite enthusiastic at the thought of my quarterly jaunts into a market which is not only bigger, but far more complex than anything I can even envisage. But think of the upside. Imagine what impact a European Change4Life could have on the value and reputation of our industry – in this country and across Europe.

Imagine the impact on a healthcare sector which still contains luddites who either don’t or rarely acknowledge/appreciate the value of exercise in the ‘healthcare-mix’.

We know that we have a huge role to play in both (health) prevention and remedial strategies... my challenge is to be part of the Executive to take that message to politicians who are committed to developing long term strategies and healthcare professionals who need convincing.

Small ambition then!!

Finally, speaking of remedial issues, a quiet and unashamed plug for a hair brained initiative I’m involved in - Help For Heroes, the charity set up to help returning servicemen and women wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq, need your support (read ‘money’). A team of six misled and over ambitious people plan to ‘climb the equivalent of seven of the highest peaks on the seven continents’ in just 24-hours.

This attempt to climb 6,250 feet an hour.... on a VERSA CLIMBER might be ill conceived for a man in his forties, but it is for a very good cause. So please do support us to sign up or find out more just visit http://www.justgiving.com/davestalker.

David Stalker
Executive Director
Fitness Industry Association

Well Done all you UK Fitness Industry People!

Last week I was in Brussels attending and presenting to an EHFA meeting – The European Health and Fitness Association (EHFA) is, as its name suggests, the European version of the FIA.....they have even adopted our strap line ‘more people
more active
more often’.

Two things struck me:


1. How much we, as in the UK Fitness industry do- because my five minute slot just wasn’t nearly long enough to cover all the initiatives (from MoreActive4Life to Fit For the Future, to go, etc) that we collectively deliver.

I know we live in the age of the sound bite, but five minutes and five slides was really pushing it. From the role of the CMO, to FLAME winners, to the TwentyTen Commission (our sector wide five year strategy development initiative), we are a busy bunch.


2. Our European peers were amazed and envious at our relationship with Government, the DH, the Health Secretary, as well as the Shadow Secretaries.

We were also interviewed by a German/European trade publication (Health and Beauty) and they too were enormously impressed at what we have achieved in the UK. They will be interviewing the German Health Minister in the next few weeks and will be citing our campaigns and programmes as an example of what a fully rounded and integrated a public health strategy could look like.


We talked about the US model and the journalist very rightly pointed out that while it is a more mature market, their industry has yet to plan and implement a national campaign like MoreActive4Life – probably, he suggested, because their trade body only tends to represent the private sector, unlike the FIA, which represents both public and private operators.


As a great man once said, sometimes it’s good to stop and admire the scenery behind you, before turning and gazing at the mountain face ahead of you.

 
David Stalker, COO at the FIA