Sports is one of the activities, which is known to improve the general quality of human’s life. Different forms of sports tend to have an overall organization responsible for managing their international activities. For instance, FIFA is responsible for handling international matters involving football. Similarly, skating event is internationally managed by the International Skating Union. The objective of this project is to conduct an in-depth analysis on International Skating Union as well as assess its effect on the general population economically and socially.
Basic Information
International Skating Union’s denoted ISU is an ice-skating international management body. The major objective is to control, govern and sell the sports in Speed Skating, Figure Skating as well as their planned growth on the development of mutual understanding among sportswomen and men (Fischer, Darby, Morgan, & Tobar, 2016). The International Skating Union intend to expand its interest by enhancing their popularity, improving their quality and adding the number of individuals participating in its activities across the globe (Fischer et al., 2016). International Skating Union is committed to several different forms of skating which include Figure Skating, Speed Skating, Synchronized Skating, short track speed skating.
Management staff
The International Skating Union is made up of several bodies. Office Holders and Coordinators are hired to ensure ISU’s routinely activities are conducted efficiently. Under the office holders and coordinator, there are numerous officials as mentioned within the International Skating Union statutes. In consideration to International Skating Union commitment to transparency, the statues are always placed at any event, which gets to be organized under similar statutes (Fischer et al., 2016). The discussion below is about the major various sections of the management staff. The topmost management of International Skating Union is composed of the Councils, which is headed by the President who is assisted by a vice president and four members representing the Skating Branch. In addition to those, there is another Vice President as well as Four members representing the Speed Skating Branch.
International Skating Union Bodies
- ISU members are responsible for running Congress.
- Development Commission
- Disciplinary Commission.
- Development Commission
- Technical committees
- Secretariat
- Medical Commission
- The Council. The office happens to be the highest body among two congresses.
International Skating Union Holders
- The office of the president
- Two vice presidents, one representing figure skating while the other is responsible for speed skating.
- Director General
- ISU Sports Director
- Sporting Director Manager Figure Skating
- Disciplinary Commission Members
- Technical Committees
- Legal Advisors
- Treasurer
Officials
- Representatives
- Olympic Winter Games Technical Delegates.
- Referees Coordinators and Assistant Coordinators.
- Judges
- Technical Controllers
- Data & Replay Operators
- Starters
- Competitors Stewards
Services/product
International Skating Union is tasked with the management of the competitive ice skating. The organization was founded in Scheveningen, the Netherlands in 1892. As a result, it is believed to be one of the oldest sports federations across the glove (Budarick, Shell, Robbins, Wu, Renaud, & Pearsall, 2018). The organization does not provide goods. On the contrary, it standardizes international rules and regulations in the field of skating (Budarick et al., 2018). Additionally, it organizes international competition in different skating disciplines. Currently, the organization is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. The different types of skating activities overseen by International Skating Union include:
- Figure Skating.
- Synchronized Skating.
- Speed Skating.
- Short Track.
Marketing
According to a report by Technavio’s extensive industrial study, marketing is one of the important aspects of the organization, which will permit individuals to be aware and to take full advantage of skating chances present within their region. The ever-growing popularity of the sport as a result of robust marketing by International Skating Union for figure skating especially in developing nations is expected to foster the growth of the world-wide ice-skating equipment market (Budarick et al., 2018). The marketing report also assesses competitive landscape as well as numerous figures in skating equipment’s, which consist of American Athletic Shoe, Roces, and Jackson Ultima shoes. The organization markets the skating sports through all its social media.
One major event used to market International Skating Union is Olympic. Olympic is an international organization known to having a massive number of followers. In fact, the giant organization is believed to reach Billion of individual in more than 200 nations and territories world-wide (Rustin, 2017). During events such as Olympic games, ice skaters as well as the ISU amass more popularity, as well as sell their activities to the viewers. Even though ISU markets itself through its services, the amount of sponsorship is not adequate to sustain its operations efficiently. As a result, it also relies on support from other sporting franchises such as companies tasked with manufacturing of skating shoes.
Depending the location where a specific ice-skating event tend to take place, different corporates partners with the International Skating Union to promote their services and products. The companies are located across the globe and include renowned brands such as Coca-Cola, PayPal, and DHL (Rustin, 2017). Meanwhile, for individuals who are engaging in skating activities, the ISU encourages members to seek for sponsors who can either be a corporate sponsor or individual. Some of the globally known organizations that offer sponsorship may vary from Monster energy drink, American Athletic Shoe, ROCES, SP-Teri, and Rollerblade.
Finance
Being a global organization, the international skating equipment approximates the company will be worth USD 57 million by 2022. Based on the current trends, the organization has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of five percent within the past five years (García-Olivares, Solé & Osychenko, 2018). Depending on the location where a specific ice-skating event is to take place, different corporates patterner with the International Skating Union to promote their services and products. The companies are located across the globe and include renowned brands such as Coca-Cola, LG, Samsung, Huawei, Toyota, and Visa.
International Skating Union gets a share of the number of revenues generated through Olympic Partnerships. Revenue generated through commercial partnership, which is responsible for over 40% of Olympic revues (García-Olivares, Solé & Osychenko, 2018). Meanwhile, for individuals who are engaging in skating activities, the ISU encourages members to seek for sponsors who can either be a corporate sponsor or individual
Communication
International Skating Union makes use of a different form of media to communicate especially to the external environment. ISU major communication is always done through its official website and social media platforms such as Facebook, Tweeter and LinkedIn (Cotter, 2017). In an effort to make its social media conversion around championships and events efficient, there exist several official ISU hashtags created for every event, championship, and Series. The hashtags are designed to be memorable and easy to use. Any individual may join the conversation through the provided tags can initiate a conversation or respond to a post. All of the available links used by International Skate Union to communicate to the external community are greatly monitored. The process is carried to ensure whatever message is communicated through the organization's platform is reliable and within social
Structure
The International Skating Union uses a top-down level management system. The topmost position is held by a president, who has assistance (Vice President). Beneath the two superiors, there are four members representing the Skating Branch as well as a Vice President and four members representing the Speed Skating Branch (Cotter, 2017). The above mentioned are responsible for ensuring the daily operations of the organization runs efficiently. The organization has numerous employees positioned across the globe to
Culture
Being an activity management organization, ISU has a diverse working team. As a result, different individuals from different cultures are hired to perform specific departments as located in different regions across the globe (Cotter, 2017). Even though one would expect the organization to have diverse cultures; the organization operates under the common ideology of fostering the doctrines of sportsmanship. To ensure members adhere to the requirements of the expected culture set by the organization, there exist a charge who handles any form of indiscipline when necessary.
Legal issues
The International Skating Union operates under several regulation and technical rules. Within the ISU Constitution and Regulation, the masculine gender utilized in relation to any physical individual include names such as Competitor/Skater, Sport’s Officials, and members of ISU as well the pronoun he, them and they (Wiersma, Stoter, Visscher, Hettinga & Elferink-Gemser, 2017). The International Skating Union statues are composed of Constitutions that has its procedural provision, general and special regulations as well as technical rules. The information is contained within the ISU Code of Ethics, the ISU Anti-doping procedure, the ISU Anti-Doping rules, and ISU communications.
Social issue
Currently, the major issue facing International Skating Union is the limitation of snow in numerous countries. For instance, most developing nations do not experience snow (Wiersma, Stoter, Visscher, Hettinga & Elferink-Gemser, 2017). As a result, the process of setting up skating ground tend to be high. The problem has limited the number of individuals who would like to engage in skating activities. Regardless, the organization is committed to increasing the number of participants and views. This is done through its commitment to improving the social life of many individuals.
Task 2
Impact of ISU to it Members/Clients
International Skating Union is a global organization with a massive audience across the globe. As a result, the number of tasks conducted by the organization are massive. The
Impacts of ISU on the Sports and Recreation Field is immense since it first provides employment to its members. This is important since the poverty level is reduced as well as the general economy of individuals working inside the ISU organization. On the other hand, the organization provides exposure to its clients.
Impact of ISU on the Society
The presence of International Skating Union is important to the society at different levels. As it is widely known, most organization prefer to foster their popularity within their immediate location before expanding to other regions. Similarly, ISU is known to encourage surrounding members of society to use their facilities to better themselves in the sports (Story & Markula, 2017). As a result, it is a bit easy for a member of the society to engage in skating activities compared to society situated far from the head office.
International Skating Union is also known to advocate for the spirit of sportsmanship. The essence of the concept is that it fosters peaceful coexistence within the specific community (Story & Markula, 2017). Skating just like any other sports is known to charge the crowd when watching a skating even live, the audience’s brains are triggered to release chemicals of excitement and pleasure in the brain.
The organization makes it possible for members of the society to watch skating on the sideline. While different media are used to transmit live and recorded event of skating event, the feeling of watching the sport live is greater (Story & Markula, 2017). In fact, the more the individuals are absorbed into the game, the higher the frustration of seeing the events close as though one is a player but lacks the ability to influence the performance.
Additionally, society gets to attain several economic advantages. The presence of the ISU premise implies that members of the society get to be hired to work in the specified offices of the organizations (Story & Markula, 2017). In return, the process results to employment opportunity for the society as well as economic improvement
The essence of the International Skating Union
Me. Skating activity is one of my most admired games. Through the ISU, I am assured of transparency and fairness of any skating event. The good aspect of any sports is cheering the team without being assured of a win (Story & Markula, 2017). While my preferred champion may lose, knowing that the competition was free and fair gives the losing end a sense of satisfaction that they did their best, but luck was not on their side.
Friends and Family. Most of my family members are ice skating enthusiast. The presence of the International Skating Union has greatly fostered our family and friend bonds. The process is achieved by watching skating activities as a family at home or going to the skating ground to view the activities live (Story & Markula, 2017). Spending time as a family foster bond and helps create memories.
Members of the community. Sports tend to lead to a great deal of good, and global competitions such as Olympic Winter Games, which is majorly organized and managed by International Skating Union teaches the general society about cultures that they are yet to experience (MacArthur, Angelini, Smith & Billings, 2017). The activity allows individuals. To be empathic towards people they don’t know. In the long run, the society wear its tribal colors and offer support to its preferred team while considering that it is engaging in an event bigger than an individual
In conclusion, sports are one of the most amazing activities known to enhance human existence both socially and economically. However, to ensure proper management of sports, each sporting activity has an international body tasked with the management of the sports as well as the organization of international matches. International Skating Union is responsible for managing ice skating activities including legal and social activities across the globe. As a result, the organization ISU, tend to have a major impact economically and socially across the world.
References
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Cotter, A. M. M. (2017). Gender injustice: An international comparative analysis of equality in employment. Routledge.
Fischer, L. E., Darby, L. A., Morgan, A. L., & Tobar, D. A. (2016). Physiological Characteristics of Youth Synchronized Skaters. International Journal of Exercise Science, 9(3), 3.
García-Olivares, A., Solé, J., & Osychenko, O. (2018). Transportation in a 100% renewable energy system. Energy Conversion and Management, 158, 266-285.
MacArthur, P. J., Angelini, J. R., Smith, L. R., & Billings, A. C. (2017). The Canadian State of Mind: Coverage of Men and Women Athletes in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Prime Time Broadcast of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 61(2), 410-429.
Rustin, M. (2017). Sport, spectacle, and society: Understanding the Olympics. In Olympic cities: 2012 and the remaking of London (pp. 21-40). Routledge.
Story, C., & Markula, P. (2017). ‘I had one year in junior, and then I was too old:’structural age rules and the girlification in Canadian elite women’s figure skating. Sport in Society, 20(9), 1223-1240.
Wiersma, R., Stoter, I. K., Visscher, C., Hettinga, F. J., & Elferink-Gemser, M. T. (2017). Development of 1500-m Pacing Behavior in Junior Speed Skaters: A Longitudinal Study. International journal of sports physiology and performance, 12(9), 1224-1231.
