Association Partners

Association partners were organisations rather than companies. National federations and trade bodies, international associations and European bodies all sat in this group, and the distinction was a practical one: an association partner brought a membership of its own, a national system to work within, or a European constituency to reach.

The association published the roster of its national partners by country. As recorded, each market was represented by the federation or trade body of its own sector:

• Belgium - DFO
• Bulgaria - BAHF
• Croatia - WUH
• Czech Republic - FISAF
• Denmark - DFHO
• Finland - SKY
• Germany - DSSV
• Hungary - the entry names no body, noting a website still under construction
• Ireland - ILAM
• Latvia - LFVVNA
• Malta - MEHFA
• Netherlands - FIT!VAK
• Norway - Virke Trening
• Poland - PZFW
• Portugal - AGAP
• Serbia - SRFS
• Spain - FNEID
• Sweden - FRISK
• Switzerland - SFGV
• United Kingdom - FIA

The association had grown out of a network of national fitness associations before it was reconstituted under its European name, so the federations on this roster were its founding constituency rather than partners acquired later. They were also its route into national regulation, since the authority that recognises a fitness qualification is a national one.

Three further organisations were recorded separately from the country list. FISAF and IHRSA were listed as international bodies, and VDF as a German partner. Bodies of that kind brought a different kind of reach from a national federation: a membership spread across many countries, or a specialism - instructor certification, club representation - that the association did not have in its own right.

For a small secretariat in Brussels, this was the difference an association partner made. A company supports an association with money and services; a federation supports it by bringing its members with it. A national body that joined on behalf of its clubs brought a whole market inside the association, and a body that adopted the standards carried them into training and registration systems that the secretariat could not have reached directly. That is why national associations were counted among the partners as well as among the members.

Two subjects sit under this heading that were neither companies nor national federations. Education partners covers the association's place in European education and training policy, and the alignment of its standards with the European instruments for qualifications, credit transfer and quality assurance. European Structural Funds and health covers the funding that the Union's regional and social investment made available for health work in the member states, and the country-by-country information the association published about it.

The companies that supported the association are listed under industry partners, and the reasons the association gave for depending on both are on the partners page.