13 Questions and Answers

The association kept a list of the questions it was asked most often. Thirteen were published together, in the order below, and the list was translated into Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The answers were the association's own, and they describe the sector as it stood when they were written.

No. EHFA had operated since 2001, having grown out of the European Network of Fitness Associations, established in 1996. It took part in the European work on vocational qualifications and in the EU platform on diet, physical activity and health, and the European Commission recognised it as a stakeholder for the sector.

EHFA was a not-for-profit organisation based in Brussels and owned by its members. A board of directors ran it with an executive director, and the statutes gave the membership the power to decide strategic direction at a general assembly, voting on a one member, one vote basis. The assembly on 21 August 2007 approved a strategy the association was then implementing; see the structure.

The board comprised a president, a secretary general, a treasurer and directors drawn from the membership; its officers included an executive director and a head of the Brussels office. Directors served in a personal capacity, not as delegates of their employers. The names are on the board page.

Yes. The association was constituted under Belgian law, with a board drawn from several European countries, European organisations among its members and a secretariat in Brussels at the Maison des Associations Internationales on Rue Washington. The contact page records the address as it stood.

There were two ways in for a national association: it could join with its head office, or bring its whole membership in under its own banner. The UK association was the first to do the second, bringing its 2,250 member clubs with it, and the published list named member associations in twelve European countries. See national associations.

Much of it ran through the European Commission's vocational education programmes. EHFA helped design the sector's standards under ECVET and the European Qualifications Framework, and it was an active member of the DG Sanco platform on diet, physical activity and health and a partner in developing social dialogue.

As the sector's standards-setting body, EHFA coordinated a programme accreditation process. A provider applied to have its programmes mapped against the standards, and a government-recognised body acted as the EHFA Accreditation Unit, initially for programmes training basic and advanced instructors of healthy adults. The route had four steps: a registration of interest; an application pack with a self-assessment checklist; an assessor visit timed to the practical assessments; and a decision of full acceptance or a remedial action plan. See accreditation.

The Brussels office opened on 1 December 2007 with four purposes: to protect members from policy, legislation or new regulation; to identify opportunities in new policy; to build support for the sector among politicians and civil servants; and to raise its profile with decision makers. The method was presence: reading the policy environment from Brussels and putting the sector's case to those who set the rules.

Three sources were named: membership fees, sponsorship, and grants from the European Union. Beyond subscriptions, the association listed Platinum Strategic Partners including operators such as Fitness First and the SATS-Group, equipment manufacturers including Technogym, Life Fitness, Precor and Johnson Health Tech, the UK skills council SkillsActive, and the UK trade association.

Membership was open across the sector - the association described itself as a broad church - and the statutes allowed for companies, associations and individuals alike. Its unifying purpose was to raise standards and get more people more active more often, a case put to the European Commission, the WHO and the International Olympic Committee. See membership.

EHFA declined to sign up single operators where a national association already held collective membership, and when a national body joined collectively, the membership and fees of operators that had joined directly passed to it. Where no national association existed the operator stayed a direct member, as happened in Sweden.

Six were named: setting the European agenda on physical activity and fitness; driving quality standards and certification through ECVET and the EQF, which produced EREPS; improving how politicians, the media and consumers saw the industry; increasing participation and influencing public health; increasing the sector's influence in Europe and obtaining EU funding; and documenting the industry and supporting research.

EREPS was a registration scheme for instructors, trainers and teachers working across Europe. It coordinated national registers on agreed common procedures and quality-assured that a registered professional was qualified, giving consumers, employers and medical professions confidence and easing movement between countries. Registration meant an individual had met minimum standards, worked safely, effectively and lawfully, and had committed to continuing professional development. The register was regulated by the Standards Council; EREPS describes it in full.