Objectives & Structure

EHFA existed to raise the quality of what the European health and fitness sector delivers. Everything in its structure followed from that: a board drawn from the sector to set direction, a technical council to hold authority over qualifications, and working groups to carry the programme between meetings.

• Define and maintain European occupational standards for exercise professionals, and keep them under review as the sector changes.
• Accredit the training providers, registers and qualification bodies whose programmes meet those standards.
• Maintain the European Register of Exercise Professionals as a public record of qualified instructors.
• Represent the sector's interests to the European institutions and argue the case for physical activity in public health policy.
• Collect and publish information about the sector, its workforce and its contribution.

The association was governed by a board elected by the membership, with a president drawn from the sector and a secretariat in Brussels to run the programme day to day. The board held the association's legal and financial responsibility and set its priorities.

Technical authority sat separately, with the Standards Council. That separation was deliberate: qualifications decided by a board of operators would be shaped by commercial interest, so the standards were owned by a council of subject specialists, supported by the Technical Experts Group and advised on the science by the Scientific Advisory Board.

Working groups carried specific pieces of the programme, including the association's engagement with the European institutions and its EU-funded projects. Their remit and membership changed as the programme did.

• EHFA structure - the organisation chart and how the parts related.
• EHFA board - the directors and officers who held office.
• Working groups - the groups that carried the programme.
• EHFA statutes - the association's governing document.
• Standards Council - the body that held technical authority over qualifications.