To be an archery association controlled by archers and run by volunteers who will assure continuation of our sport for all who wish to participate in international events irrespective of age and gender.

Our main goal is the promotion of our sport through enjoyment of our sport, the social interaction between our archers during the event and the possibility to increase knowledge of our sport through discussions, exchange of ideas and short seminars during events by trained instructors.

We started losing this over the years because of the way our international events have been run. We have forgotten that our international events should be not much more than a very large club shoot where catering is done by clubs and/or local charity organisations, where socialising and exchange of ideas is done in a central area near the ranges, rather than having extensive and difficult ranges that require a very long time to shoot and sometimes cannot not be completed by our senior archers and expensive professional catering that “forces” our archers away from that central point.

What has happened to our Wednesday and/or Friday “Swop shop” during or at the end of a tournament where archers and dealers alike would exchange or sell equipment, swap badges and pins, etc? This was an integral part of our events, now taken over by renting out booths at high prices.

Have our archers simply become medal collectors, using the classification system to their advantage at the expense of what the IFAA stands for?

The membership with TAFISA reinforces our principle: “Physical activity by means of archery: the enjoyment of the sport through participation and making the sport available at international level to all who wish to participate.

This will be my drive for as long I am President of this association and hopefully this website will be one of our tools to make the IFAA a success.

This website will be subjected to an ongoing update of information. Most of which will be down loadable.

I hope to make this web page a “window” that allows archers to look inside the running of our organisation. No more limitation of information to national administrators only, who may or may not spread the information to their archers. We will start running an “open door” administration where our administrators may be held accountable.

The intent is to allow archers to send in questions and comments as well as “likes” and “dislikes”. Prominent comments and questions will be addressed on the web page.

This all will take some time and I ask for your patience. Link onto our website on a regular basis to stay informed of what is happening in the world of the IFAA.

Loet Smit

IFAA President