Audit team ready to visit martial arts gyms

The audit team of the VA (Nederlandse Vechtsportautoriteit, the Dutch martial arts regulator) is prepared to visit martial arts gyms. At a gym in Amsterdam, the volunteers were able to meet in person again for the first time in a long while. There they were told how the audits under the Keurmerk Vechtsportautoriteit (the VA quality mark for gyms) will be conducted.

The VA audit team now has 32 auditors. They are people who often have professional knowledge of inspections and safety, and who are fond of martial arts. In daily life they may work as an inspector for a government service, or in personal protection, while in their free time they are keen kickboxers who like to attend events.

In recent years the audit team focused on monitoring martial arts events. Working in pairs, they attended galas and tournaments to see whether everyone kept to the agreements made: from the officials and promoters to the athletes and the coaches. The emphasis was on what could be improved and learned in order to keep or bring the organisation of martial arts to the desired level together.

The audit team will continue to do this in the years ahead, but from now on a further task is added: visiting martial arts gyms that hold the Keurmerk Vechtsportautoriteit. To go through the thinking behind this and the procedures in detail, the auditors met in the capital on 20 June. VA director Farid Gamei and board member and audit team portfolio holder Marcel Scholtes explained how audits at quality mark holders are organised.

Gamei set out the points of attention, how communication with the gym owner takes place, and how the internal process of such an audit works. In broad terms, it goes as follows. The VA office selects a martial arts gym on a sample basis. Two auditors then read up on it. If it is an announced audit, they call the owner to make an appointment. The owner can then prepare and, for example, gather the right documents. If it is an unannounced audit, they do not call in advance. The auditors visit the gym, go through a checklist with the owner, speak with any trainers, athletes and parents present, and observe a class.

Afterwards they draw up a report and the VA formulates a positive or negative assessment. In the event of a positive assessment, the owner and the municipality are informed. In the event of a negative assessment, a discussion about the points for improvement follows, after which there is a second chance. In the event of a repeated or very serious negative assessment, the owner and the municipality are informed that the Keurmerk Vechtsportautoriteit is being withdrawn.

After the substantive briefing, the auditors took part in a solid kickboxing session led by Farid Gamei and auditor Michelle Forrer, rounding off the day in style.