Volunteers’ academy project presented at 13th FISU forum

The International University Sports Federation (FISU) Forum is underway these days in Montpellier (FRA).  The forum brought together 250 participants representing more than 60 countries of the world, among them students, professors, sports managers, university representatives, members of sports and non-sports federations, FISU event organisers, organizing committees for upcoming World University Games, FISU Family members, etc. Student of Kazan Federal University, Timur Tufetulov, was given the privilege to represent the Kazan Volunteers movement on international level and provided the forum participants with an insight into major volunteer projects implemented in Kazan.

The organisers put the main message of the forum into the following phrase: “From origins to the future of university sports”. The forum’s objectives are to develop and strengthen the worldwide university sport movement, to develop interaction between all persons involved in sport in higher education institutions and to act as a learning and communication platform on university sport. The forum’s agenda features such issues as anti-doping, gender inequality in sports, social care, communication technologies, etc.

One of the principal topics listed in the forum programme was volunteer movement development. During the plenary session that took place on a landmark date – July 6, the opening day of the 27th Summer Universiade2013 in Kazan – Timur Tufetulov delivered a report on the Kazan Volunteers movement, its history and key projects. In his speech, Timur largely focused on the Volunteers’ Academy that had been initiated in the build-up to the Kazan Universiade and since 2011 had been the signature project of the Kazan Volunteers movement. This year the project marks its 5th anniversary and the Kazan delegates put forward an initiative to bring the event up to international level and to gather volunteer experts from all around the world in Kazan, the sports capital of Russia. Tools, technologies and best practices used by other countries in volunteer management will be of great help to Russia, which is preparing to host a range of high-profile sports and non-sports events in the years to come. 

“Our initiative to host the international volunteer forum in Kazan was met with great enthusiasm, which was evidenced not only by a storm of applause at the end of my report,” said Timur Tufutelov. “But also by the fact that FISU President Oleg Matytsin approached me afterwards to congratulate me on a successful speech and to praise Kazan for a great initiative! To be honest, since the very beginning I was positive that the forum participants will like our idea - Kazan is truly a city of sports and universities. I’m confident that there are many things that we can learn from global university and volunteer communities but we will also be happy to share our best practices with them. I’m sincerely glad that we keep saying to the world ‘Welcome to Kazan!’ and we will be looking forward to seeing everyone in our city!”.