FICS 2022 Planning Meeting – A regular member’s perspective

By Ryan Cevola

I went to the meeting in Barcelona this past weekend. All the presidents of their national chiropractic sports councils (NCSC) from all countries around the world were invited to participate. The Spanish president just had a newborn baby and was unable to attend. I offered to go in her place because I thought this would be an interesting experience. We all wonder what goes on behind those closed doors at these meetings. I am just a regular member of FICS without any chair position or being a president of an NCSC. Volunteering for games is one thing, the best thing about FICS, but there is a whole lot that goes into keeping this organization alive.

The purpose of the weekend meeting was to plan our goals for the next 3 years. We had many presentations, discussed many topics and focused our efforts to achieve our plan. We were able to reduce our 15 goals to 5 goals and focus our time and energy on what is most important within FICS. The 5 goals were growing FICS membership, obtaining IOC (international Olympic committee) recognition, advancing our global leadership within the sports world, getting students involved, and improving our communication.

Of those 5 goals, as a regular FICS member, I’m most interested in trying to get more students involved. Students are the future leaders of sports chiropractic and will eventually fill all FICS roles. I immediately signed up for the student mentoring program. It is simple and we can encourage and guide students to become the chiropractor they want to be. Think about when you were a student. I didn’t have any mentor to guide me. Just having the ability to ask any question about chiropractic to a chiropractor is super helpful and important. That is basically what it is. Just some emails, texts, social media, or whatever communication you use can make a difference for a student. It is simple and free. Sign up. If all our members just sign up for the mentoring program and talk to some of these students, how many more potential FICS chiropractors could we get? Many students are lost, and not all schools offer the best chiropractic education. Sign up. Make it happen. I did.

Continuing with that thought, new chiropractors are usually the most excited to participate in sporting events. Try to remember when you graduated. That fire and passion to go out and adjust everyone and change the world, starts to wane over time. 10 years in practice and I am busy all the time and it is difficult to find a way to make it to some of these events. But if I had just graduated, I would go to many events throughout the year. That experience working with athletes at the top of their game is invaluable. Plus those young chiropractors can brag on social media about their awesome experiences. We need new, fresh, energetic chiropractors joining FICS. And that starts with the students.

For the rest of us, those that have been in practice for a while, we sometimes need to reignite our fire. What better way than to attend a sporting event?  For myself, going to the World Games ignited my fire again to get back involved. Go read that story if you want here: https://fics.sport/twg22-my-journey-by-ryan-cevola-spain-sports-chiropractor/

If it has been a while since you have attended an event, go to one. Ignite your fire again. It’s fun, you hang out with other like-minded chiropractors, and collectively we advance the chiropractic profession throughout the world.

We probably said over 100 times this weekend the phrase ‘every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic’. And that’s what this is all about. See you at the games.

 

 

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