Balwyn Judo Club                   Respect, Safety, Skill

Judo Victoria Inc (JVI) may be described as the third generation of the State Judo Association.   It was born in contention, but has continued to become a valued member of the Judo Federation of Australia (JFA).

A State Judo Association has many responsibilities:  conducting competitions, including State Championships; selecting competitors to compete in National Championships; registering Kyu grades; conducting and submitting Dan grades to the Judo Federation of Australia; conducting coaching courses and recommending coach licences to the JFA and the Australian Sports Commission; training referees; training Kata judges; and generally organising things that need state-wide co-ordination such as publicity and insurance.

These operations are financed by various charges and the membership fees of individuals.   For organisational purposes, clubs are also registered and charged a fee.   If a club has a certain minimum number of members they get to vote at the Annual General Meeting which elects the Management Committee and decides on issues submitted by clubs or members.

The JVI also sends a delegate to the JFA AGM, which elects their Management Committee (directors)  to deal with matters which require a National approach

In terms of history, the first official State member of the Judo Federation of Australia was the Victorian Amateur Judo Union (VAJU).   In 1975 3 members became dissatisfied with the operations of the VAJU and approached the Judo Federation of Australia.   The JFA subsequently expelled the VAJU and appointed the three members as its direct representatives to register clubs and players to allow them to compete for State representation in the National Titles and for ratification of Gradings.

For many years there had been an opposition State association, the Victorian Amateur Judo Association (VAJA), which with some associations from other states, the rivals of the official associations in those states, had formed the Australian Judo Association (AJA).   The relations between these associations were often unfriendly and the three JFA representatives saw an opportunity of  unifying Victorian Judo and perhaps weakening the AJA to the extent that the whole of Australian Judo would be unified.

To this end, a new State body constitution was written to ensure that the association would be conducted in a strictly democratic manner.   Unfortunately only 4 of the five proposed safeguards were instituted in the final version.   The disallowance of  proxies at Annual General Meetings (each club has to be represented by one of its registered members); a (apparently) straightforward processes for clubs to impeach an unpopular committee; a clear method of ensuring clubs had a chance to get a vote at the Annual General Meeting, involving clearly informing them of their membership status, based on the number of their registered members; and the prevention of more than one member of each club being on the committee, were included in the constitution.    The final safeguard, that of ensuring that the terms of officers were limited, thus ensuring that no officer could become entrenched in office was not instituted.   I believe this was a fatal error.

After a couple of years of operation, the JUDO FEDERATION OF AUSTRALIA (VICTORIA), the newly formed body, was able to convince the hierarchy of the VAJA that they could be incorporated into the JFA(V) to run an integrated body.   Over the next couple of years rifts appeared between various people of differing philosophies and exacerbated, perhaps, by a lack of knowledge or experience, by former VAJA members, with the politics or procedures of the JFA(V) vis-à-vis the JFA.   This led to a situation where many former members of the VAJA believed that they could not achieve what they believed were deserved positions of authority within the JFA(V) or the JFA.   In 1985 this led to a call to impeach the JFA(V) committee.   Again, due to different experiences, the call was adjudged invalid due to several discrepancies which did not match JFA(V) expectations, but which would have been acceptable under VAJA/AJA rules.   The matter was referred to the JFA, and again the longer association and experience with JFA procedures and politics meant that the senior members of the JFA(V) prevailed in disallowing the call for impeaching the committee.

This led to the dissenting members holding their own General Meeting which impeached the old committee and formed a new one and de-facto a new shadow JFA(V).   Several members of this shadow body then sued the members of the existing committee and the JFA.   This suit dragged on for many years, costing hundreds of thousands of Dollars - some of which was contributed by the membership and some contributed directly by committee members of the old body.

The suit was eventually settled, and in 1991 an Extraordinary General Meeting was held to recombine the factions.   Following a period where the Committee was chaired by an appointee of the State Department of Sport and Recreation, in 1996 the constitution was re-written in the form required by the Victorian Incorporated Associations Act and the body was incorporated under the name Judo Victoria Inc.

Of course, while all this was happening, the VAJU was still operating.   They made contacts in other states and eventually formed the Australian Kodokan Judo Association.   This association simply presents itself as an alternative to the JFA, thus there is no animosity between the rival associations.

In 2006, the JFA completed a re-organisation, removing the State Presidents from the Management Committee, formerly called the "Presidential Board", and instituting an election from nominated JFA members to a Management Committee (directors).

In 2007, the JVI Statement of Rules and Statement of Purposes were incorporated in a single document as a "Constitution".   At this time an attempt was made to simplify some areas of the "constitution", including the calling of AGMs.   Some contingent amendments were neglected, leaving some anomalies.   At the AGM of 2013, Some problems with the Member Protection process were corrected.   Despite this, the Constitution does require some amendment in the light of greater understanding of the principles of good governance.   A more efficient Committee and sub-committee structure, with improved succession processes is required.   Only time will tell if sufficient personal growth has taken place among Victorian judoka to allow these changes: but politics being what it is, it is not guaranteed that another contentious situation will not develop.   In addition, the change to the JFA committee structure has weakened the National power of State judo associations.   The downside is that communication from the JFA to individual members has been considerably downgraded, with JFA officialdom being more isolated from the average judo player.   Breaking into the JFA hierarchy has thus become more difficult.   The major task for Judo at all levels is to increase the number of people involved in judo.   There is always hope for a bright future.

The above is an attempt to report honestly, calmly and without blame on the events of the past, but represents the experiences, memory, analysis and opinion of the webmaster and all comments should be addressed to him.