Belgian Quidditch Federation

Belgian Quidditch Federation
Abbreviation BQF
Formation 5 July 2012 (2012-07-05)
Type National governing body (NGB)
Legal status Non-profit organisation, in progress
Headquarters Brussels, Belgium
Official language
English (de facto), Dutch, French and German
President
 Laurens Grinwis Plaat Stultjes
Vice-president External
 in process
David Danos
Main organ
 Core Cabinet
Parent organization
 International Quidditch Association
Website www.quidditch.be
Formerly called
 Belgium Muggle Quidditch (BMQ)

Belgian Quidditch Federation (French: Fédération belge de quidditch; Dutch: Belgische Zwerkbalbond; German: Belgischer Quidditchverband), or BQF, is the governing body of quidditch in Belgium. It was founded in 2012 as a Facebook page[1] to garner interest from potential players and teams within Belgium and began to take shape in 2013 with the introduction of its first two teams: Deurne Dodo's and the Brussels Qwaffles. The organisation began to take shape as a non-profit (French: ASBL; Dutch: VZW) in early 2014 with the formation of the newly-international International Quidditch Association in the form an international federation. BQF maintains one delegate within the IQA Congress as a member of Quidditch Benelux alongside Muggle Quidditch Nederland (MQN) and the Luxembourgish Quidditch Federation (FLQ). On 10 October 2014, BQF changed its name from Belgium Muggle Quidditch to its current name to better integrate with other sports in the country.[2]

History

The Belgian Quidditch Federation began as a Facebook page, titled Belgium Muggle Quidditch, in 2012 by Cory Flaniel to spur interest for the sport of quidditch throughout Belgium. It was not until David Danos arrived in 2013 that, with the help of Laurens Grinwis Plaat Stultjes and Zoé Miniconi, that Belgium saw the foundation of its two inaugural teams: the Antwerp-based Deurne Dodo's and the Brussels-based Brussels Qwaffles. Both teams and their members were heavily involved in the organisation and execution of the two major tournaments within Belgium for the 2013-2014 season: Brussels Muscles, an international tournament, and European Quidditch Cup 2014, the regional qualifier tournament for the 2014 IQA World Cup.

Following its major events, BQF became a major force in the IQA's transition into a sports federation.[3][4] With the IQA's release, Belgium as a member of Quidditch Benelux was granted one delegate within the IQA Congress alongside the Netherlands' one as well representing the needs of the Benelux.[5] Moreover, BQF sent its national team, the Belgian Gryffins to the flagship tournament of the IQA: Global Games 2014. BQF is currently in the process of setting up the 2014-2015 season where the organisation will debut featuring its permanent staff.[6] BQF's first official season began on 1 December 2014.[7]

Structure

The Federation's organisational structure features the Core Cabinet as the heart of the non-profit. The Core Cabinet, the primary decision and policy maker, is split into two sub-departments called the Executive Wing and the Administrative Wing. The structure of BQF follows closely the structure of MQN, diverging primarily at the Vice-Presidential level where Belgium has three in place of MQN's one. Belgium's three have the charge of governing the three communities within the country, separated into Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia, whereas the Netherlands' is charged with governing all things domestic within the whole of the Netherlands.

The structure of the Belgian Quidditch Federation

Executive Wing

The Executive Wing of the Core Cabinet consists of the President, the Vice-President External, the Vice-President Internal: Brussels, the Vice-President Internal: Wallonia, the Vice-President Internal: Flanders, the Financial Director and the Secretary.[8] The President is charged with overseeing the day-to-day management of BQF along with representing QBenelux alongside MQN and the FLQ in the IQA Congress. The President and VP External both represent BQF within QBenelux. Domestic management lies with the VP Internals for the three communities within Belgium. The Financial Director is in charge of the organisation's finances and giving bi-annual reports, and the Secretary is charged with taking and relaying minutes for meetings. Currently the positions are:

Administrative Wing

The Administrative Wing of the Core Cabinet consists of three departmental heads: Teams, Gameplay and Communications. All three departmental heads are in charge of staff their respective department as well as overseeing the management of their department within BQF. The different departments can be broken down into smaller subdivisions where teams holds membership, expansion and development; the gameplay department has snitching, reffing, coaching and rules; and the communications department holds PR, tech, marketing and translations & interpretations.

Teams Department

The director for the Teams Department is Joke Daems. Under the Team's supervision is: membership, expansion and development.

Gameplay Department

Headed by Laurens Grinwis Plaat Stultjes, the Gameplay Department is staffed also by Tanghi Burlion as the Snitch Director and Gorik Verbeken as the Coaching Director.

Communications Department

The Communications Department is headed by Cindy Callens, under whom there is Nicolas Volders as the Tech Director and Caroline Mailleux as the Translations & Interpretation Director.

Competitions

BQF, being an official member of Quidditch Europe and of Quidditch Benelux, participates in three major tournaments yearly: the Benelux Cup, the Belgian Championships (name to be determined) and the European Quidditch Cup. As well, being a part of the International Quidditch Association, Belgium sends its national team, the Gryffins, to the Global Games, a tournament held biennially. With the release of its competitions plan on 14 November 2014, BQF has defined official tournaments held within (and outside of) Belgium through its Gameplay Department. Teams interested in hosting official matches or tournaments must now do so through the Gameplay Director.[7]

European Quidditch Cup

As Belgian quidditch did not begin until 2013, teams from Belgium were only able to attend EQC 2014 which was held in Brussels on 1–2 February 2014. Both Belgian teams, the Brussels Qwaffles and the Deurne Dodo's placed giving them places in the former World Cup (a now-defunct tournament), earning 3rd and 6th place, respectively.[9]

EQC2015 will be held on 18–19 April 2015 this season in Oxford, UK.[10]

Belgian Champions Series & the Belgian Championships

The Belgian Champions Series is new to BQF as of the 2014-2015 season where teams compete and are ranked and subsequently seeded into the culminating Belgian Championships. The membership plan dictates that both recreational and competitive teams must play a certain number of official matches during each term, and these matches as well as any other BQF-official match or tournament will count towards that team's rankings. These matches are then what make up the Series which will be ended on 2 May 2015 with the Championships to determine the best Belgian team. The name is subject to change through a contest open to all BQF members. Submissions are due on 15 January 2015.[7]

Benelux Cup

As a unified league, Muggle Quidditch Nederland and BQF has requirements placed on them within both the IQA and QEurope, notably a potential restriction to the amount of teams sent to EQC. Note that Luxembourg doesn't have a team.

Membership

The 2013/2014 season saw BQF have a fairly weak membership plan where players for teams paid an informal fee that went towards player/league insurance and IQA payments. The plan for the 2014/2015 season was released on 14 November 2014 where it saw a completely updated structure using terms, a period running from 1 July to 31 December and 1 January to 30 June.[7]

Official teams

Currently, there are no official teams in BQF as the season begins on 1 December 2015. At the moment, there are seven to eight active teams across the country, being:

Competitive Team

One of three levels of membership offered is Competitive Team (CT) where teams are required to play three official matches per term. CTs are allowed to participate in the BNLC as well as EQC.[7]

Recreational Team

A Recreational Team (RT) is the lowest level of playing membership where teams pay less and are required to play in fewer official matches, but they are restricted from participating in BNLC and EQC. Additionally, players on RTs must get permission before participating in national team try-outs.[7]

Supporter

The final tier of membership is for those outside Belgium or are non-players within Belgium. This offers active quidditch players in other NGBs the ability to participate in national team try-outs as well as giving non-players both inside and outside Belgium the ability to support BQF financially with potential benefits not yet designated.[7]

National team

BQF also hosts a national team, the Belgian Gryffins. They made their debut at the 2014 IQA Global Games in Vancouver, B.C., Canada on 19 July 2014.[17][18] Due to lack of resources for the country's best players to make it to Vancouver and the limited roster available,[19] Team Belgium came in seventh of seven place at the Games, ultimately forfeiting their final match against the USA due to numerous injuries the team faced.[20][21]

As of the 2014/2015 season, the national team saw a few updates. Now, it is on a yearly turn-over rate where individuals must try-out every year they wish to participate. Whilst the season technically ends every 30 June, any tournament involving the national team held in July will be considered to be a part of the previous season. Individuals wishing to try out must be a part of a CT of that season. Those on an RT must be granted permission by the VP Internal of their region as well as the Teams Director before being allowed to try out. Any Belgian citizen living outside Belgium and an active participant in quidditch activities is able to try out with the purchase of Supporter membership at the approval of the VP External.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "First post on BQF's Facebook page". Facebook. 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "BQF Name Change Press Release". Belgian Quidditch Federation. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "New IQA announcement". US Quidditch. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  4. ↑ "About the IQA". IQA. 26 August 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  5. ↑ "The International Quidditch Association". IQA. 26 August 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  6. ↑ "BMQ searches for additional staff members". Facebook. 21 August 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Membership Plan Announcement". Belgian Quidditch Federation. November 14, 2014. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  8. ↑ "BMQ Official Website". BMQ. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "EQCII Facebook Page". Facebook. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "Quidditch Europe". Facebook. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  11. ↑ "Brussels Qwaffles Facebook Page". Facebook. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  12. ↑ "Deurne Dodo's Facebook Page". Facebook. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  13. ↑ "Ghent Gargoyles Facebook Page". Facebook. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  14. 1 2 "Hasselt Horntails Facebook Page". Facebook. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  15. ↑ "Les Dracognards / Quidditch Louvain-la-Neuve Facebook Page". Facebook. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  16. ↑ "Leuven Leprechauns Facebook Page". Facebook. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  17. ↑ "IQA Global Games". US Quidditch. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  18. ↑ "BKL5 à Bruxelles : ils se préparent aux Jeux Mondiaux de Quidditch". SudOuest. 6 May 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  19. ↑ "Les IQA Global Games 2014". La Gazette du Sorcier. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  20. ↑ "Les Resultats des Global Games 2014". PotterMag. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  21. ↑ "Team USA Wins Gold at Quidditch Global Games 2014". Vancity Buzz. 29 July 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.

Belgium

International Quidditch Association

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