IRONF [ai - ron - eff], IRLF or FIR?
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ACRONYM CHANGE PROPOSAL - for the next IRF GM
rev A, 2006-05-18, by Hans
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Revision History:
rev PA1, 060110: First draft
rev PA2, 060114: Added a link to a draft newsitem explaining the change. (under "General Aspects").
rev A, 060518:
Added the new alternatives of IRLF and FIR.
Added an introduction to the analysis.

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PROPOSAL

It is hereby proposed that the name of our federation is changed from the previous:

International Racketlon Federation (abbreviated IRF)

into one of the following:

A) International Racketlon Federation (abbreviated IRONF)
The IRONF acronym is to be pronounced [ai - ron - eff], which is very similar to the pronunciation we have earlier used for IRF; [ai - ar - eff]. The only difference is that "RON" replaces "R" as the abbreviation for "RacketlON". See this webpage for a draft of how the change might be presented on Racketlon.com if this alternative is chosen.

B) International Racketlon Federation (abbreviated IRLF)

C) International Racketlon Federation/Fédération Internationale de Racketlon (abbreviated FIR)
This alternative introduces an alternative French name to be used in parallel with our English name. Note that there is only one acronym though; FIR.

Note that all three alternatives above let us keep the established long version of our present name; "International Racketlon Federation".


REASON FOR CHANGE

The main reason for this change proposal is that it is (according to Marcel) strongly recommended by AGFIS (the General Association of International Sports Federations, see their homepage on www.agfisonline.com) that our acronym is unique in their context if we want to become members (which would be a huge step forward for racketlon - but is probably a couple of years away given a requirement of at least 30 (?, uncofirmed!) legally recognised member nations). Our present acronym "IRF" would not live up to that since it is already in use by an existing AGFIS member - the "International Racquetball Federation".

In addition, even outside the AGFIS context it would be an advantage if our acronym was unique and stood out in a way that would make it easily remembered and instantly recognised.

ANALYSIS

1) Introduction

What's in a name? Is our name important? Who cares what we are called? I would argue that there is a lot more aspects involved in a name change than what appears at first sight and that this is why some companies can spend millions or even billions on branding and name changes;

Example:
An interesting example from the telecoms industry of the importance of a name is Cingular's on-going name change to AT&T Wireless. Cingular is the largest wireless company in the US and its corporateowners have spent an estimated $4 billion to turn it into one of the best-known names in the US. Nevertheless, now the decision has been taken to change its name to AT&T. See
article.

Now, we do not play in the same league as Cingular but I think the example above should prove the point that there is more to naming than one would think at first. And I hope that the analysis below will show clearly that this is the case even for us. When you have read it I hope we can all agree about the following:

A) A name change is a serious matter and should be preceded by an open discussion, adequate analysis and a decision at a General Meeting in accordance with our statutes (see latest approved version and evidence of the approval).

Relevant sections in our Statutes:
1.1 This body shall be called the "IRF - International Racketlon Federation"
...
17. ALTERATION OF THE STATUTES OF THE IRF
No alteration shall be made to these Statutes of the IRF except at a General Meeting. Any proposal embodying such alteration, or one having a like effect, must be carried by a majority of two-thirds of the votes cast.

B) It would be a mistake to change our full name; "International Racketlon Federation"

2) General Aspects.

2.1) Small change. All three alternative proposals in this document imply that we keep our established full name. Changing the acronym is a much smaller change than changing our full name! If we only change our acronym it will e.g. be clear to everyone that the International Racketlon Federation has simply changed their acronym. There will e.g. be no confusion regarding whether the "International Federation of Racketlon" is actually the same organisation as the established "International Racketlon Federation".

2.2) Image. As part of our name change an article will have to be written on our homepage to explain what is happening and why we change. (Here is a draft of what that might look like if e.g. the IRONF alternative is accepted.) If that article fails to explain, in a convincing way, why we change there is credibility and image to be lost. This is only one small reason why name changes are important matters. Other reasons will become obvious in the detailed analysis below.

3) Our Full Name. Aspects related to the proposed keeping of our full name "International Racketlon Federation".
It can be argued that the "International Racketlon Federation" is the best full name we can think of for the following reasons:

3.1) An inherently good name.

3.1.1) Natural name. If you ask anybody in the street what they think is the name of the organisation promoting the game of Racketlon on an international level 9 out of 10 will tell you "International Racketlon Federation". The reason is precedence. The federations of almost all big Olympic sports have names according to exactly this standard format. Take a look at http://www.agfisonline.com/en/members.phtml and you will e.g. find the following federations:

FIFA International Football Association
IAAF International Association of Athletics
ITF International Tennis Federation
ITTF International Table Tennis Federation
FINA International Swimming Federation
IBF International Badminton Federation
FIBA International Basketball Federation
AIBA International Amateur Boxing Federation
UCI International Cycling Union
FILA International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles
FIG International Gymnastics Federation
IJF International Judo Federation
ISAF International Sailing Federation
ISSF International Shooting Sport Federation
FIS International Ski Federation
FIVB International Volleyball Federation
IWF International Weightlifting Federation
IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation
FEI International Equestrian Federation
IHF International Handball Federation
FIH International Hockey Federation
FISA International Rowing Federation
ISU International Skating Union
ICF International Canoe Federation
FIE International Fencing Federation
IPF International Powerlifting Federation
IWSF International Water Ski Federation


The above is a list of the 27 biggest Olympic federations in approximate order of size (unscientifically compiled but arguably close enough to the truth for these purposes.) As seen, out of these 27, 22 (or over 80%) follow the standard. There are only 5 federations that deviate from the standard format;

FIFA International Football Association
IAAF International Association of Athletics
UCI International Cycling Union
FILA International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles
ISU International Skating Union


4 of these 5 deviate by using a word different from Federation (i.e. "Association" or "Union"). Only two of them deviate through a different order of the words by means of using the particle "of". And (if my linguistic intuition is not totally out of tune) both of them seem to use the word "of" to signal that they are dealing with not ONE sport but a FAMILY of sports. (Athletics is a group of many different sport. And so are "Wrestling Styles"). In the case of "Associated Wrestling Styles" there is an additional reason to use "of" since the expression is quite long, which makes for an awkward name if the standard straight order of words is used.

The conclusion must be that if we want to follow standard, then "International Racketlon Federation" is the only natural choice - to the extent that even if we start calling ourselves something else people will probably still be referring to us as the "International Racketlon Federation".

In particular, it seems as if we do not have reason to use the word "of" (as in the discussed alternative "International Federation of Racketlon") since racketlon is one sport and not a family of sports. I believe we even have reason to avoid it since we want to emphasise that racketlon is ONE sport and not four ("four rackets, one sport").

3.1.1.1) The problem with an unnatural name. As mentioned above the name "International Racketlon Federation" is so natural for us that even if we choose something else we would probably still be referred to as this. When researching the internet for this analysis I actually came across an example of this;

"RLIF - Rugby League International Federation".

Although this is the official name of their federation they are often referred to as "IRLF - International Rugby League Federation" since this would have been a more natural name. In fact, 20% of the times this seems to be the case. (Google search for <+rugby +irlf> gave 241 hits whereas <+rugby +rlif> gave 974 hits. Date: 060110).

The result is confusion surrounding their real name. We would probably encounter the same fait if we performed a "word switch" to e.g. "International Federation of Racketlon".

3.1.2) Name with good image. The fact that almost all the big federations use the standard format means that there is _image_ to be gained from using it since it, sort of, puts us in the same league as the "big boys". And image is not unimportant since it is made of the same stuff as that, which catches sponsors and media. (I am not saying that the reason why squash is not yet an Olympic sport is the fact that they call their federation "World Squash Federation". But I am saying that image is important.)

3.2) A good name because it is the original.

3.2.1) Established name. During the few years that we have existed since our foundation in September 2002 the name "International Racketlon Federation" has become quite well established. Four World Championships (2002-2005) and three World Tours (2003-2005) have all been run in the name of the "International Racketlon Federation".

If you search the internet for pages containing the name "International Racketlon Federation" you presently find 168 pages on 67 different sites (Google, 2006-01-07). This is another piece of evidence indicating that our name is established.

It is generally not a good idea to change the established name of a successful organisation since it waists some of the credibility that has been attached to the name over the years. What would e.g. happen if "Coca Cola" changed name to "Cola Coca"? I am not suggesting that "International Racketlon Federation" is anywhere near as established as the "Coca Cola" trademark - but the principle is the same.

3.2.2) Practical changes avoided. A change of our full name would, of course, require changes in documents and web pages.

Racketlon.com contains quite a few "living" documents with the name "International Racketlon Federation" that will have to be changed (although archived news articles would, of course, not be updated). This includes the graphics at the top of the page, which will have to be changed by our Canadian design agency i2.ca (whose services are not free of charge). In addition, an article would have to be written on Racketlon.com explaining what is happening and why we have changed our name.

Most national racketlon web pages link to, and mention, the "International Racketlon Federation" and would be expected to change.

Many sites external to the core racketlon (see the Google search above) community refer to the "International Racketlon Federation". These should also be updated to reflect the change and to avoid confusion (which would probably imply that someone from the IRF would have to tell them to change and then follow-up that they actually do so). For an illustration of this refer to http://www.squashsite.co.uk/racketlon.htm (Note that our acronym "IRF" is not mentioned once on the whole page, whereas our full name "International Racketlon Federation" is mentioned both in the header at the top of the page and at the bottom right corner in the link to Racketlon.com. (It seems reasonable to assume that, in practice, many of these external sites will not change, which will then be a source of confusion.)

If we keep our original full name "International Racketlon Federation" we will avoid most of these (small but many) costs caused by necessary practical changes. (A change of only our acronym would mean much fewer changes, since many pages - like the squashsite page above - only mention our full name and not our acronym.)

3.2.3) If it ain't broken don't fix it! Why go through the trouble of changing if the only reason is that we desire a unique acronym? There are plenty of ways to change our acronym without changing our full name! As indicated by the "top 27" list of federations above the almost perfect adherence to the standard format as regards the full name is contrasted by something that almost looks like chaos among the acronyms. So, when it comes to the acronym we need not worry about standards. In that area we have a lot more freedom!


4) IRONF, IRLF or FIR? Aspects related to the alternative acronyms.

4.1) Unique. It is obviously an advantage for us to have an acronym that is unique so that it unambiguously points out us and no-one else, thereby avoiding confusion. This will simplify our life since we will be able to use our acronym more often without the need to spell out our full name. But a name can be unique in different contexts. The risk of confusion is obviously larger within the context of sports.

4.1.1) Unique within AGFIS. AGFIS strongly recommend that we get an acronym that is unique within AGFIS if we want to be members, which we would indeed like to become within the next few years. This would be a huge achievement in terms of international recognition and it would even be a step towards Olympic status.

However, it does not seem to be a requirement for membership since two of the members actually have identical acronyms:

ISF International Softball Fedederation
ISF International School sport Federation

... but that is an exception from the general rule that each federation strives for a unique acronym that can be used without risk for confusion. We do not want to be confused with:

IRF International Racquetball Federation

IRONF would do the trick. And it would not just make us unique within the AGFIS but also within sports and in fact among all organisations and trademarks - which is quite difficult to achieve with a three letter acronym (as seen below).

IRLF and FIR would also make us unique in the AGFIS context but not within sports, and certainly not within the wider context (as seen below).

4.1.2) Unique within sports and among all organisations and trademarks. Here are a few relevant lists to show that a three-letter acronym will find it hard to be entirely unique (in order of estimated relevance and size - i.e. sports related acronyms on top)

IRF
International Racquetball Federation
International Rafting Federation
International Rogaining Federation (Rogaining is the sport of long distance coross-country navigation)
----
International Road Federation
International Religious Freedom
International Rectifier (www.irf.com)
Island Resource Foundation
International Rhino Foundation
Islamic Research Foundation
Institutet för RymdFysik
Institut for Rationel Farmakoterapi

IFR (as in the discussed "International Federation of Racketlon")
International Front Runners (association of running/walking clubs with about 100 member clubs around the world)
International Finals Rodeo (connected to the International Professional Rodeo Association)
----
Instrument Flight Rules (if IFR is looked up in an English dictionary)
Instrument Flight Resources (www.ifr.com)
International Federation of Relexologists (therapy through treatment of "reflex zones" on the foot)
International Federation of Robotics
International Financing Review (the world's leading source of international capital markets intelligence)
Institute for Futures Research
Institute of Food Research
Institute for Fisheries Research
International Fiction Review
Initiative for Fiduciary Responsibility
International Forestry Review
International Fleet Review
International Federation of Danish Investment Association (InvesteringsForskningsRĺdet)
Illinois Farm Report

IRONF
This acronym does not seem to be used by any organisations at all. According to an internet search (Google 060110) the only relevant context in which it shows up is as signatures on chat forums (probably related to "Ironforge" see below)

IRLF
International Rugby League Federation (officially known as RLIF Rugby League International Federation but often referred to as the International Rugby League Federation - IRLF)
----
International Right to Life Federation
International Labor Rights Fund
Interfaith Religious Liberty Foundation
Iowa Range Liberation Front (www.irlf.org; "terrorist operations" - some kind of joke?)
InfraRed Luminosity Function

FIR
Federazione Italiana Rugby (the "rugby union" - a variant of "rugby football" - governing body in Italy)
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Fir (the English word for the type of tree most often used as Christmas Tree; synonym: "spruce")
Finite Impulse Response (a digital filter property)
Far Infrared (infrared radiation of long wave length)
First Information Report (in India, the first report of crime filed by police)
Flight Information Region (a type of airspace)
F.I.R. (A Mandarin rock music group)
Fahrner Image Replacement (in web design, a method for replacing text with an image)
FIR Capital Partners (a Brazil-based venture capital firm which invests in technology-driven companies)
The Douglas Fir (a Boston based underground pop band, see
http://www.thedouglasfir.com/ )

4.2) Standing out. It should be considered an advantage if our acronym stands out and has something "extra" that causes it to be easily remembered and instantly recognised. Examples of acronyms that have succeeded with this are:

FIFA - International Football Association
FILA - International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles
BMX - Bicycle Motocross

...or from the world outside sport:
RADAR - RAdio Detecting And Ranging

Three-letter acronyms, such as the old IRF and the proposed FIR are fairly anonymous in this regard, which should be valid for the four-letter acronym IRLF as well.

4.2.1) IRONF. "IRONF" will probably have the biggest chance of the proposed alternatives to stand out due to the following associations:

* "ON". The "ON" in IRONF is a suffix common to sports like MarathON, TriathlON, HeptathlON, DecathlON etc... This means that "RON" as the abbreviation of "Racketlon" is not only natural but carries with it some significance that links the acronym to the other "ON" sports.

* "IRON" the metal. This is probably the biggest advantage with IRONF (besides allowing us to keep our original full name); it contains the English word "iron". It is a word often used in trademarks in a way similar to words like "power" (as in MacIntosh Powerbook, which this text is written on) or "hot" (as in hotmail).

* "Ironman". And for us "iron" could also be associated with the "ironman" triathlon contest in Hawaii, which is not a bad association since triathlon is our cousin. See how this association can be developed in the draft presentation.

* "Ironforge". As mentioned, when the internet is searched for the word "ironf" there are not many relevant hits. But surprisingly it seems to be a popular signature used in chat forums(!) And it seems as if this is linked to internet gaming and to the name "Ironforge". This might at first look like a minor thing but the fact is that the word "Ironforge" is mentioned on no less than 346 000 web pages (Google, 060111), which is a lot more than "racketlon" at the moment.

Ironforge is the capital city of a clan in the Warcraft on-line game. It is a huge stone fortress built into a mountain. "Many strongholds fell during the Second War, but the mighty city of Ironforge was never breached by the invading forces". (see http://www.wowwiki.com/Ironforge )

Do we want this association? Difficult to say if it would be valuable to us - but it will probably not do much harm and might possibly add to our "coolness" factor in the eyes of the younger generations. I understand that "Warcraft" is the most popular internet game at present...

Besides, the English word "forge" is not just the place where iron is developed into useful stuff but can also mean "create" or "think"; or "fight" or "advance" as in "forge ahead" (but this might be to bring the association a little too far...?) See how this can be developed in a way very relevant to us in the draft presentation.


The "Great Forge" in the capital of Ironforge. Think. Create. Fight. Advance.

4.2.2) FIR. The "FIR" acronym does not stand out like IRONF - but it does arguably carry with it a few positive associations:

* The fir tree. Stands tall. Covers big geographical areas of the globe - perhaps especially in Scandinavia(!)

* Add an "e" at the end and you get the English word "fire". With potential to spread quickly once it catches on. Often used as a symbol for enthusiasm

4.2.3) IRLF. The "IRLF" acronym is arguably quite anonymous in this regard.

4.3) Natural.

The most natural acronym for the "International Racketlon Federation" is obviously IRF. But IRONF is not that unnatural either since "RON" is a quite natural abbreviation of RacketlON; Try saying "Racketlon" quickly and "RON" is probably what you get. It can even be argued that, from a sound and not letter point of view, [ron] is more natural than [ar](!)

There are other federations that have added letters to their abbreviated name in a similar way:

FIBA Federation Internationale de BAsketball
IDSF International DanceSport Federation
ISAF International SAiling Federation
ISTAF International SepTAkraw Federation (whatever that is...)
IBAF International BAseball Federation
etc...

...and, in general, the choice of acronym (as seen from the "top 27" list above) is a lot less standardised than the choice of the full name with the French language often mixed in and considerations taken to history in terms of earlier names.

So, IRONF must be considered natural enough.

The same can be said for IRLF (comparable to IDSF International Dancesport Federation) and also for FIR, which involves the French language - not a bad thing to hint a little in that direction since we have not had many French-speaking participants so-far. Having a French name and using it for the acronym is, in fact, a very common practice among the federations in AGFIS, probably stemming from the traditional use of French within the area of Foreign Affairs. Here are a few examples out of many:

FIFA International Football Association - Fédération Internationale de Fotball Association
FINA International Swimming Federation - Fédération Internationale de Natation
FIS International Skiing Federation - Fédération Internationale de Ski
FIG International Gymnastics Federation - Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
FIBA International Basketball Federation - Fédération International de BAsketball
FAI World Air Sports Federation - Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
FITA International Archery Federation - Fédération Internationale de Tir a l'Arc

In fact, any of the AGFIS members with an acronym that starts with an "F" is a suspect of using French in this way. Such as the following:

FEI International Equestrian Federation
FIBT International Bobsleigh and Tobboganing Federation
FIC International Timekeepers Federation
FICS International Federation of Sports Chiropractic
FIDE World Chess Federation
FIE International Fencing Federation
FIH International Hockey Federation
FIL International Luge Federation
FILA International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles
FIM International Motorcycling Federation
FIQ International Bowling Federation
FIRS International Roller Sports Federation
FISA International Rowing Federation
FISU International University Sports Federation
FIVB International Volleyball Federation

4.4) Pronunciation.

The pronunciations of IRLF and FIR are straightforward.

The pronunciation proposed for IRONF is [ai - ron - eff] which is very similar to the earlier [ai - ar - eff]. It is just as easy to say. If anything maybe it even rolls off the tongue a little easier than [ai - ar - eff]... but that is probably a matter of individual taste.

But it's true that this pronunciation will not be obvious to someone who reads it and never heard the correct pronunciation. But is that a disadvantage? We can always explain the pronunciation on the homepage and in my mind this small pronunciation "threshold" might even contribute to the fact that IRONF will stand out and be remembered. It can even be argued that [ai-ron-eff] is smart in the sense that it sounds like a standard three letter abbreviation although it is not.

CONCLUSION

We have very good reasons to keep our established full name "International Racketlon Federation" since, after four World Champs and three World Tours this is a name that has become quite established. And even if we did change people would probably still refer to us as the "International Racketlon Federation" since this is our only natural name (given that the vast majority (ca 80%) of the world's most established sports have chosen this standard format). In fact, it would probably be a big mistake to change it!

But we also have good reasons to change our acronym since it is strongly recommended by AGFIS. And changing the acronym is a relatively easy task since it is not as important as the full name and there are many possible candidates - out of which this document highlights three. I would argue that IRONF is the best candidate that has emerged so-far. It would, in fact, actually be a better acronym than our previous IRF since it stands out and contains several positive as well as relevant associations mainly related to the metal "iron".

Do you find IRONF a little awkward and a little difficult to get used to? Then focus on the way that it is pronounced [ai - ron - eff] and the fact that - from a sound and not letter point of view - [ron] is a more natural abbreviation of racketlon than [ar]! And [ai - ron - eff] is just as simple to say as [ai - ar - eff]!

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