Rights Holder Profile

20 Amateur Athletic Union

Amateur Athletic Union

What is your title, and how long have you held the position with AAU?

Sr. Sports Manager & 20 Years

What sports do you oversee within the organization?

I currently oversee all of the Martial Arts – Chinese Martial Arts, Judo, Karate & Taekwondo, and Baton Twirling.

The coronavirus pandemic has altered the course of action for organizations in the sports tourism industry. What pivots have you made to drive the organization forward during this time of uncertainty?

Our #1 objective was to keep our members engaged and with my sports with really utilized social media platforms. We created photo contests, workout challenges, favorite quotes, and much more to keep are our members interested. The goal was to give them something to look forward to each day on our platforms and keep them moving.

Another event that has garnered tremendous attention is the 2020 AAU TKD Virtual Nationals. AAU hosted the event via Zoom and YouTube. Did you research various meeting platforms to decided upon Zoom, say over Google Meet or Microsoft Teams?

The AAU TKD National Chair, Mr. Bobby Stone, and I first started talking about the idea of a Virtual Nationals in the spring as I had already done two (2) video submission events with Karate. We looked into different platforms but kept going back to Zoom because it had the most options, especially when using the Webinar feature.

Jennifer Miles (AAU)

Utilizing Zoom Webinar gave us the ability to send a specific link to athletes in that Ring (Zoom Webinar) for their competition and then on competition day the features allowed us to control moving them in and out of the room (main screen) so they could be showcased on the screen.

Hosting over 4,000 taekwondo matches via Zoom had to be daunting; what preparations or additional tech support did you implement before the event?

It was a daunting task to undertake but knowing how much our athletes were longing to compete. Once we figured out the platform, we would utilize and discuss all of our ideas with our Executive Committee for AAU Taekwondo.

We started gathering our staffing for ten (10) rings – which would mean we would need a minimum of six (6) people for each ring. Once we reached our staffing goal, we assigned everyone to Rings then hosted multiple training sessions with our Officials, Team Leaders & Virtual Staging Managers from all over the United States.

Considering how well attended the virtual event was, describe your approach to get AAU taekwondo athletes excited for a virtual event rather than what they are used to. We knew we had to get the Instructors & Clubs to be just as excited to do this event as we were, so again we took to Social Media and hosted Zoom Calls with our Volunteers, Clubs & Instructors to get the info out.

How were you able to coordinate with all 40 host sites, and what went into deciding which would be on the docket?

The Club Host Sites were a driving force; our largest club Asian Sun Martial Arts from Ohio, had over 130+ Athletes register for the Virtual Nationals.

To be a host site, the Taekwondo School had to be a current AAU Club and could have as many athletes register as they wanted, but we incentivized them to register a minimum of ten (10) athletes to qualify for a rebate back to their club. The host club also needed to provide ample space for the athletes from their school to compete. It was an opportunity for most clubs to get athletes back training either in the Dojang or via Zoom to prepare.

Fun personal questions:

Besides your hobbies, what do you enjoy doing when you are not working?

I like hanging out with my family – husband, son (11), who is a swimmer & our new puppy. I also love exploring breweries.

What is the most prized possession you have in your office?

Not sure that I have a prized possession in my office.

What is your favorite sporting event annually?

This one is tough because I love watching the World Series – well, if the Yankees are in it, but I also love the Super Bowl as it brings we back to when I was little watching with my dad, and it was the one day I got to eat lots of junk foods plus stay up late.