Introduction:
The Oral History is one of the research methods within the framework of recognition of the history that deals with describing and recognizing events and historical incidents based on the views of witnesses and observers expressed in an active target-oriented dialog so as to recall memories of a given subject. The dialog in question is performed in an audio-visual format and follows by cross-referencing and indexing. The Oral History of Iran Sport is subsequently transferred to an archive capable of media programming and virtual social networks in view of the importance and necessity of documentation.
Article 1. Definitions & Terms:
-Oral History: is a kind of historical research in which the researcher compiles his required documentary, historical data and proofs through interviews from amongst the eye-witnesses and veterans who are knowledgeable in terms of the latest developments of contemporary history (namely political, social, cultural, sports, artistic and scientific trends)
-Oral History Resources: These resources are obtained from audio-visual interviews of oral history and is considered as historical documents from an authentic source (narrator)
-Project Manager: Legal and natural persons who are eligible for preparing the Oral History plan and submitting the same to the National Olympic Committee for approval.
-Interviewee: As narrator, is the person who is interviewed within the framework of oral history approved plan so as to obtain and record his/her data, beliefs and memories on the project
-Interviewer: is the person or persons who interview the narrator in compliance with the approved handbook
Article 2. Subject & output of project:
-Preparing and drawing up the developing trend, history, venues, administrative, social, cultural, educational and research developments with an eye to scholars’ life and remarkable sports achievements in four levels of sports competition including the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Asian Games, national and international events and three corporate entities, activists, sports events and based on a qualitative-basis field methodology.
-Compiling documents, works and objects related to sports history and publishing them in the form of books, pictures, interviews’ master copies, movie and television documentaries and multi-media products related to virtual networks.
Article 3. Necessity of the project
A large number of memories belonging to sports officials are on the verge of being forgotten and sports history’s various affairs are about to be fading away from memories. Moreover, the experiences gained by sports directors and experts which could be employed as practical operational patterns are left unnoticed
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following their retirement. Apart from experts, the researchers are also deprived of accessing these first- hand oral resources. It was with this consideration in mind that the project for drawing up the Oral History of Iran Sport came into being.
What follows are the other necessities for carrying out this project:
-Recognizing the history of Iran sport as an essential pre-requisite for recognizing the history of national
Olympic and Paralympic committees of Iran
-The necessity of recording memories in history for the present and future generations
-Isolation of veterans, as witnesses, from various sports realms
-Lack of first-hand resources
-Access to information of certain sports events only through holding talks with efficient and active people in sport
-Taking advantage of interviews’ feedbacks on oral history compared to questions which could not be
addressed to other historical resources
-Making use of data obtained from oral history interviews in other projects such as knowledge management,
preparing movie and television documentaries…….
Article 4. Project Objectives:
4-1 Main objectives:
-Drawing up history of sport in Iran with an eye to oral history
-Drawing up the history of National Olympic and Paralympic Committee of Iran on the basis of oral history
-Learning lessons and turning implicit knowledge of sports community into explicit knowledge (avoid forgetting experiences, information and knowledge gained through spending high expenditure and turning them into a means for a dynamic system)
4-2 Sub-objectives:
-Developing research in the oral history of Iran sport in areas where documentary papers are rare or even not available at all or have mono-oriented approach
-Narrating and making documentaries for hidden, untold stories of Iran sport history
-Presenting a live image of Iran sports history based on direct and indirect experiences of the interviewees
–Illuminating the interviewees’ individual views and beliefs on events, historical developments and
contemporary characters
-Expressing wishes, concerns and worries inherent in events
-Laying the foundation for exchange of views and information with other memories and documents
-Compiling documents, works and papers related to project
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-Reviving the culture of chivalry, sports ethics and sharing sports knowledge amongst masters and young generation
5.Organizational Affairs
-Setting up a policy-making council for oral history of sport in Iran
-Setting up a purchasing committee and organizing the documents and works
-Setting up a secretariat
5-1. Council Duties:
-Studying, amending and approving the Handbook of oral history of sport in Iran
- Studying, amending, approving or rejecting the executive plans of projects
-Approving the costs for each plan
-Determining the priorities for implementation of project
-Appointing the projects’ supervisor
-Approving the project’s required by-laws
Reminder: The expenses related to running of the projects are undertaken jointly by the Ministry of Sports and Youth as well as the National Olympic & Paralympic Committee of Iran. These bodies could benefit from other financial supports for this cause as well.
5-2. The Composition of Council:
-Dr. Reza Salehi Amiri, Chairman
-Dr. Reza Gharakhanlou, Vice-Chairman
-Mrs. Shahrzad Kordbacheh Secretary
-Dr. Abdulhamid Ahmadi, Member
-Dr. Habibullah Esmaeili, Member
-Mr. Masoud Ashrafi, Member
-Mr. Mehdi Zanganeh, Member
-Mr. Hosein Sebti, Member
-Dr. Nasrollah Sadjadi, Member
-Mr. Gholamhosein Shabani, Member
-Mrs. Tahereh Taherian, Member
-Mr. Mahmoud Abdollahi, Member
-Mr. Gholamreza Azizi, Member
-Mrs. Nahid Karimi, Member
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5-3. Secretariat:
-The secretariat is composed of a secretary and an expert
-The secretary is appointed by the NOC President
-The location of secretariat is the premises of the National Olympic Committee of Iran
5-3-1. The Secretariat Duties:
-Receiving proposals for the projects’ executive plans and preparing them as to being put forward in policy- making council
-Notifying the council’s decision to projects’ presenters
-Receiving the works and documents of interviews related to each project and submitting it to the Center for NOC Museum, Documents and Library
-Making required coordination for organizing the policy-making meetings
-Making required coordination for organizing the purchasing committee meetings
-Presenting approvals and progress report of the council’s defined processes and approved executive projects
Article 6. Implementation Procedure/ Project Managers
As the oral history could take place in an extensive range of sports history of Iran in various realms, implementation of such plans are carried out on project-basis through outsourcing by specialized groups and individuals in a variety of fields (research, artistic and technical). Followings are other reasons for carrying out these plans project-based:
-The research nature of oral history entails spending a lot of time and energy
-The quantitative and qualitative increase and speed for research-based activities of oral history through separating it from administrative bureaucracy
-Create opportunities as to establishing links between universities, scientific centers, research institutes and executive centers through making use of outside-organization talents to reinforce scientific potential of organizational activities
Article 7. Implementation Procedure
-Completion of the project proposal based on Request for Proposal-RFP
-Request for implementation of oral history project or receiving proposed projects
-Studying, classifying and prioritizing the received proposals and choosing the projects as well as confirmation of executive team of policy-making council
-Appointing a sports advisor and supervisor for each project
-Concluding contract and implementing the project
Note: The ownership right of oral history resources
-Implementation of each project takes place in three stages:
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1)Interview: Carrying out research and raising question, interviewing and recording it audio-visually, downloading, writing table of contents, describing interview, drawing up the book of oral history interview
2)Compiling documents: Collecting the original or copy of documents from the relevant interviewee and documentary centers
3)Compiling the works and documents: Collecting, in the form of donation or purchasing, content-writing and documentation of papers and interviewees’ works for the purchasing committee and submitting the same, if purchased, to the council’s secretariat in order to set up the Museum of Sports History.
Article 8. Determining Priorities
Considering the time restrictions and likelihood of historical documents’ go missing and forgetting or demise of our target figures as well as limitation of human resources and organizational facilities, oral history of Iran Sport interviews shall be given the priority. These priorities could fall into two general priorities namely individual and thematic priority. The priority of project in interviews is on combined basis (individual-oriented & event-oriented) with sports history of Iran in mind from among 3 kinds of oral history interviews (biography-oriented, theme-oriented and combined interviews)
Article 8-1. Individuals’ Priority (activists)
The interviews take place for the following individuals, in order of priority, beginning with the oldest and most informed individuals, assuming firstly that they have less time for living, and secondly that there is no likelihood of their return to high-performance sport again. Moreover, there is little chance for sports veterans and masters to be re-appointed within managerial positions at an elderly age and, last but not least, they give their opinions and views more straightforward that their younger generations:
8-1-1.Iran Sports Champions
-Olympic & Paralympic Champions
-World champions
-Asian champions
-National champions
8-1-2. Distinguished figures of Iran Sport
This group of individuals involves remarkable sports elites and masters who have played a key role as to training of champions such as:
-Renowned university professors
-Sports coaches (national level)
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8-1-3. Sports Officials
These people include those who have acted in variety of ways in sports realm such as:
-Sports ministers and their deputies
-Islamic Consultative Assembly members and former MPs related with sport
-NOC presidents, secretary generals and executive committee members of the National Olympic & Paralympic committees of the Islamic Republic of Iran
-Former presidents and deputies of physical education organization
-Senior directors of NSFs
-National and international referees and those officials who hold international positions
-Media directors and sports photographers, writers, and editors-in-chiefs of sports journals
8-1-4. Women athletes
-Sports champions mentioned in groups - paragraph 8-1-1
-Distinguished individuals mentioned in groups - paragraph 8-1-2
8-1-5. Other individuals informed about sports events of Iran contemporary history and those elites who have played a particular role in Iran sport on a specific issue such as:
-Social-religious figures (including organizers and chairmen of parties as well as political, religious,.., groups)
-Cultural, scientific, and artistic figures involved in sporty
-Interview with other key figures and eye-witnesses of important events in each sport including fans…
Note: Other local and international individuals approved by the policy-making council
8-2. Second theme-based priority
The following topics could be used for sports-oriented oral history interviews considering the important topics on Iran sports history:
-Sports venues and infrastructures (stadiums and sports complexes)
-University & High-School Students’ sport
-History of Ministry of Sport and Youth, National Olympic & Paralympic Committees and National Sports
Federations
-Traditional and ethnic sports of regions such as traditional sport, Chokheh wrestling and…
-Sports clubs and teams
-Sports training & education
-Sport in prison (political prisoners before the revolution, memories of released prisoners)
-Sport in holy defense
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-Social and cultural history of sport
-Sport and media
-Sports economy
9. Costs
-The expenses related to each oral history project will be determined based on producing interviews text per hour after approval of policy-making council with an eye to each project specific condition.
-The costs related to purchasing documents and works are taken into account and approved separately
-The project’s value in Rial will be determined based on the volume of work, travels, missions, difficulty of tasks as well as the amount of executive and managerial team involvement
-This project, composed of 9 articles and 3 notes, was drawn up by the Oral History of Iran Sport Policy- making Council Members on 17th July 2018 and takes effect from the said date upon approval of the NOC President.
Seyed Reza Salehi Amiri