The BSF Executive held its monthly conference call meeting on the evening of Thursday 12 January. Below is a journalistic account of discussions and decisions.
Attendance​
Present: Stella Ackrell (President), Laura Burkhardt (Treasurer), Jana McCaskill (National Teams Officer), Liz Graham (Tournaments Officer), Mike Jennings (General Officer), Chris Moon (BASU Representative).
Apologies: Lesley Morisetti (Administrator), Steve Getraer (General Officer).
Guest: Bob Fromer (BSUK).
AGM arrangements
The Executive discussed arrangements for the 2017 BSF AGM, to be held on Saturday 25 February in Bushey, Herts. The AGM Pack is currently being compiled and will be sent out to all teams and posted on the BSF website for download at the beginning of February.
The Executive has extended the deadline to SUNDAY 22 JANUARY for nominations for positions on the BSF Executive, motions to the AGM and nominations for annual awards. For more information, see: http://www.britishsoftball.org/news/view/last-call-for-agm-motions-and-nominations.
Motions, and nominations for office or for awards, should be sent to BSF Administrator Lesley Morisetti (lesley.morisetti@britishsoftball.org).
The Executive has clarified that only teams that pay the full affiliation fee for their category can vote at the AGM.
Finances
BSF accounts for the 2015-16 financial year are still with the auditors, but should be back soon. Meanwhile the Executive will need to discuss and approve a budget for 2016-17 within the next couple of weeks so it can be included in the AGM Pack.
The BSF financial year runs from 1 October to 30 September.
Mike Jennings confirmed that an increase in SLA charges from BSUK, based on additional work required for the creation of a funding submission to UK Sport following softball’s restoration to the Olympic programme in 2020, falls within the 2016-17 financial year and will be accounted for in the new budget.
National Teams
National Teams Officer Jana McCaskill confirmed that all applications to enter ESF Championships or Cups in 2017 that were due by 31 December were submitted on time. The tournaments concerned are:
European Women’s Fastpitch Championship (GB Women’s Team)
European Co-ed Slowpitch Championship (GB Slowpitch Team)
European Junior Men’s Fastpitch Championship (GB Under-19 Men’s Team)
European Cadette Fastpitch Championship (GB Under-16 Girls’ Team)
European Women’s Cup Winners Cup (London Angels)
There is a later deadline for the GB Under-13 Girls’ Fastpitch Team to enter the Massimo Romeo Youth Trophy and for a GB Under-16 Boys’ Fastpitch Team to enter the new European Under-16 Boys’ Championship.
In 2017, the GB Men’s Fastpitch Team and GB Under-19 Women’s Fastpitch Team will be playing in WBSC World Championships in North America, and later in the year, the GB Slowpitch Team is expected to play in the WBSC Slowpitch World Cup in Florida.
UK Sport funding decision
Bob Fromer reported to the Executive on the outcome of the funding application to UK Sport, submitted late last year, for money to support the GB Women’s Team programme in an attempt to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
On 9 December 2016, UK Sport announced that it would be funding 16 Olympic sports for the Tokyo Cycle while declining to fund 12 others. However, decisions on the five sports that will be “new” to the programme in Tokyo – including baseball and softball – will be deferred to December 2017. Because UK Sport has not been working with these five sports until recently, the agency wants more time to assess their medal potential.
However, no sport without medal potential has a chance of receiving funding; for more on UK Sport’s funding methodology, see: http://www.baseballsoftballuk.com/blog/view/uk-sport-awards-reinforce-inequality.
A meeting scheduled for 16 February between UK Sport and BSUK will establish what kind of support apart from funding UK Sport will give to softball and baseball this year, and what targets the sports will need to meet to be considered for a funding award. For softball, results achieved by the GB Women’s Team in European Championships and the GB Under-19 Women in WBSC Junior World Championships this summer could be all-important.
Rules course for coaches
National Teams Officer Jana McCaskill, who is an ISF-certified fastpitch umpire, had planned to deliver a Rules Clinic to softball coaches at the BSUK Coach Summit at the end of January, but has had to withdraw from the session.
However, she plans to hold the clinic for fastpitch national team coaches during the spring, and BASU Training Officer Chris Moon has suggested a joint clinic for fastpitch and slowpitch national team coaches.
Next meeting
The next BSF conference call meeting will be on the evening of Thursday 9 February.
Anyone with an item to bring to the meeting should contact BSF Administrator Lesley Morisetti (lesley.morisetti@britishsoftball.org).