The BSF Executive held its latest conference call meeting on Thursday evening 4 February. Below is a journalistic report on discussions and decisions.
Attendance
Present: Stella Ackrell (President), Mike Jennings (Treasurer), Liz Graham (Tournaments Officer), Steve Getraer (seconded as General Officer), Chris Moon (BASU Representative), Laura Burkhardt (seconded as Assistant Treasurer).
Guests: Jenny Fromer and Bob Fromer (BSUK).
Finances
BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings reported that BSF’s accountants have approved the 2014-15 BSF Accounts with no changes required. The Executive then approved the Accounts, and also approved the Budget for 2015-16 which will be included in the AGM Pack and presented to the AGM on 20 February for approval.
Calendar and tournament updates​
After much discussion and negotiation, it has now been confirmed that:
- Diamond Series tournaments in 2016 will be played on 14-15 May, 11-12 June and 6-7 August at Farnham Park, and will include dirt as well as grass pitches.
- National Softball League games will be played as part of Diamonds 1 and 2, but not at Diamond 3, which will be an open tournament for all grades of play. At Diamonds 1 and 2, NSL league games will be followed by Diamond playoff games so Diamond Series points can be awarded.
- The third weekend of NSL competition will be played at the Windsor Tournament on 16-17 July, also at Farnham Park, and will consist of NSL league games only in order to complete the NSL schedule. The BSF will need to staff this event to keep on top of final NSL results and placings and award NSL trophies at the end of the day.
The BSF would like to start an NSL 2 competition this year for B-grade teams if a day or weekend can be found to stage this competition. BSF Tournaments Officer Liz Graham and Jenny Fromer from BSUK will work together to identify a date, clarify qualification routes to Nationals and send invitations to B-grade teams.
Eventually, once NSL 2 is established, the BSF hopes to define a promotion and relegation system between the two competitions.
AGM preparations
The BSF Executive is finishing the AGM Pack that will be sent to all league heads, member teams and others in advance of the 2016 BSF AGM on Saturday 20 February in Manchester.
The BSF has been relatively short-handed over the past year, with a number of Executive positions vacant, but several people have now come forward to stand for positions at the AGM.
The BSF has already co-opted Steve Getraer from the Greater London Softball Mixed League as a General Officer, and Steve will stand for that position at the AGM. Laura Burkhardt from PwC UK has been co-opted as an Assistant to the Treasurer, and will stand for the Treasurer’s role at the AGM.
The 2015 League Heads Forum meeting, postponed from last November, will be held in the morning of the AGM Day, and the BSF has offered to pay travel costs for one representative from each affiliated league to attend the meeting. An Agenda for the League Heads Forum will be part of the AGM Pack.
At the AGM itself, the BSF will propose a Constitutional motion, based on the standard corporate Articles of Association / Memorandum recommended by Sport England, governing how many Directors and Executive members the BSF should have and how they should be elected.
The Executive has also determined recipients of its Annual Awards to be presented at the AGM, and new inductees into the BSF Hall of Fame.
BSF President Stella Ackrell will invite the Hall of Fame inductees and award winners to attend the meeting so they can be recognised in person.
Structural Review summary and discussion
One of the items to be discussed at both the League Heads Forum and at the AGM will be the outcome of the Structural Review project that the BBF, BSF and BSUK have been engaged in over the past three years. A paper summarising the current position and recommendations will be part of the AGM Pack, and this will be the first time that these recommendations are presented to the softball community. The purpose of the Structural Review has been to explore possible changes to the structures and working relationships between the three organisations to improve the governance of both sports.
The aim of the discussions on AGM Day is to gather questions and reactions from the community; there will not be a vote or decision. The BBF plans to hold a webinar in the near future for the same purpose.
The Structural Review Group, after extensive consultation inside and outside the baseball and softball communities, is recommending the creation of a new integrated governance body for the sports, and detailed proposals along these lines will be drawn up over the coming months. The target date for a restructured single organisation to come into being is April 2017.
National Team appointments
Several vacancies have occurred over the winter among GB national team staffs, and the GB Management Committee, on behalf of the BSF, has advertised the positions, interviewed candidates and recommended appointments.
The BSF Executive has now approved the following appointments:
- James Hirai as the new Team Manager for the GB Junior (Under-19) Women’s Fastpitch Team. The previous team Manager, Simon Mortimer, has moved up to the position of Team Manager for the GB Senior Women’s Team.
- Kellie Whitaker as the new Team Manager for the GB Slowpitch Team. The previous Team Manager, Sara Vertigan, stepped down after the Slowpitch World Cup last November after many years of excellent service in the role.
- Lee Grafton as the new Team Manager for the GB Men’s Fastpitch Team. The previous Team Manager, Steve Fullan, stepped down after the World Championships last summer after many years in the role, during which he held the programme together and took the team to a number of World and European Championships.
- Kevin Stockford as the new Head Coach for the GB Men’s Fastpitch Team. The previous Head Coach, Norman Ames, is based in the Netherlands and did not wish to continue with a programme which is aiming to become more GB-based. Kevin Stockford has been a player on the GB Men’s Team for many years, and will combine the position this year with his current role as Head Coach of the Danish Women’s Fastpitch National Team.
ESF Congress
The 2016 ESF Congress will take place in The Netherlands on 12-13 February, and BSF President Stella Ackrell and Treasurer Mike Jennings will attend – though Mike will be there primarily in his capacity as the ESF’s Technical Director.
Motions to the Congress have not yet been circulated, so it’s not clear what the major issues might be.
The ESF Executive has been keen on introducing new competitions to its tournament schedule over the past year or so, but it’s not yet clear whether this is too much too soon. A proposed Men’s Slowpitch Championship scheduled for this year has had to be cancelled due to a lack of entries and lack of a host, but the ESF plans to revive this idea for 2018.
One of the ESF’s main successes last year was a major increase in the budget for webstreaming games from ESF competitions, and six out of 10 tournaments organized by the ESF in 2015 had their final days streamed live, bringing nearly 50 games to the European softball community and to a wider audience, thereby raising the profile of European softball.
Webstreaming in the UK
In 2014, the final game of the Premier Nationals was recorded at Farnham Park with a multi-camera set-up and later made available on BSUK TV (http://www.baseballsoftballuk.com/bsuktv), drawing a substantial audience. This telecast, and live webstreaming last year from the London Cup Women’s Fastpitch Tournament and baseball’s Little League Qualifiers, were supported wholly by BSUK.
BSUK can no longer take on the full cost of these broadcasts, but is offering the Federations the chance to provide support, and the BSF Executive is keen to have the final games of this year’s Premier Nationals on 14 August available to a wider audience. The BSF and BSUK will have further discussions about how to split the costs, but the intention is to provide live coverage of the event.
Next meeting
The BSF Executive will hold its next meeting as a face-to-face discussion immediately following the AGM in Manchester on 20 February.
Anyone with items or issues to bring to the meeting should email BSF Acting Secretary Bob Fromer (bob.fromer@bsuk.com) no later Monday 15 February.