The BSF Executive held its latest monthly conference call meeting on the evening of Thursday 7 January. Below is a journalistic account of discussions and decisions.
Attendance
Present: Stella Ackrell (President), Mike Jennings (Treasurer), Liz Graham (Tournaments Officer), Steve Getraer (General Officer, Co-opted), Chris Moon (BASU Representative).
Apologies: Beth Perkins (National Teams Officer).
Guest: Bob Fromer (BSUK).
Budget for 2015-16
BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings has proposed and circulated a budget for 2015-16 to the Executive (the BSF financial year runs from 1 October-30 September), and told the meeting that unspent funds from 2014-15 will give the Executive a fair amount of flexibility for this year.
Mike will be meeting the BSF’s auditors shortly to confirm the 2014-15 accounts and the amount carried forward, and the budget will then be approved by the Executive and included in the AGM Pack for approval by the membership at the 2016 BSF AGM on Saturday 20 February in Manchester.
Support for BASU umpires working internationally
BASU now has more internationally-qualified slowpitch and fastpitch umpires, and is sending more umpires abroad to work in international tournaments, at ISF as well as ESF level. With the possibility that the ISF Slowpitch World Cup will become a Slowpitch World Championship in alternate years in future, and perhaps as early as 2016, the number of BASU umpires going to ISF events – which are almost always outside Europe – is likely to increase.
When BASU umpires work at international tournaments, their costs in-country are covered by the tournament hosts, but travel to the country where the tournament is played is not. The BSF will approach BASU to talk about a plan for providing more support for these travel costs in future.
2016 Calendar
The calendar of softball tournaments and events for 2016 is nearly complete, and most events have now been posted on the BSF website.
One major decision remaining to be made by the BSF is where the three weekends of National Softball League play in 2016 will take place, but this should be announced shortly.
Because there are likely to be some new tournaments added to the calendar for this year, the BSF will review and publish the criteria that tournaments have to meet in order to be approved for inclusion on the official website calendar.
GB Teams abroad
There will be a smaller than usual number of British national and club teams playing in international competition this year.
In Europe, the GB Junior (Under-19) Women’s Fastpitch Team will compete in European Championships in Spain, and the GB Under-13 Girls’ programme will send a team to the annual Massimo Romeo Youth Cup in Italy. But the GB Men’s Fastpitch Team seems likely to decline to enter European Championships and will use 2016 to rebuild the programme, while there is no European competition this year for the GB Slowpitch Team, the GB Women, GB Under-19 Men and GB Under-16 Girls.
A proposed European Men’s Slowpitch Championship, which GB would have entered, has been cancelled due to a lack of entries, and the ESF will try again to hold this tournament for the first time in 2018.
However, the GB Women’s Fastpitch Team will compete in the WBSC Women’s World Championships in Vancouver, Canada, and the GB Under-19 Men’s Team is considering the option of competing for the first time in the WBSC Junior Men’s World Championships in Midland, Michigan, USA.
As far as club teams are concerned, the Chromies and Pioneers will both compete in the European Slowpitch Super Cup at the beginning of August, but the London Angels Women’s Fastpitch Team will not be competing in a European Cup competition for the first time in many years. Availability of players is the problem for the Angels, exacerbated by the fact that the European Women’s Cup Winners Cup, which they would have entered, starts on the morning following the BSF Co-ed Slowpitch National Championships.
Defibrillator for Farnham Park
The BSF Executive is leading the way in a plan to purchase a defibrillator for Farnham Park, and to make sure that training is provided for representatives from the BSF, BBF, BSUK and the Farnham Park Baseball and Softball Club.
The BSF will approach the BBF and BSUK to contribute to the purchase. The equipment, which has the potential to save lives, can be kept in the building that BSUK now leases from South Bucks District Council and plans to convert to a clubhouse for baseball and softball.
Logo for Softball World Series
The annual Softball World Series Tournament, now supported by the BSF and organised in conjunction with BSUK, has been running since 1999 but has never had its own logo.
The BSF is now proposing to approach the 18 teams that participated in the 2015 World Series and run a contest among them for logo ideas, with a prize to be offered to the winner. The BSF will then have a professional designer execute the winning idea.
Officers and appointments
The BSF Executive, which has been short-handed for much of the past year, has co-opted Steve Getraer as a General Officer, and Steve will stand for the position at the forthcoming AGM.
Other positions currently vacant are:
Administrator
National Teams Officer
Tournaments Officer/Logistics
Marketing Officer
Communications Officer
General Officer (two can be elected)
Safeguarding Officer
The BSF also needs to appoint a new representative to the BSUK Board, and people to represent the BSF on BSUK’s Development and Marketing Committees. These appointments do not have to come from the Executive, and at this point are more likely to be made from qualified people in the softball community.
AGM Pack
The BSF Executive is now beginning to assemble the Information Pack for the 2016 BSF AGM, which will be distributed at the beginning of February.
As well as practical information about the meeting, the Pack will contain an agenda, Officers’ and National Team reports, accounts for 2014-15, the proposed budget for 2015-16, Constitutional and general motions from the Executive and members, nominations for Executive positions, a proposal for 2016 fees and more.
Motions and nominations
The BSF Executive has issued a reminder that the deadline for motions to the BSF AGM, nominations for office on the BSF Executive and nominations for the BSF’s annual awards and the BSF Hall of Fame is 5.00 pm on Friday 15 January.
Motions and nominations should be sent to BSF President Stella Ackrell. Full details can be found here.
Next meeting
The next BSF conference call meeting will be held on the evening of Thursday 4 February.
Anyone with items to bring to the meeting should contact BSF President Stella Ackrell.