The BSF Executive held its first conference call meeting of 2015 on the evening of Thursday 8 January. Below is a journalistic summary of discussions and decisions.
Attendance
Present: Stella Ackrell (President), Darren Prouty (Administrator), Mike Jennings (Treasurer), Fiona Thorley and Liz Graham (Tournaments Officers), Mark Munnery (General Officer), Chris Moon (BASU Representative).
Apologies: Beth Perkins (National Teams Officer), Claire Waldron (Youth & Schools Officer), Mark Wigington (Marketing Officer).
Guest: Bob Fromer (BSUK).
BSF AGM
The venue for the 2015 BSF AGM, to be held on Saturday 28 February, has been confirmed as St Thomas United Reformed Church, 68 Langley Road, Watford, Herts WD17 4PN. Previous AGMs were held there in 2013 and 2011.
There will be no workshops or break-out sessions preceding this year's AGM, but the meeting will begin at 11.00 am (registration from 10.30). The first AGM session will run until 1.00 pm, there will be a lunch break until 2.00 pm, and the second session will run from 2.00-4.00 pm.
AGM Packs with full details of the agenda, motions, proposals and reports will be sent to all members and stakeholders around the beginning of February.
One of the key issues to be discussed and decided at the AGM will be proposals that have come out of the structural review that has examined the relationships between the BSF, the BBF and BSUK over the past few months.
The annual BSF awards will be given out at the end of the meeting.
All positions on the BSF Executive are open for nomination, with a deadline of Friday 23 January. However, the BSF is particularly interested in skill-based nominations for a number of positions that are currently vacant: Administrator/Secretary, Tournaments Officer, Marketing Officer, Communications Officer and Welfare Officer. All nominations should be sent to the current Administrator, Darren Prouty.
As previously announced, the BSF has widened requirements for attendance at the AGM, which is linked to participation in National Championships. Attendance is now required by:
- A representative from the Committee of each league that wishes to send a team or teams to any National Championship.
- A representative from each National Softball League team (except for teams that will be joining the NSL for the first time in 2015).
- A representative from any other independent team that wishes to take part in National Championships.
- A representative from all league teams that have qualified for National Championships in 2015 by virtue of their league position in 2014 and that wish to take up their place in National Championships in 2015 or retain the option to do so. All qualified teams will be notified directly by the BSF.
2015 Registration
The Executive has decided that the process for teams to register and roster their players on the BSF website for 2015 will be the same as last year, and it begins with the “Register” button on the website, which will shortly be larger and more prominent than it is now.
For the 140 teams that registered in 2014 (about 46% of the total), the process of re-registering for 2015 will be easy, and will only require alterations to rosters. But the BSF is hoping that considerably more teams will register and roster players this year so that the Federation can get closer to its important goal of having a database of all its member teams and players.
As last year, the process of registering and rostering players though the website is free. If any teams then want to go on to use the team management systems that are available on the website, which is entirely optional, the cost this incurs – £10 per team – will be met by the BSF.
Registered teams receive a team number, which can be used by the BSF and tournament organisers to verify that teams entering tournaments are BSF members and thus covered by insurance.
The BSF may hold a mini-workshop during the AGM on 28 February on how to use the registration system.
Finance
BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings confirmed that the BSF made an operating surplus of around £2700 for the financial year 2013-14 as opposed to a projected loss of around £7000, and this outcome has been verified by the auditors.
Mike will shortly circulate a proposed budget for 2014-15 to the Executive, and after the budget has been agreed, it will be published in the AGM Pack for a decision by the membership at the AGM.
Many areas of the budget are recurring expenses that the BSF has to meet each year. The main areas of discretionary spending that the Executive will need to discuss and decide on are concerned with National Championships, development and national teams.
BSF Development Grants
The Executive considered three requests for BSF Development Grants.
The Chester Pirates, the first softball team in the area, was started in September 2014 and quickly attracted enough members to enter the Sefton Shield Tournament at the end of last season. The BSF has awarded the team a grant of £250 to buy further equipment and to hire an indoor hall for additional recruitment and winter training.
A request for funds from Windsor League team Bracknell Scorchers to help with adult and youth expansion through winter indoor training will be considered again by the BSF after discussions with the league.
A request from a Midlands club that runs a co-ed and a women's slowpitch team involving both experienced and younger players for money to help with training costs and tournament participation was declined.
BSF Development Grants are available on a rolling basis and applications can be made at any time. For an application form, contact BSF Administrator Darren Prouty.
Safety equipment
The BSF will be carrying on its arrangement from last year with The Baseball & Softball Shop whereby a package of safety equipment – a batting helmet and a catcher's mask – can be purchased for £40, with the BSF paying half the cost.
For more information, contact BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings.
National Softball League
The BSF has had applications from two teams that want to join the National Softball League in 2015, and has already accepted one of them. But the BSF would like to ensure that there are an even number of teams in the league for scheduling purposes.
BSF Tournaments Officer Liz Graham will now contact all 12 of last season's NSL teams to find out if they intend to re-enter the league, and the BSF will make decisions about new teams and the size of the league based on the outcome.
Going forward, however, the BSF would like to maintain the NSL at a maximum of 12 teams (with eight qualifying for Premier Nationals). To do this, the BSF will devise a mechanism for promotion and relegation for the NSL that will be published before the season begins and that will take effect for 2016.
ESF Congress
The 2015 European Softball Federation Congress, along with the Confederation of European Baseball Congress, will take place on 6-7 February in Dublin.
BSF President Stella Ackrell will represent British softball at the Congress, and BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings will also attend in his role as the ESF's Technical Director.
Official BSF softball
The BSUK Commercial Committee, a tripartite committee working on behalf of BSUK and the Federations, has concluded a deal on the supply of baseballs and softballs to all three organisations by Ransome Sporting Goods.
Ransome will provide the BSF with good-quality 12” and 11” Baden softballs that carry the BSF logo, and the balls will be available to BSF member teams and leagues at an excellent price. Five suppliers pitched to the Commercial Committee, and the offer from Ransome offered the best mix of quality and price.
A page outlining how these balls can be purchased, using discount codes for BSF members, will be posted on the BSF website shortly.
The BSF Executive is urging all its teams and leagues to support the deal, which provides direct financial benefits to members, by purchasing these official balls.
BSUK Committees
The BSF sends representatives to the various BSUK Board subcommittees, and reports from those meetings are reviewed at BSF Executive meetings.
There have been no meetings of the Governance, Finance or Farnham Park Committees since the BSF Executive last met.
BSF General Officer Mark Munnery reported that the most recent Commercial Committee meeting was largely concerned with tying up details on the recently-concluded arrangement for the supply of official baseballs and softballs by Ransome Sporting Goods.
Mark also attended the most recent meeting of the Development Subcommittee, at which BSUK's latest quarterly “How Are We Doing?” report was presented and showed that participation targets are being met. As the new year begins, there will be particular emphasis on BSUK's new “Hit the Pitch” development programme, which had an official stakeholder launch in December and will have a formal launch on 1 April. More widely, there will also be support for Sport England's new campaign called “This Girl Can”, designed to persuade significantly more women and girls to take up sport.
Action list
Members of the BSF Executive will be carrying out the following actions arising from the meeting:
BSF Administrator Darren Prouty will be contacting the Head Coaches of all national teams that played in official competitions last year to ask them to supply reports from last year's competition tours for the AGM Pack.
Darren will also be contacting all league teams that have qualified for Co-ed Nationals places in 2015 to remind them that they are now required to attend the AGM if they wish to take up their Nationals place or preserve the option of doing so. The purpose of widening the requirements for AGM attendance is to ensure that a mix of teams from all grades participate in AGM discussions and decisions.
BSF Tournaments Officer Fiona Thorley has now confirmed dates for most of the slowpitch tournaments that will appear on the BSF Calendar for 2015, and these will be posted in the Events listing on the BSF website over the next couple of weeks.
Fiona will also be writing an article setting out the routes by which league and tournament teams qualify for Co-ed National Championships, and this will be published on the BSF website later this month.
Next meetings
The next BSF Executive conference call will be on Thursday 12 February. Anyone with issues or proposals to bring to the Executive should contact BSF Administrator Darren Prouty before the meeting.
The BSF AGM will be held on Saturday 28 February in Watford (see above).