The British Softball Federation Executive held a conference call meeting on the evening of Thursday, June 7. Below are highlights of discussions and decisions.
Attendance
Present: Vicky Hall (Administrative Officer), Mike Jennings (Treasurer),
Julie Calver (Website Officer), Mark Wigington (Marketing Officer), Chris Moon (BASU Representative), Beth Perkins and Rory Lynch (General Officers).
Apologies: Stella Ackrell (President), Liz Graham (Tournaments Officer).
Guest: Bob Fromer (BSUK).
Guidance on young players
The BSF Executive has held a number of recent discussions around the subject of young players playing in adult slowpitch or fastpitch teams.
While it is generally recognised that 14 is the minimum age for young players in adult teams, there are a number of things that teams should consider to ensure the safety and well-being of young players, and the BSF plans to issue a guidance document on this issue.
General Officer Rory Lynch, who has a background in safeguarding issues, will draft the document, which will be reviewed by the Executive, BSUK and softball League Heads before being circulated to leagues and teams.
Women in Sport promotion
A new women's sport website (women2012.co.uk) is promoting women's participation in sport and trying to raise the profile of women athletes. Softball already has a considerable presence on the site, with four “softball heroines” (Laura Thompson, Sara Vertigan, Steph Jardine and Lesley Morisetti), listings of women-only or co-ed softball events and a feature and video on Laura Thompson showing her two hits against the USA at last summer's World Cup of Softball.
The Women's SportsNet website is promoting a Women's Try-It Day later this month to encourage women to take up new sports, and the BSF wants to promote this concept to softball leagues around the country and through social media. General Officer Beth Perkins and Marketing Officer Mark Wigington will lead this campaign.
GB Slowpitch in Holland
All the reports and reactions suggest that the GB Slowpitch Team's trip to Holland on May 25-27 to play a series of challenge games against a handpicked Dutch team was a tremendous success in terms of introducing the slowpitch format to the Netherlands as a competitive sport.
The BSF provided significant financial support for the tour, but it will be money well spent if the result is a Dutch team in next year's European Slowpitch Championships.
ESF President Andre van Overbeek and longtime Dutch Federation member Anton Kops, the main organisers of the tour, will now consider how to build on the tour's momentum to develop slowpitch among Dutch clubs.
Joint ESF/CEB Congress
After nine years during which the European Softball Federation (ESF) and the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) have held separate annual Congresses, the two organisations will go back to holding a Joint Congress in 2013.
The Joint Congress will be held from February 15-17, 2013 at Bled in Slovenia.
The ESF and CEB are planning to work together on a number of joint initiatives, but the main one is the proposed bid by baseball and softball to regain a place on the Olympic programme as the male and female formats of a single sport.
GLSML development grant
The Executive has agreed to support a development grant application from the Greater London Softball Mixed League (GLSML) for £220 to help with the costs of development sessions for new players that the league runs on Monday nights throughout the season.
Over the past few years, these sessions have led to the formation of several new teams that now play in the GLSML league structure.
The league already puts resources towards these sessions through buying equipment for them and paying some initial fees for the new teams that emerge from them, but would like help from the BSF to pay session fees for coaches.
The BSF welcomes applications for grants for such programmes and will continue to support those which meet the funding criteria.
The BSF is also keen to offer help to develop umpiring skills, and as London needs more trained officials than the rest of the country combined, BASU Training Officer and BSF Executive Technical Officer Chris Moon and Mike Jennings will talk to GLSML officials to see how the BSF and/or BASU might be able to help.
GB pennants
GB teams playing in tournaments overseas have traditionally given GB pins to opposing players as part of the traditional exchange of gifts, but many overseas teams also give a “team gift”, usually in the form of a Federation pennant.
In order that GB teams can do this as well, the BSF has approved an order for 100 BSF pennants that travelling GB teams can use this summer.
Loans to national teams
Many national team managers have to pay for key items such as flights and hotel accommodation before teams have been selected and trip fees have been collected from players and families.
This often presents a cash flow problem that team managers struggle to cope with.
On June 7, the Executive approved two loans of £1500 to the GB Fastpitch programme: one loan to cover hotel costs for the GB Under-13s at the Massimo Romeo Youth Cup in Italy and the other to enable a new set of uniforms to be purchased that all the female age group teams can share.
A further request for a loan to finance a merchandise-based fundraising campaign was deferred pending a proposal from Marketing Officer Mark Wigington and General Officer Beth Perkins to develop a general merchandising policy and programme to benefit national teams and other softball causes, perhaps in conjunction with BSUK.
Next meeting
The next BSF conference call meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 5. Anyone with an item to submit for the meeting should contact Administrative Officer .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).