Adoption of a new rule on game endings in timed games, extended discussion on the National Softball League and the induction of 14 new members to the British Softball Federation Hall of Fame were the highlights at the 2012 BSF AGM, held on Saturday, February 18 at the Hough End Sports and Social Club in Manchester.
Just over 50 people attended, including 36 voting members, but there were calls during the meeting for more attendance from lower-grade teams. At present, only teams taking part in some National Championships are required to be present, which skews attendance towards higher-level and more active teams.
New BSUK Chair John Walmsley was also in attendance.
Discussion sessions in the morning, preceding the AGM, focused on the National Softball League, local opportunities for leagues to run corporate softball events and coaching opportunities that the BSF wants to offer to some member teams.
In addition to the Hall of Fame ceremonies, annual BSF awards to individuals, teams and tournaments were presented, as was a kitbag full of equipment donated by players in 2011 through the BSF's “Bring a Bat, Give a Glove” campaign.
Members present were given a report from BSUK on progress towards targets set by Sport England and prospects for the next Whole Sport Plan funding round.
The meeting unanimously approved the BSF's 2010-2011 accounts and the proposed budget for 2011-2012.
Reports by BSF President Stella Ackrell, Tournaments Officers Liz Graham and Lesley Morisetti and by most GB national teams that competed in 2011 were included in the AGM Pack and were not reviewed at the meeting.
Finally, and not surprisingly, the meeting gave unanimous approval to the BSF's proposal that team fees in 2012 will remain unchanged. Meanwhile, the cost of purchasing optional accident and personal injury insurance will actually go down thanks to a deal arranged by BSUK with insurers Perkins Slade.
NSL discussions
An hour-long discussion session on the shape of the National Softball League in 2012 was held before the formal AGM, and more time was spent on the subject during the AGM itself, making it easily the dominant topic on the day. But as London Advertising Softball League Chair Alan MacFarlane pointed out, the NSL only involves 15 or 16 teams, and the meeting should perhaps have spent more time discussing the needs of the majority.
The NSL (or what is now called NSL1 in anticipation that an NSL2 will start in 2012) has run for three years. Initially, it was a private venture but for the past two years has been administered by the BSF.
NSL competition has always been part of existing tournaments, and for the past two years the majority of NSL events have been run at the Diamond Softball Series. But this is likely to be impossible in 2012 since the construction of dedicated facilities at Farnham Park by BSUK will reduce the number of pitches available and Diamond Series administrators have chosen to reduce the number of pitches assigned to A-grade and B-grade teams as a result.
The discussion was wide-ranging, and the starting point was the results of a poll of NSL1 teams conducted by the BSF, which showed that teams want NSL1 to be played wholly or mainly within the large tournaments for the sake of atmosphere, but also want a “balanced schedule” in which teams play all their NSL1 opponents the same number of times, creating a level playing field for qualification to Premier Nationals. Since the main tournaments set their own schedules, including for their NSL component, a balanced schedule has not been achieved in the past.
Some of the main ideas that emerged from the discussion were:
- If fewer NSL1 competition dates are held in 2012, these dates should produce seedings for the Premier Nationals, but all NSL1 teams should be allowed to compete in the Nationals.
- Manchester has again expressed a willingness to host an NSL1 date, as they did last year. But given the reluctance of southern teams to travel north, this could only work – and Manchester would only be prepared to organise it – if all NSL1 events are mandatory.
- The British Airways Tournament on June 16-17 might be prepared to host an NSL1 competition.
- Because NSL1 cannot be run at the Bristol Main Tournament this year, the BSF is proposing to host one NSL date at a new venue in Loughborough on July 7-8, possibly in conjunction with a recreational League All-Star Nationals.
- It was suggested that in future, NSL1 should be run apart from the large tournaments, on dates where there are no tournaments with an A-grade component. This would not only give A-grade teams more playing opportunities overall during the season, but would cut down opportunities for A-grade players to “guest” for B-grade teams.
- Dave King from the Diamond Series Committee suggested that the BSF should extend the NSL concept across three or four levels, with promotion and relegation between them. After a shakedown period, this would mean all tournament teams would be playing at the right level and qualifying for appropriate national championships.
The BSF will take all of this under advisement and will publish a proposal in the near future.
Meanwhile, there was virtually no discussion about whether an NSL2 for B-grade and upper C-grade teams will happen this year, and if so, how it will be run.
In part, as BSF Tournaments Officer Lesley Morisetti explained, this was because an invitation to join NSL2 sent to around 20 teams has so far elicited only three responses – and very few of those teams were in attendance at the AGM.
Corporate softball and coaching
The second pre-AGM session, run by BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings, outlined how slowpitch leagues could potentially find new recruits and perhaps make some money by running corporate softball events for local companies.
Mike also outlined a BSF proposal – linked in part to the formation of NSL2 – whereby the BSF will offer coaching assistance to a defined number of B-grade and C-grade teams.
Qualified coaches from the GB Slowpitch Team programme or other sources will deliver coaching sessions to teams, work with team coaches and demonstrate game management techniques for the team in a competition situation.
BSUK session
The formal AGM began at 1.30 pm with a session from BSUK Joint CEO and Head of Development John Boyd.
John explained that BSUK's main aims for slowpitch softball are growth in the number of adult teams and a better sporting experience for those who play.
Growth is being sought primarily in universities and colleges, through the formation of new adult leagues and through growth and development among existing teams and leagues. At the current time, BSUK has every possibility of fulfilling its targets in terms of both growth and player satisfaction.
But a key challenge for BSUK – and a challenge the BSF needs to have met – is to convert at least some of the new teams and leagues created into BSF members. The largest softball league in the UK is no longer the London Ad League; the Ad League has been eclipsed by the Charities Softball League (72 teams) and the BSUK-fostered Wickes Softball League (70 teams). But neither, as yet, has teams that are BSF members.
Some of BSUK's other achievements for softball during the current Whole Sport Plan, which began in April 2009 and ends in March 2013, were outlined by John:
- Supporting the creation of a new BSF member league in Brighton, support for rebuilding the West Midlands League in Birmingham and support for an Academy approach in Leicester.
- Major facility development due to take place over the next year at Farnham Park and Milton Keynes, with funding secured from Sport England and MLB's Baseball Tomorrow Fund – plus support for a number of smaller facility development projects around the country.
- The creation of the BSUK Tournament – which included the first slowpitch game played under lights as a spectator occasion – and running single-sex and indoor leagues and tournaments and the Softball World Series.
- BSUK staff members working regularly as “Point People” to help development in all slowpitch softball leagues.
- Setting up and developing the London (now GB) Fastpitch League, which has reintroduced domestic summer fastpitch competition.
- Delivery of a fastpitch development programme for children based on additional funding secured from Sport England for the BSF.
- Running Academy Softball, which supports player development for young people and is open to anyone to attend. BSUK staff also support many GB Softball national teams as coaches and managers.
- The creation of new websites for the BSF and BSUK and the increasing use of Twitter and Facebook to promote the sport.
Looking ahead, BSUK will soon be submitting a new Whole Sport Plan on which funding from Sport England for 2013-2017 will be based. There has been extensive consultation with the softball community, with more to come, which has produced clear messages on what BSUK should keep doing, start doing and stop doing.
In response to questions, John Boyd stated that:
- BSUK has an ongoing dialogue with Sport Scotland about how the sport can be better supported north of the border.
- The possibility of obtaining funds from Sport England for what they call “Excel”, which means talent development on the pathway to national teams, is still problematic – but BSUK will attempt to achieve this if possible. A key is to define what talent development means for softball and baseball.
- Softball's ability to work in schools has been hurt by the current government's dismantling of the School Sports Partnership structure, which means that there are fewer opportunities to develop schools-based softball. But BSUK has been working with the Youth Sport Trust and sponsors Matalan to deliver a new slowpitch schools competition and has exceeded its targets for the creation of new youth teams across both sports.
BSF Accounts and Budget
The BSF's statutory accounts for 2010-2011 have gone through the auditors and were included in the AGM Pack along with the BSF's proposed budget for 2011-2012 and a summary of income and expenditure from 2009 to the present. Both were approved unanimously by those attending the meeting.
Treasurer Mike Jennings explained that the BSF had done unexpectedly well financially in 2010-11 because one sizeable league that hadn't paid fees in 2010 paid for two years in 2011. This will allow the BSF a considerable amount of discretionary spending in 2011-12 on development projects separate from those carried out by BSUK.
Financially, the aim is to end each year with reserves of between 75% and 100% of annual income from fees. In 2011-12, the BSF expects to receive income of £67,000 and to spend £82,500, which will still leave reserves of around 77% of fee income.
One cloud on the financial horizon is that the European Softball Federation now charges 750 euros for every umpire we are unable to send to Europe on behalf of a GB national or club team competing in Europe, and a current lack of qualified fastpitch umpires in the UK makes it difficult to fulfil our responsibilities. The BSF and the fastpitch community are attempting to address the problem and a fastpitch umpire course, snowed out on February 4-5 with 25 people signed up, will be re-run in April.
Hall of Fame
Fourteen new members were inducted into the British Softball Federation Hall of Fame during the AGM, with eight on hand to receive their awards in person. The total number of Hall of Fame members – players, coaches, umpires, team managers, administrators, development workers and others – now numbers 35.
One of those inducted as an Administrator, Bob Fromer, also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BSF.
Full details on the new inductees can be found in a separate story on the BSF website, but those inducted were:
Players
Shaun Findlay
Brett Gibbens
Stephanie Jardine
Bruce Saunders
Laura Thompson
Umpire
Jes Sandhu
Team Managers
Maurice “Mo” Baker
Doug Clouston
Paul “Rocket” Riley
Administrators
Geof Ellingham
Bob Fromer
Mike Jennings
Libby Moss
Harry Somers
Equipment Award
A considerable amount of used equipment, primarily bats 
and gloves, was collected last summer at tournaments through the BSF's “Bring a Bat, Give a Glove” campaign. The equipment was then refurbished, and put together into a very large Starter Pack.
The BSF presented this equipment at the AGM to the Birmingham Bobcats Softball Club, who are working hard to revive a softball league in Birmingham and to extend the sport into the local community.
Constitutional Proposal
Elements of the old BSF Constitution and the Memorandum and Articles of Association adopted when the BSF incorporated two years ago need to be reconciled, and as part of this process, the BSF brought a proposal to the AGM regarding posts on the BSF Executive.
Previously, Officer roles had been fixed within the BSF Constitution, making it cumbersome to change them in response to new circumstances.
The BSF proposal, which was passed with only one dissenting vote, will mean that at each AGM, members will elect a President, Treasurer and General Secretary and such other Officers as are required to carry out functions as determined by the Executive – with a limit of 11 posts in total.
The proposal further states that Officers will serve for a year at a time and will be eligible for re-election each year to the same or a different post. However, after an individual has held a particular post for four years, if any other person stands for that post, the incumbent may not re-stand.
Game endings
The BSF Executive suggested to the meeting that a BASU proposal on the ending of timed games be recommended to tournament organisers this year. But the meeting voted (with just one dissenting vote) that the proposal should in fact be mandatory for all BSF-sanctioned tournaments from now on.
The proposal is that:
- In all tournaments with timed games, “no new inning” shall be called at least 10 minutes before the scheduled start time of the next game.
- All final innings will be played to a natural conclusion; no games will revert back to the score at the end of the last completed inning.
- To make this work without distorting tournament timings, all teams are required to be ready to play – including having their line-up completed and in the scorebook – at the official start time for each game (unless delayed by a game over-run).
- Unless delayed by a game over-run elsewhere, teams will be in danger of forfeiting if they are not on the field and ready to play within five minutes of the scheduled start time.
- To ensure that tournament schedules are not compromised, any time lost from one game will be deducted from the next game slot.
BSF fees for 2012
There will be no change to fees paid by BSF member teams in 2012.
BSF National Championships in 2012
A number of factors, including one-off date clashes and the facility development at Farnham Park, will affect BSF National Championship tournaments in 2012.
BSF Tournaments Officer Lesley Morisetti told the meeting that the League All-Star Nationals will be reduced in scope this year because of date conflicts, and a recreational League All-Star Nationals will be played (given enough interest) at a new venue in Loughborough on July 7-8 along with an NSL1 competition.
Because of the loss for this year of the Moor Lane Sports Ground in Birmingham, the Single-Sex Nationals will also be played in Loughborough.
And because of the development work at Farnham Park, the BSF is still considering a venue for the Premier Co-ed Nationals and for Nationals that may result if an NSL2 is established.
The League Nationals (formerly the Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze Nationals) will be played at Cantley Park in Wokingham, near Windsor.
Line-up cards will be introduced for the first time at BSF National Championships this year and the full rules governing each Nationals competition will be sent to teams and posted on the BSF website before each event.
BSF's BASU Representative, Chris Moon, told the meeting that BASU umpires will check as many bats as possible at early-season tournaments this year and put tamper-proof stickers on approved bats, so the need for bat checks will lessen over the season. But even bats with stickers will still be checked occasionally for dents, cracks or other damage.
Election of Officers
Youth and Schools Officer Richard Hanby and General Officer Debbie Moores declined to re-stand for the BSF Executive, and no new nominations were made either before or during the AGM.
As a result, all remaining Officers were unopposed in standing for re-election, and all received more than 50% of the votes of those present and entitled to vote and were therefore duly returned to the Executive. These Officers are:
President
Stella Ackrell
Treasurer
Mike Jennings
General and Administrative Officer
Vicky Hall
Tournaments Officers
Liz Graham & Lesley Morisetti
Marketing & Communications Officer
Mark Wigington
Coaching & Development Officer
James Reilly
Website Officer
Julie Calver
Technical Officer (nominated by BASU)
Chris Moon
BSF Annual Awards
The awards presented at the AGM for the 2011 season were:
The Glover Cup for long-standing or outstanding service to softball went to Stan Doney for his work in re-creating a GB Under-19 Men's Fastpitch Team for the first time since 2004, for the success of the London Fastpitch League, which went from five teams in 2010 to 12 teams in 2011, and for his work in delivering a Fastpitch Development Programme funded by a Sport England grant on behalf of the BSF.
There were no nominations for the Glover Cup League Award.
The President's Club Award for progressive development work by a club or team went to the Birmingham Bobcats Softball Club, who are expanding their activities in the West Midlands, including community work with young people.
There were no nominations for the Adult Coach of the Year Award.
The Youth Coach of the Year Award went to Caroline Champion for her enthusiastic work with the GB Minime (Under-13) Girls' programme, which plans to send two teams to European competition this year.
The Tournament Umpire of the Year Award went to Sean Gostage from Bristol for consistent and player-friendly umpiring.
The Tournament of the Year Award went to the Solent Lastball, which has grown from a small one-day event to a highly-popular and well-organised two-day event at the end of each season.