The BSF Executive held a conference call meeting on the evening of Thursday 13 June. Below are highlights of discussions and decisions.
Attendance
Present: Vicky Hall (Administrator), Mike Jennings (Treasurer), Liz Graham (Tournaments Officer), Chris Moon (BASU Representative).
Apologies: Stella Ackrell (President), Beth Perkins (National Teams Officer), Fiona Thorley (Tournaments Officer), Mark Wigington (Marketing & Communications Officer), Claire Waldron (Youth & Schools Officer), Mark Munnery (General Officer).
Guest: Bob Fromer (BSUK).
Matters arising from previous meetings
Welfare Officer. The BSF would like to fill the vacant position of Welfare Officer on the Executive, as this is considered an important role, and has now received a recommendation for a possible candidate. This will be followed up before the Executive meets again in July.
Pregnant players. BSF Administrator Vicky Hall and BSUK Welfare Officer Jenny Fromer have scheduled a discussion to help the BSF arrive at a policy with regard to women wanting to play while pregnant.
Fastpitch coaches to USA. Thanks to the support of the American Amateur Softball Association (ASA), two GB fastpitch coaches will be able to spend a week this autumn at Florida State University, one of the top NCAA Division1 softball programmes in the country, to monitor and learn from FSU coaches. Dates remain to be finalised. The two GB coaches who will go to FSU are GB Under-16 Head Coach Jeremy Thomas and GB Under-13 Assistant Coach Beth Perkins.
National Championships Working Group. The BSF has planned for some time to convene a group of experienced players along with some BSF Executive members to consider various issues related to the structure and qualification processes for National Championships. At one point, the BSF planned to create regional sub-groups to discuss these issues, but has now decided to start with a smaller group that might be able to hold face-to-face meetings, and then to disseminate ideas and proposals from this group for wider discussion. BSF President Stella Ackrell will identify members and convene the Working Group shortly.
Help for China? China is hoping to expand slowpitch play, and BSF President Stella Ackrell has contacted the International Softball Federation to offer British assistance. The ISF has passed on contact details for Chinese slowpitch organisers, and the Executive will now consider what kinds of help we might be able to offer.
Archive materials. One of the first BSF Presidents, Stuart Houghton, recently contacted the Executive to offer a collection of archive materials that he has retained since the late 1980s. BSF Treasurer Mike Jennings has collected the material, and the BSF plans to scan and retain electronically anything of historical or practical value.
New bats
The BSF has become aware of a new type of bat now on the market, the Baden AxeBat, with a handle that is slightly axe-shaped at the end, which apparently allows the generation of more bat speed through the hitting zone.
At this point, these bats have been approved by both ISF and ASA and would be considered legal in Britain, though the ISF approval is time-limited.
Finance
Mike Jennings reported to the Executive that the majority of BSF fees from leagues and independent teams have been paid on time this year (the deadline was 1 June) and that revenue projections for the current year are very much on track.
Mike will report to the next meeting of the Executive on the state of expenditure, with four months of the BSF's financial year remaining.
Development grants
The Executive considered three requests for BSF development grants.
Following discussions with the Greater London Softball Mixed League, the BSF and GLSML will share a grant award to help a new GLSML team, the Banditos, get established. The team consists mainly of players new to the game, but a number of them are teachers and there is a hope that school softball programmes will be a by-product of the team's creation.
The Edinburgh Softball League will be hosting a group of over 60 senior softball players from the United States in Edinburgh this summer, and games and coaching sessions involving Edinburgh and Glasgow teams have been scheduled. The ESL is looking for some help to defray the costs of ground hire and hospitality. The Executive approved an award of £250, but the money will come from the BSF events budget rather than from development grant funds.
An application for a grant to purchase playing equipment from a new team in the Birmingham Softball League, the Birmingham Minotaurs, was deferred pending more information.
At this point, with four months of the BSF's financial year remaining, approximately 75% of the money available for development grants has been awarded.
National Championships
Tournaments Officer Liz Graham reported that entries and payment by teams entering the Single-Sex Slowpitch National Championships on July 20-21 and the Co-ed Slowpitch League Nationals on August 10-11 are at a healthy level.
Both tournaments will be played at Farnham Park, and will include play on the new purpose-built diamonds that came into use for the first time earlier in June. In general, the BSF supports BSUK in its desire to see access to the new diamonds spread across all grades of play, and both National Championships will be scheduled to achieve that end.
But Liz Graham also intends to offer teams the option of not playing on the new diamonds in case there are any teams reluctant to play on a skinned infield.
National Softball League
One of the twelve teams that signed up for NSL play this year has not yet played in the competition and has not registered with the BSF. Therefore, the NSL will complete the current season with the 11 teams that have played in Diamonds 1 and 2, and the top eight teams at the end of the season will advance to the Premier Nationals.
Although not officially in the NSL, Manchester Thunder has competed at A-grade against the NSL teams in Diamonds 1 and 2, and has done very well. Their 10-4 record in the two tournaments would have been good enough for third place in the NSL standings after Diamond 2 had they been in the competition.
If there are no other new teams looking to join the NSL in 2014 (and no teams leaving), Thunder will be given the twelfth place for next season. If there are other teams wishing to join, the final places (up to a total of 12) will be awarded via playoffs between the bottom NSL team and the teams applying to enter.
Independent teams
Liz Graham reported to the Executive that there are a number of “independent” teams – perhaps 10 or more – that are playing in tournaments even though they have not registered with the BSF or paid BSF fees for 2013.
The reason for non-registration and payment, in most cases, is because these teams consist entirely of players who are registered with, and have paid fees through, a league team or a registered independent team, and they do not wish to pay twice. But because their “second teams” are unregistered, insurance issues are raised, as well as issues around whether these teams and players are getting some of their softball “for free”.
The BSF Executive will look into this issue more closely and will start a dialogue with these teams, in order to determine whether new regulations and payment bands are needed to ensure that all teams register and pay, but without putting undue financial burdens on the most active softball players.
Next meeting
The next BSF conference call meeting will be on Thursday evening, July 11. Anyone wishing to put an item on the agenda should contact BSF Administrator .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).