A good spread of representatives from leagues across the country attended the 2011 Softball League Heads Forum, held on Saturday, November 26 in Birmingham. With all of the country's main league represented except for the Greater London Softball Mixed League, the meeting was productive and positive.
BSF Tournaments Officer Lesley Morisetti, who chaired the meeting, said it was "the most productive League Heads Forum I can remember."
Whole Sport Plan
The meeting kicked off with softball's development agency, BaseballSoftballUK, consulting with those present about the future development of the sport in the UK. Those at the meeting were asked to identify what work BSUK should continue to do, what should be done that isn't being done at present and what is currently being done shouldn't be.
This session was led by BSUK Joint CEO and Head of Development John Boyd, who explained that the consultation would help inform the strategic plan being written by BSUK for 2013-2017 ahead of next year's funding submission to Sport England.
All about recruitment
Following nicely from the strategic discussion was a session on league development needs. Each of the leagues at the meeting felt they had capacity to grow their number of teams, but barriers to achieving this were discussed and a few solutions tabled, such as a much keener focus on support given to new players joining the sport.
BSUK agreed to work on interpreting these ideas into actions or projects and the group was keen on the BSF's idea for a closed forum for League Heads to be set up on the BSF website.
Coaching and umpire courses
Mike Jennings announced umpire courses currently planned for 2012 and there was some discussion about improving the appeal of coaching courses to people within softball.
Any leagues interested in booking umpire courses should contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) as soon as possible.
Meet the Chair
BSUK's newly elected Chair, John Walmsley, was at the meeting, and he introduced himself and laid out his vision for the organisation.
John spoke about the need for the sports to better promote themselves and he challenged local organisations to look at how they might be perceived by people currently outside the sport.
Tournament calendar
The current tournament calendar for 2012 was tabled, but there remains some work to do to finalise the clash between two big events, the Bristol Main Tournament and the Pioneers Tournament. The BSF League All-Star Nationals is moving to July to give leagues more time to select and prepare their teams.
The BSF also announced a change in venue for the League All-Star Nationals and Single-Sex Nationals next year from the Birmingham City University grounds on Moor Lane to a community college in Loughborough. While there are advantages to moving, such as having on-campus university accommodation, the BSF expressed disappointment that the BCU grounds had become unavailable to sport due to wedding bookings.
National Softball League
This discussion was set in the context of the BSF's recent online consultation on the National Softball League.
Around 65% of respondents felt that the current NSL playing structure would be improved by the incorporation of home-and-away fixtures within current tournament schedules. The BSF Executive welcomed this and is devising a proposal along these lines. This will ensure that a balanced schedule is in place to protect the integrity of the competition.
The idea of extending the National Softball League to a second division was met with a general consensus that it would be a positive step to extend the structure and benefits of the NSL to the next tier of teams. The meeting felt that this would encourage competitive second-level teams to thrive and would provide a purpose and structure to the BSF's Co-ed Slowpitch Nationals.
The proposal from the BSF Executive to extend the NSL structure will also lead to the rejuvenation of a National Championship for teams that win their local leagues. But the meeting felt strongly that it would not be appropriate for the BSF to run the league Nationals and the NSL2 Nationals on the same day.
Other topics
The new BSF website was discussed. Feedback has already led to some improvements being made and the meeting was informed that the BSF requires mandatory registration of teams and players on the site.
There was some discussion about coordinating a central list of First Aid suppliers for tournaments and introducing an official ball.
The BSF also asked tournaments to share the final placings of teams in their competitions with other tournament organisers and with the Executive.
The Wickes Softball League and Charities Softball League will be encouraged to enter All-Star teams in the League All-Star Nationals.
The BSF encouraged nominations for their annual awards and for Executive positions to be made by the end of the year.
Leagues in attendance:
- Bristol Softball Association
- Birmingham Bobcats Softball Club
- East Midlands Softball League
- Edinburgh Softball League
- Central Scotland Softball League
- Leeds Softball League
- Manchester Softball League
- Oxford Softball League
- Solent Softball League
- Windsor and Maidenhead District Softball League