The BSF hosted a remote pre-season League Heads Forum meeting on the evening of Thursday 15 February with 30 people present: eight from the BSF Executive, two from BSUK, and 20 others representing 14 leagues.
Although a large number of topics were covered, the meeting, chaired by BSF President Lesley Morisetti, took just over 45 minutes to complete.
Leagues represented at the meeting were Bristol, Coventry, East Midlands, Edinburgh, the Great Britain Fastpitch League, London Softball League, London Advertising League, London Publishers League, Leeds, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Solent, and Windsor & Maidenhead.
New requirements for 2024
Lesley Morisetti opened the meeting by reminding League Heads about two policies that will take effect for the 2024 season:
Under-18 requirements. The BSF requirement for all under-18 players in slowpitch and fastpitch softball to wear helmets with faceguards when batting and baserunning, which was postponed last year due to difficulty in accessing the equipment, will be in place for 2024. More information on where equipment can be obtained is here [https://www.britishsoftball.org/news/article/bsf-mandates-helmets-with-faceguards-for-under-18-players-in-2024].
Insurance. The BSF provides Public Liability insurance for all affiliated teams, and in the past offered optional Personal Accident and Injury insurance, which was taken up by around half of BSF-affiliated leagues. From this year, Personal Accident and Injury insurance will be mandatory, at a cost of £20 per team. Because membership fees are not rising this year, teams that previously took up Personal Accident insurance will see no change in affiliation costs this year, but for teams that did not previously take up this insurance, costs will increase by £20.
The reason for making Personal Accident insurance mandatory across the sport is the possibility of a bulk discount on costs but, more importantly, so that everyone has the same cover in both league and tournament play.
In answer to a question, Lesley told the meeting that BASU umpires will be covered, as BASU affiliates to the BSF as a team.
BSF Executive positions
League Heads were told that the BSF has co-opted a number of new members to the Executive over the past nine months or so, including National Teams Officer Alice Hunter; Fastpitch Development Officer Laura Hirai; Jessica Hastings, who will take on administrative and secretarial roles; General Officer Jordan Cooper, who will work on marketing; and General Officer Shiraz Mehra, who has a legal and administrative background.
All of this makes the Executive stronger and more fit for purpose, but there are still two vacancies that the BSF is keen to fill. One is for a Slowpitch Development Officer to work with BSUK on slowpitch development initiatives and programmes. The other vacancy is for a Communications Officer – essentially a journalist who can create and commission content for the BSF website and social media.
Anyone interested in either of these positions should email info@britishsoftball.org.
2024 Calendar
The latest version of the 2024 Softball Calendar had been circulated to League Heads before the meeting, but no issues were raised.
Lesley told the meeting that, given the number of tournaments each year, it is impossible to avoid all clashes, but that the BSF has a policy of rotation, so that events affected in one year by a clash with another tournament won’t be similarly affected the following year.
Report from WBSC Europe Congress
Lesley Morisetti had attended the 2024 WBSC Europe Congress in Malaga from 8-10 February, where apparently it never stopped raining!
Lesley reported that a presentation had been made on behalf of the BSF to host the European Women’s Championship in 2027, but a decision has not yet been announced.
We are already committed to hosting the European Co-ed Slowpitch Championship in 2026, where funding will come from the BSF, BSUK, the GB Slowpitch programme and, hopefully, from sponsorship and donations. Nicola-Jane Dyson, who is heading the BSF subcommittee organising this tournament, would like to hear from anyone with sponsorship leads.
Countries hosting European Championships are allowed to select – or at least propose – the dates that suit them, and a couple of league representatives made the point that it would be good to identify a week for the tournament sooner rather than later so that domestic tournament dates can be adjusted as necessary. The BSF is looking at the possibility of running a tournament at Farnham Park alongside the Slowpitch Euros, on the weekend when the Championship will reach its final stages, to provide a ready-made audience for the semi-finals and final.
A final piece of news from the Congress was that no host has come forward for this year’s European Men’s Slowpitch Championship, and the tournament, sadly, has been cancelled. The European Co-ed Slowpitch Championship will be played from 15-21 July in Pardubice, Czechia.
Athletes Commission report
Tim Bishop, who chairs the Athletes Commission set up by the BSF in 2023, reported to the meeting on what the Commission has been doing and what it hopes to accomplish going forward (a summary can be found on the BSF website here: https://www.britishsoftball.org/news/article/bsf-athletes-commission-sums-up-a-busy-first-year.
Tim told the meeting that the four-person Commission has reached out to all leagues, and has requested that contact information be posted on league websites, Facebook pages, etc so players can easily get in touch.
Members of the Athletes Commission will stay in office for two or three years to ensure continuity, with a rotation that ensures there are new and experienced members in place at any one time.
This year, Commission members will try to get to more tournaments around the country – not just at Farnham Park – and will ask tournament organisers to let participants know that they’re there.
Last year, Tim said, the Commission had managed to get some results on issues of concern to players and greater clarity on others.
BASU
BSF Technical Officer Pete Saunders told the meeting that the eight online BASU qualification courses running this year are going well.
BASU hopes to get a mentoring system working this year for league umpires, and BASU is more than happy, Pete said, to help any leagues that have umpiring issues.
League issues and concerns
Apart from a question related to payment of affiliation fees by teams that play in both the Manchester and Liverpool leagues, no other issues were brought forward by League Heads.
Individual player registration
A motion will be put to the BSF AGM on 24 February asking for approval of mandatory individual player registration starting from this season, a concept that has already been accepted by League Heads at a meeting in January.
Most sports in the UK have individual player registration, and stronger government requirements around safeguarding are making it essential.
Assuming that the motion is passed at the AGM, the BSF will then need to make a decision on what platform is to be used for registration, and whether we continue to use the Teamlinkt platform that was introduced in 2023.
BSUK section
Most of the rest of the meeting was given over to a presentation by BSUK Acting Head of Development Leah Holmes, who wanted to update League Heads on a number of initiatives.
League Heads Slack channel. A Slack channel to enhance communication between BSUK’s development staff and League Heads has been in existence for a while, and ideally, Leah hopes that each league will have two representatives on the channel. However, updates will also be sent out periodically by email.
Facilities Fund. It’s less than two weeks to the deadline for applications to the current round of BSUK’s Facilities Fund, and Leah told the meeting that a few slowpitch leagues are considering applying. Up to this point, baseball has been responsible for the majority of applications, and BSUK would like this to change.
Captains' support. Luis Arrevillagas has been running a Steering Group made up of softball captains recommended by various leagues, and the group has been looking at what kinds of centralised support would be most valuable. Ideas include a series of short online workshops focusing on specific topics such as scoring, baserunning, and tournament preparation (dates will be available soon); a centralised web page with advice for new team captains; and a buddy system so that new captains can be mentored and supported.
Women and girls recruitment campaign. Leah is talking with leagues to see where there might be a deficit of small-ball players and to devise tailored strategies to deal with this, based on each league’s unique situation and needs.
University players. The annual BUCS University Softball National Championship is coming up in March at Farnham Park, and Leah is hoping to get a sense of the offers leagues can make to players at universities in their area. Flyers will be created with league information for use at the National Championship and at regional university fixtures, and the hope is that leagues can build an ongoing relationship with university teams in their area. However, Leah explained, in answer to a question, that where universities don’t already have softball teams, it’s not as simple as leagues making contact and offering to help create them. The initiative for that has to come from within the university.
MLB Legacy Programme. Leah mentioned two initiatives that are being funded and supported by Major League Baseball through a Legacy Programme set up in the wake of the MLB games in London. These are mostly youth-focused: the First Pitch programme in primary schools, using a generic T-ball approach, and a secondary school Girls’ Fastpitch programme. Ideally, depending on location, these programmes could be linked.
Webinars. Finally, Leah told the meeting that a Women in Sport webinar and workshops on engaging children in softball will be coming up soon, and she hopes that people from league committees will engage with these.
Communication is good!
As the meeting ended, Bristol Softball Association Chair Neil Butterfield suggested that it would be good if leagues could talk to each other on a more regular basis – “if only so that we can cry on each other’s shoulder!”