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Northern League Developments

There are currently 12 teams playing in a single Northern conference (see league table link left for details / links etc), it wasn't always like this and there is some discussion going on to plan a way forward for the future of Northern baseball. This is based as much on playing facilities as playing ability, and Nick Clark (Edinb`gh GM) has started a proposal discussion document which can be downloaded here.

The northern teams had a provisional meeting to discuss this proposal on the 13th September (in the middle night of the Northern tournament) in Manchester at the Manchester Northern Tennis Club in Didsbury (1 mile from the MBC ground). Ian Marchment offered to chair this meeting. Note this meeting was open to all northern teams (or teams planning to join next year) and not just those teams at the tournament. To keep the meeting size down there is a limit of 1 member per current or proposed team, plus BSUK / ABUA-GB representatives and the chairman. A copy of the minutes from this meeting can be downloaded here.

The first Northern representative to the BBF was appointed at the BBF board meeting on the 20th Sept 2003, this was Ian Marchment from MBC. A copy of the minutes of this meeting can be downloaded here. Ian stood for re-election at the AGM on 25th January in Manchester and was voted in under the new constitution - along with all the other BBF board members, including MBC junior manager John Eaton as BBF Junior representative. Anyone with any queries or issues to do with Northern baseball should contact Ian (by selecting North Rep on the MBC email page, see his post meeting email below) or junior baseball contact John (by selecting Junior Rep on the MBC email page).

The main BSUK Northern meeting was held on Sat 15th Nov (12pm to 4pm), the venue was again the Manchester Northern Tennis Club in Didsbury (1 mile from the MBC ground). There was a preliminary meeting for this on Sun 2nd Nov (1.30pm to 4.30pm) again at the Manchester Northern Tennis Club in Didsbury. This meeting resolved issues such as the proposed league split in 2004.

Take part in the ongoing Northern league discussion on the MBC forum Northern Conference board here.

Dear All,

I would firstly like to say thank you to all those of you who attended the recent AGM in Manchester. I have not attended a lot of BBF AGMs in the past, but it seemed to me that this was the most constructive and productive membership meeting for many years.

For those of you who were not able to attend, a new BBF Constitution was adopted by the BBF Members, which brought into existence a number of positions on the BBF Executive Board, including the position of Northern Conference Representative to the Board. I am pleased and proud to announce that I was elected to fill this position.

As was made clear a number of times at the AGM, one of the main things that the new Board intends to do is to represent a greater number of it's members. As a result, I would like to hear from as many of you as possible. Below is a list of questions that have occurred to me, or that have been provided to me by other members of the Northern Conference. I would greatly appreciate any feedback from any of you in relation to these questions, but would also like to hear any other questions that you wish to raise.

As I have said in previous e-mails, this is YOUR Conference and I am YOUR Representative. I can only represent your views and be your voice if you tell me what you would like me to do and say at BBF Board level.

Although this e-mail has only been submitted to club representatives initially, it is my intention to ask that it be posted to Manchester Baseball Club's website. I would therefore ask that any other clubs that maintain websites also post this to their sites, to allow this to reach as many members of the Northern Conference as possible. I have no objections to accepting e-mails from anyone within the Northern Conference, but would recommend that any suggestions for items to be discussed at Board level come from club representatives only.

I look forward to hearing from as many of you as possible, and want to take this opportunity to wish everyone the best of luck for the 2004 season.

Regards
Ian Marchment
BBF Northern Conference Representative
E-mail

Questions


• Do you think that it is necessary for club/team representatives to meet with the Northern Conference Representative in person between AGMs?
• If so, how often do you think it is necessary that the Northern Conference should meet?
• Is it preferable that these meetings are held in a single location on every occasion, or that the meetings take place at a different location throughout the Northern Conference on each occasion?
• What do you think should be main duties and responsibilities of the Northern Conference Representative?
• What do you think is the best method of monitoring and enforcing the qualification criteria to be applied to all Northern Conference teams for 2004 onwards?
• Are there are bye-laws that you would like to see introduced/changed/removed, for 2004?
• Following the recent motion from Hull Baseball Club, would you like to see the Northern Tournament become self-funding? (This would involve charging an entrance fee)
• How could communication between the BBF and the Northern Conference be improved?

Please also give consideration to how you think the fixtures should be arranged this year. This will need to be discussed as soon as possible, so that the fixtures can be issued as early as possible, allowing travel plans to be made, etc. There are a number of options for both divisions, in relation to the number of double-header games, the number of overall games, the number of home and away fixtures, the number of rain dates, etc, etc. I would welcome any feedback on this issue.