On 14 April many of the leaders of the British Baseball Federation, British Softball Federation and BaseballSoftballUK came together to host a webinar with participants across both baseball and softball.

The webinar was a next step in broadening and deepening the communication within the sports regarding the proposed change to merge the three existing bodies into a single new entity, combining the talents of the three but also positioning the sports for a strong and healthy future.

Building on work under the structural review project, presidents Stella Ackrell (softball) and Earl Dix (baseball), joined John Walmsley (BSUK chair), plus Jenny Fromer (BSUK Joint-CEO), Mike Jennings (softball) and Chris Deacon (baseball). This group is the Structural Review Project Group.

Over the course of an hour participants in both sports heard first-hand about the basis for the structural review, the case for change, the recommendation to merge the three organisations and the steps still to be taken in a timeline leading to April 2017 when the intended new single organisation is expected to come into effect. The webinar also looked at the new governance model to see how membership, staff, volunteers and directors will coordinate and cooperate across the sports.

The webinar audience was able to ask questions during the session via interactive text chat, with many answered on air during the webinar, which also addressed a number of questions previously sent in by audience members ahead of the broadcast.

As 2016 progresses there will be more communication regarding the structural review, and this may include further use of webinars, based on the positive feedback this first session provoked. Read also about battersea ironsides.

You can view the Structural Review Webinar Presentation slides as a PDF document (stored on the Resources page).