European Development Facilitator – Report from period April-June 2005

1. Office

Office ok, equiped, no problem. I have regular meetings with DC ESF Chairman Gabriel Waage, aproximately once a month.  Also regular contacts with ISF office and Development Director Cindy Bristow. DC Chairman finished updated overall DC Plan (see website).

There is a new European Development Website – www.softballdevelopment.com with regular news and updates.

2. Development database

Done – is regularly updated

3. Federations/Associations

Several request from countries are fullfilled – Clinics in Finland and Poland, help to Holland with dates in December.

EDF plans to visit three major Championships this year: Mens Euro in the Netherlands, Womens Euro in Czech Republic and Cadet Girls Euro in Russia. This will allow me to meet many delegates, coaches and representatives, sometimes other than delegates of the ESF Congress. In many cases they are better contacts. Also it allows me to meet these people from special categories like men and gadet girls, which are two of our targets.

4. Priority Countries

Priority countries are still the same: divided into three groups:

1. Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, possible others as well) – Poland had their clinic in June (M.Stapleton) – they plan follow-up

2. Nordic Countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland) – Finland was helped to built National Team fro Euro Championship (P.Prachar), follow-up will be discussed in Prague in August. Sweden and Norway we plan for afterseason.

3. Others (Ireland, Malta, Greece….) – Malta had their clinic in May with help of Danish Association and its instructor, Guernsey had another with instructor from Holland.

Local (national) clinics and courses will continue – mostly after season during the fall and winter.

5. Basic Clinic Program

See item 4, more clinics are planned: Romania, Ukraine, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Turkey

6. Other Clinics

There are three different international clinics planned in 2005:

1. NFCA Clinic in Prague, Czech Republic, December 8-12 – elite level, national team coaches, two per country, details provided by ISF and Czech Softball Association

2. Players Clinic with gold olympians J.Mendoza and Stacey Nuveman in Prague, September 24-25 – players and coaches

3. Pitching course during the European Championship Women in August – any pitchers invited

Associations have recieved basic info about them.

7. Equipment

Project of european store in Prague slowed down, waits until ISF has enough equipment

8. Promotional materials

All videos, dvds, booklets, brochures or magazines, presentations are given to evrybody any time we meet – i.e. local clinics, tournaments, championships and any other occasions.

9. Men and Boys promotion

I have visited European Championships men in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The discussion with the team leaders was kind of a follow-up to the meeting in Chocen, Czech Republic where were several proposals suggested, some of them however without further impact. During these discussion were other three item proposed and send back home to their federations/associations to think and discuss. EDF will collect and finalize proposals for autumn meeting of EC ESF. To see proposals go to ED Website.

10. ESF/ISF

I do keep permanent contact with both organizations represented by ISF Develpment Director Cindy Bristow and ESF Development Commission Chairman Gabriel Waage, cooperation goes well.

11. General

In general job is getting more and more regular but also more busy. We had several clinics in past three months, changed and updated website, planned and prepared international eventsn and planned and organize three trips to championships to meet most of the people involved in European Softball, as well as to meet with most of the members of Development Commission of ESF.