Basketball NI hosted a virtual club forum on Wednesday 14th December with clubs from our leagues coming together to discuss current issues, provide updates and share ideas. BNI would like to thank all clubs and referees that attended the club forum. Basketball NI intends to host more frequent club forums over the next 12 months and we urge all clubs to attend as it is vital part of growing the sport.
BNI set an agenda for the club forum which our Chairperson, Kevin Craig kicked off by welcoming and thanking all the clubs and officials for their attendance. BNI Secretary and Compeitions Committee Chair, Sarah McCann give an update from the competitions committee on how the BNI season is progressing. Sarah then announced the following League Finals dates with venues to be confirmed in the near future.
19th March 2023 – U12, U14, U16, U18 & Womens Finals
26th March 2023 – All Boys Underage Finals Day
15th or 16th April 2023 – Cup/Plate Finals Day
(DIV 1 & Premier Play off Finals date will be confirmed ASAP)
BNI Safeguarding Officer, Darryl Petticrew provided clubs with a safeguarding update. This included the announcement of BNI’s new Safeguarding Officer Hannah Kennedy. We are extremely excited for Hannah to be joining the BNI board and we know she is looking forward to working with all of our clubs. Darryl went on to announce BNI have updated their safeguarding policy and resources. BNI safeguarding policy has been sent to clubs and is also now on our website. Resources and other policies will be on the website in due course.
Kevin mentioned how BNI will be working to further expand their materials and support of equality, diversity and inclusion within the sport over the coming months.
BNI’s Club Engagement Officer Lauren went on to announce plans for Basketball NI’s Youth Forum. This is a new programme for BNI as Lauren has been liaising with other sports to find out the best practice for running the youth forum. Lauren will be providing further details of the BNIYF in the coming week so keep and eye on our website and social media to get involved.
Kevin announced that the BNI Board will be meeting for a strategy planning day in January and welcomed any input from clubs in regards to the upcoming strategy.
Finally, Kevin invited all clubs to send any coaches’ details that wish to be added to BNI’s database to be contacted for coaching opportunities within 5v5 and 3×3 BNI programmes to our Club Engagement Officer. Some clubs requested the opportunity for BNI coaching to be held in their local primary schools to aid participation in their club.
A number of clubs requested BNI to host coaching, table officials and referees courses in the new year. This is an area BNI will seek to facilitate . A referees course is taking place in January 2023 in the Dungannon area if anyone is interested in attending please contact secretary@basketballni.com for further details.
BNI would like to thank all that attended our December club forum and we look forward to seeing everyone at our next club forum in the next few months.