It is nearly 100 days since BISFed was formed, and a lot of work has been done – some of it behind the scenes, so we thought it would be interesting and useful to summarise our progress to date:
- BISFed granted IPC Membership: We are delighted to report that the IPC has granted provisional membership to BISFed. Our membership needs to be formally approved by the IPC Members at the meeting in November, but in the meantime, BISFed has all the usual membership rights and obligations.
- BISFed Membership is growing by the day: Applications for membership of BISFed are being received and reviewed by the Board as quickly as possible. The following countries’ applications have been approved to date: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, England, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Korea, Japan, Macau, Norway, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United States of America. Countries are reminded that they need to apply for, and be granted membership of BISFed in order to participate in the Regional Championships in 2013.
- Committees: the four BISFed Committees have made good progress to develop and improve the infrastructure of the game of Boccia
- Competition Committee (Chair Dominique Trembley) has worked tirelessly to prepare proposals for a new and exciting competition system for 2014 and beyond. The proposals are published on the ‘Competitions’ page for comment and input from Members
- Development Committee (Chair Helena Bastos) has completed the work on the Rules started by the CPISRA Boccia Committee. The new Rules have been published on the website
- Classification Committee (Chair Elsa Matthee) has updated and published BISFed’s Classification Rules
- Anti-Doping (Chair Dr Jaime Antunes) has reviewed the anti-doping rules which have also been published on the website
- 2013 Regional Championships: Contracts to host the three Regional Championships in 2013 have been agreed and signed with the Host Countries (Australia, USA and Portugal.) We have regular project meetings with the Host Organising Committees to review progress, and at this point each event is progressing well. Countries are reminded that it is mandatory for BC1/2 Teams and BC3 and BC4 pairs to enter for one of the 2013 Championships in order to be eligible for the 2014 World Championships and the 2016 Paralympic Games.
- Executive Board: the BISFed Executive Board meets regularly by telephone call to review progress on key items, consider membership applications, and take decisions on important matters such as the awarding of contracts.
