It’s been a couple of months since my last update to you in January about all things BASEM and I wanted to take an opportunity to bring you up to speed with what’s been going on as members of BASEM.
Future College of Sport, Exercise and Musculoskeletal Medicine
Work has continued at pace in the development of the future College which will be formed through the joint endeavour of BASEM and the Faculty of Sport & Exercise Medicine. Regular fortnightly meetings are happening between BASEM Trustee representatives and FSEM equivalents to oversee the ongoing activities. As I have advised before, BASEM ran legal due diligence ahead of these talks proceeding, and in addition BASEM Accountants reviewed the year end accounts of FSEM to ensure there were no unexpected financial risks to BASEM. Neither of these processes flagged any concerns to BASEM Trustees and so ongoing work has continued which are all guided by the joint outcomes document that BASEM Members helped to write, and which remains available on BASEM website.
Throughout this whole process we have been guided by legal advice, and we have engaged merger consultants to highlight key steps and decisions that are needed. The main College By-laws are mostly crafted, which has drawn from the charity documents of BASEM & FSEM, and from this the main College Constitution will be drafted to oversee day to day functions of the future College. We know that many BASEM Members are associates / members / fellows of FSEM and vice versa, and legal advice has been sought to ensure we can share data better between us to allow understanding of how many joint members we may have, therefore a better idea of the initial starting size of the future College. Lastly the very detailed project plan has been mostly written, although this is clearly a constantly changing document, but one which outlines the important steps to get from where we are to where we want to be. Personally, I have been amazed at just how many things are needed to do this correctly, but I have confidence in the staff team that this is being done correctly. I know all the Trustees are conscious that BASEM staff and FSEM staff, are already busy doing their normal day jobs for the respective charities, and we have asked them to take on a larger project to form a new College on top of this. We are keen to keep all things BASEM going throughout this period, and also conscious of the workload of our staff, so are looking at ways that we can alleviate some of this added pressure on them.
As always, we will endeavour to keep our members up to date with the plans towards College formation, and updated information in available at the relevant section of the website https://basem.co.uk/proposed-college/
BASEM Awards
I want to take the opportunity to highlight the many different awards that BASEM offers to its members. These are open to members at all levels from undergraduate members, to post-graduate training, to travelling fellowships, and small grants supporting research &/or publications. These awards are open at different times of the year and all have different judging criteria, but they are there to support our members in their career development, thereby improving the care we can all deliver. In addition, we are delighted to announce a partnership with the Dr Vivien Lane Foundation, whose kind generosity has enabled BASEM to deliver additional bursary and training sponsorship awards.
If you aren’t aware of the Awards that BAEM offers, or want to know more than have a look at the awards section of the website https://basem.co.uk/basem-awards/
BASEM 2025 Conference (Leeds, 18th/19th November)
The BASEM 2025 conference planning is in full swing and once again the content looks amazing. Topics include core SEM themes of musculoskeletal medicine, exercise medicine, and team care, with topics including female athletes, concussion, and rehabilitation. Once again, the Conference is being led by BASEM’s Educational Lead, Dr Dane Vishnubala. As always, there is so much that goes on behind the scenes to make the conference work, and we are grateful for the entire conference programme team of volunteers and Diane Moss, the BASEM Education Manager. If you haven’t had a look at the conference section of the website then have a look at https://basem.co.uk/basem-2025-conference/ where conference updates will be found, and where you can pre-register interest. We hope to see you all in Leeds!
That’s all for me for now. I want to once again end by offering my thanks to you, the BASEM membership for being with us throughout this, and to our many volunteers, the small group of charity Trustees, and the smaller group of employed staff that make all this happen.
Prof Patrick Wheeler
Chair, BASEM