I am writing this shortly after the finish of the BASEM 2024 Conference, held in Coventry, 7th & 8th November 2024. I accept I am speaking from a position with more than a little bias, but I think this was an incredibly well put-together 2-day conference bringing a broad range of speakers from the UK and overseas, covering a huge breadth and depth of topics. It was great to chat to BASEM members, both longstanding members as well as new members at the Conference, and I hope you all enjoyed the conference as much as I did.
Conference(s)
I will start by once again giving my thanks to all the BASEM staff who made the BASEM 2024 Conference happen, and to Dr Dane Vishnubala our Educational Chair who was the Conference Chair this year and probably now has a job for the foreseeable future making BASEM Conferences work. I want to also say thank you to the huge number of people that are needed to make this happen: the conference committee members, the different stream leads, the individual speakers, and to everyone who ran around with microphones making stuff work. I had a great time and was able to chat to people at the BASEM stand, knowing the conference was all in very safe hands. The plan will be to release the recordings from the conference of some of the sessions, so keep your eyes open for further details. It was a privilege to be able to award the Sir Roger Bannister prize for a lifetime’s worth of achievement in Sport & Exercise Medicine to Dr Jane Dunbar, who amongst all the other things she has done, ran the BASEM Foundation Skills programme for more years than would be polite to count, and will be well known to many BASEM members in this, or in other, capacities. It was great to welcome our patron, David Hemery, and his wife to our annual conference meal, and also to host Dr Roger Hawkes, BASEM’s former President as our guest as well. We also hosted our colleagues from the Faculty of Sport & Exercise Medicine (FSEM), who we are working ever closer with, as well as a small group from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) who presented at the conference, and who we are building links with internationally.
From the huge success of this year’s conference, plans are already underway for the next one. This will be held at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, 18-19 November 2025. Get the dates in your diary now. Keep an eye out for further details – https://basem.co.uk/basem-2025-conference/
The ongoing journey towards College
I am delighted to report that this process has reached the next milestone. Last year, BASEM instructed lawyers to scrutinise this process as “due diligence” and after more than 9 months of them reviewing everything a report has gone back to Trustees at the November BASEM Board meeting. There were no serious legal, financial, or reputational risks identified to BASEM in this report, and the report was accepted. This completes the legal due diligence stage and grants BASEM confidence that this journey to date has been ok, and that no significant risks are identified for future steps.
The next stage in this process was the creation of the “Steering Group” bringing together representatives from BASEM and FSEM with an independent Chair. This group has met twice now and are looking to instruct a formal merger company to guide the next stages of this process. This continues to ensure that everything continues to be done in a correct legal and correctly governanced process.
We all recognise that this takes time, but it is important that this is done correctly throughout. Updates to members will continue to come through BASEM Today, monthly updates, and these are also filed in a section on the website for members to refer to if/when desired. For more information, have a look at: https://basem.co.uk/proposed-college/
BASEM Trustees
Dr Robin Chatterjee has now completed his term of office as BASEM Honorary Secretary; having served on BASEM Board for two consecutive terms he has now demitted office. As BASEM Chair I want to take this opportunity to thank him for all the time and effort that he has put in over many years to support BASEM.
As BASEM is heading towards the formation of a College, which now that the legal due diligence steps are concluded favourably, is hoped is now 3-6 months away, a decision has been taken for Dr Katie Marino, BASEM Membership Secretary, to take on the BASEM Secretary role, rather than look for a new election for only a few months. Dr Marino has served on BASEM board for a number of years, and brings with her both her passion for supporting BASEM members as well as organisational memory to this new role. I would hope that we would all support Dr Marino in this important role for BASEM.
Next steps:
Activities for BASEM never seem to stop!
BASEM staff, trustees, and volunteers are busy working on the next years’ worth of educational courses, awards, and conference already, and our Educational Manager, Diane, is already setting about seeking a venue for the 2026 Conference! BASEM Trustees have put together the annual edition of the BJSM journal, and where possible we have tried to support the works of UK-based authors to demonstrate the great works done here. In terms of constitutional position, BASEM is clearly undertaking significant constitutional change as it seeks to co-create the “future College” with our partners in this, the Faculty of Sport & Exercise Medicine. This is all guided by the works BASEM members put into the working groups outcome document more than 18months ago. However despite this constitutional change, it is sincerely hoped that the members see little negative impact of this during this transition period. All the courses, conference, awards and other membership benefits BASEM offer continues, much like all the Faculty’s activities continue throughout this transition period, and we look forwards to a time when all these activities continue within a single organisation, bringing clarity to both internal and external stakeholders.
In conclusion, I expect that everyone’s Christmas planning is well underway, and I wish you all the best as 2024 draws to a close, and I wish you all the best for 2025.
Prof. Patrick Wheeler
BASEM Chair