I MENTIONED in my last column how important it was, every week to reflect and see what’s working well, and what needs improving.

Not an easy task but a very important one.

Over the past few weeks, we have spent some time out talking to clubs about where they see the league at present and what we can do to improve.

The feedback is so important and essential if we are to create the best football experience for our youth.

It’s our members' league, and they have a major part to play in how it should be run. We want transparency, openness, honesty, constructive feedback and ideas on how we can take us to that next level.

I’m really pleased with the feedback, but like any organisation, we know we can improve further. We are meeting more clubs over the coming three weeks, and in some cases attending club committee meetings where we can give club members another outlet to air their views.

I’ve also spent some time with our partners in developing our relationships and identifying initiatives and projects we can partner on.

The positive meetings have involved the Football Association, County FA, Bolton Council, University of Bolton, Bolton Wanderers Community Trust, Bolton Futsal Club and Bolton FM.

There are so many opportunities and the future is exciting. I will be reporting on some of our long-terms plans over the next few months.

One initiative we embarked on in March 2017 is our change of calendar season, which is a three-year trial and has the full support of the FA and LFA.

While it’s called “Change of Season” it’s effectively the provision of a summer football programme for our younger non-competitive age groups (under-7-u11s) running from March-October primarily on grass pitches.

The objective of the change is to see if our children enjoy playing in the summer compared to the traditional October-March winter months when normally we lose eight or nine weekends to inclement weather.

At the conclusion of year one we will conduct a survey among coaches, parents and, more importantly, children.

Our patron Kevin Davies has kindly agreed to help us with the survey.

It is, at the end of the day, the children who will determine its success or otherwise.

As a league we are pleased to report we haven’t lost one weekend to bad weather since the change started, and the pitches are holding up very well in great playing conditions.

We are very pleased with its progress to date, and we are also working with other sports to ensure there are no clashes.

We are here to support all sports, and to increase the national agenda, which is increasing participation and promoting health and well-being in safe sporting environments. Football is just one.

All of this said, it’s still early days, and we will need to conduct a thorough review process before submitting any final reports to the FA.

The decision on whether it has been a success or not will rest with the players, coaches and parents, not me or the league officials.

The children must be given a voice in this.

I look forward to keeping you updated.

In our next column the general secretary will be outlining the new sin-bin trial, which will be effective in our league from September. It will be a challenge for all of us, but one we are committed to on all fronts.

Our referee population will be central to the pilot.

It gives me great pleasure to announce the BBDFL is only one of a small number of leagues in the country to be chosen by the FA to trial it.

Finally, huge thanks to everyone who took part in the 206/17 BBDFL winners' presentations a couple of weeks ago. It was the end-of-season gathering where all the league winners receive their team and individual trophy awards.

The evening was a great success, and my thanks go to our hosts Victoria Hall, Tony Kelly from BWCT – who gave up his evening to present the trophies – Bolton News and members of the league committee including Chris Rees our general secretary who worked afternoon and evening to ensure its success.