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Fairfax County is reshaping its Athletic Council to give a broader range of sports—including pickleball, cricket, hockey and swimming—a chance at representation.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the 23-member council’s first major charter revision since 2004 on June 9. The changes consolidate separate slow-pitch and fast-pitch softball seats into one position, bringing softball in line with other sports that have a single representative.

The freed seat will become a fourth at-large position. County staff said the added flexibility could bring currently unrepresented activities into the discussion, including track, wrestling, tennis, pickleball, hockey, cricket, swimming, badminton and Ultimate Frisbee.

The revised charter also changes how sport-specific representatives are selected. Individuals will now be appointed directly instead of coming through councils for baseball, softball, basketball, football, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball and women’s sports.

Other positions remain unchanged. Each of Fairfax County’s nine magisterial districts retains a representative, as do the towns of Vienna, Herndon and Clifton. The council also includes nonvoting representatives from the Fairfax County Park Authority, School Board, school system, and Department of Neighborhood and Community Services.

Established by the Board of Supervisors in March 1974, the Athletic Council originally supported the agency then known as the Fairfax County Recreation Department.

Today, it advises supervisors, the School Board, Planning Commission, Park Authority and county staff on the allocation, use, management and long-term planning of public athletic resources.

The council meets monthly except in August. Soccer representative Lula Bauer currently serves as chair.