2014 BCA/BCRA Party Weekend

damian

Active member
Following on from last year's successful trial in The Peak District, plans are now developing nicely for this year's BCA/BCRA Party Weekend.

It'll be at Dalesbridge (Yorkshire Dales) over the weekend of 13-15 June and all the events will be free to all BCA Members. In fact the only costs will be food, beer and beds, and these are set to break even rather than make a profit.

A basic outline of the weekend is as follows:

Friday
Evening: late-night bar & simple food

Saturday
Day Time: cavers' breakfast, choice of BCRA science talks / workshops (or just go caving if you wish)
Evening: "The Three Counties System" - talk by Dave Brook, BBQ and buffet, late-night bar and disco

Sunday
Day Time: cavers' breakfast, BCA AGM (or caving, or sleeping off the hangovers as you wish)

All very welcome. Accommodation can be tent or bunkroom (or for anyone trying to impress their other half, we have some posh B&B rooms available this year too!) Further details are now available on the BCA website.
 

damian

Active member
Hi Henry

Sorry if it's not clear. For any information or bookings, just send me an e-mail - secretary [at] british[hyphen]caving[dot]org[dot]uk (or send me a PM).
 

richardg

Active member
(y) Great stuff Damian  (y)

Thank you to you and anyone else on your team for putting it together

Fantastic venue

Its also good to be  using Jon's place so supporting a fellow caver and active CRO member.

Wow! Caving living legend Dave Brook making an appearance...

And a Disco for us young ones to strut  our stuff

AND sharing a beer or two catching up with pals and maybe meeting some UKCaving personages face to face.

What a really great weekend for us all.. I'm going to make sure I'm not working or expeditioning this weekend.


Richard Gibson.
 

damian

Active member
Weekend Prices

Friday Evening Food ?3
Breakfasts ?5
BBQ (and buffet) ?5
Beer ?2.50 (or ?10 for 5 beer tokens)
Camping ?5 per tent (all weekend)
Bunkhouse ?10 (1 night) or ?15 (2 nights) per person
B&B Quality Rooms - ?20 pp (+ 50% reduction on the Friday night)

Everything else is free e.g. Science Events, Three Counties talk, Disco ... and dare I say it, the AGM!
 

kay

Well-known member
damian said:
Weekend Prices

Friday Evening Food ?3
Breakfasts ?5
BBQ (and buffet) ?5
Beer ?2.50 (or ?10 for 5 beer tokens)

What are the arrangements for booking food?
 

damian

Active member
The honest answer, Kay, is that I would be grateful for e-mails from people who are intending to come so we have some sort of idea of numbers. Based on last year, though, it will be a pretty poor indicator, and I am assuming most who wish to be fed won't have booked and we'll just have to cope!

As a general principle I am assuming that most of those who stay overnight will want breakfast and most of those who attend Dave Brook's talk will want food.
 

damian

Active member
I have just uploaded details of the various Cave Science events for Saturday 14 June. There should be something to suit most people and this year only one requires pre-booking, so feel free to drop by on the Saturday at the last minute.

Less than 2 months to go!

For those who are interested, I have also uploaded the Agenda for the AGM on the Sunday.
 

damian

Active member
Just over a week away now and bookings are coming in nicely, so if you're wanting to sleep anywhere other than a tent, best book sharpish (via e-mail to secretary [at] british [hyphen] caving [dot] org [dot] uk).

Basic Summary:
Friday night - food & beer (until late)
Saturday - morning: breakfast & cave science talks (free), lunch, afternoon: science walks (free), evening: The Three Counties talk (Dave Brook), food, disco & beer (until late).
Sunday - breakfast, BCA AGM (probably including a fairly controversial CRoW debate).

Very Basic Summary: get very pissed fairly cheaply!

Even more basic summary ...  :beer: :beer: :beer:

Also, for anyone attending the AGM, or just interested, the various documents for the AGM are now on the website ... Officers' Reports and Accounts.
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Well, did you all enjoy yourselves? (I had to work both days last weekend and ended up digging on Saturday evening, so I'm not entirely in the loop.)
 

Les W

Active member
I enjoyed it immensely!  Beer was taken and everybody seemed to enjoy the events over the weekend :beer:

What we should be doing is offering our appreciation to the very few people that made this all possible. Particular mention should go to Damian Weare and to Slug (Ian Gregory) for their sterling efforts throughout the weekend. They both deserve medals. I certainly offer my thanks to them both, and to all the other volunteers that ensured I didn't have to cook my breakfasts, find a pit for the night or do much else apart from drink beer and enjoy myself (OK, I did run the bar myself but I didn't consider that hard work when I saw what the others did...)

Many thanks you them all  :clap: :clap: (y)
 

Bob Mehew

Well-known member
Les W said:
I enjoyed it immensely!  Beer was taken and everybody seemed to enjoy the events over the weekend :beer:

What we should be doing is offering our appreciation to the very few people that made this all possible. Particular mention should go to Damian Weare and to Slug (Ian Gragory) for their stirlin efforts throughout the weekend.

Many thanks you them all  :clap: :clap: (y)

I whole heartedly agree
 

TheBitterEnd

Well-known member
Absolutely, a good do. Great talks covering a wide range of subjects followed by a good ramble, then beer, the legendary Mr Brook, food and more beer.  :beer:

The only complaint and I heard this from several people, was that we had to choose just one of the afternoon walks  :)  many of us would have liked to have done a few of them.
 

kay

Well-known member
TheBitterEnd said:
Absolutely, a good do. Great talks covering a wide range of subjects followed by a good ramble, then beer, the legendary Mr Brook, food and more beer.  :beer:

The only complaint and I heard this from several people, was that we had to choose just one of the afternoon walks  :)  many of us would have liked to have done a few of them.

An amazing amount of work behind the scenes even during the weekend itself - people carrying round chairs and tables at all sorts of unearthly hours. Many thanks to all of those who put the effort in so the rest of us could enjoy ourselves.

And thanks to to John Cordingly for his excellent "cavers' tour" of Ingleborough Cave - informative, entertaining, and a very polished performance!
 

martinm

New member
kay said:
And thanks to to John Cordingly for his excellent "cavers' tour" of Ingleborough Cave - informative, entertaining, and a very polished performance!

Should be, he's been doing them for years! I went on one in the 80's with my g/f of that time.  (y)
 

kay

Well-known member
mmilner said:
kay said:
And thanks to to John Cordingly for his excellent "cavers' tour" of Ingleborough Cave - informative, entertaining, and a very polished performance!

Should be, he's been doing them for years! I went on one in the 80's with my g/f of that time.  (y)

This was an added bonus of a tour tailored specifically for cavers, exclusively for those attending the BCA weekend.
 

Slug

Member
Bob Mehew said:
Les W said:
I enjoyed it immensely!  Beer was taken and everybody seemed to enjoy the events over the weekend :beer:

What we should be doing is offering our appreciation to the very few people that made this all possible. Particular mention should go to Damian Weare and to Slug (Ian Gregory) for their sterling efforts throughout the weekend.

Many thanks you them all  :clap: :clap: (y)

I whole heartedly agree

......and Wendy Williams, Henry Rockliffe for all their help with the cooking, and those who helped serve it all up, and especially those who took on the, at times, very nasty task of the washing up, like Emma Porter, and Mike, Les Williams, Jeff Wade, Basher and Martelle, Cookie, The Site Owner, J.J. and His Staff,  and all the rest of the TEAM , that went into keeping you all fed and watered, Entertained, Educated over the weekend.

There is also one special mention for my Mum and Sister, who bankrolled the whole of the catering effort, and paid ALL the upfront costs, because I couldn't afford to.

Ian.
 
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