I shall be sending out a DCA Information Circular this week and will inform all our members (clubs, associates and individuals) that BCA will be asking for a vote on the CRoW issue shortly. I will remind them that they will need to ensure that, as individual members, both DIMs and CIMs, BCA has the correct postal address for them to receive and return their ballot paper.
I will include for every member a copy of the independently produced information leaflet on CRoW available at Hidden Earth and, for the benefit of clubs, I shall also include the web address where this can be downloaded. I shall advise them of another web address from which they can download further relevant documents and will list the documents available in this way (i.e. both for and against). I shall point them to the C&A section of the BCA website for the minutes and various documents put to the meeting on 16 August; to the various articles in several recent Descents; and also to the fact that the subject has been discussed at length on UKcaving. My DCA Rep's. report on last Saturday's BCA Council Meeting will be printed and circulated to all DCA members and will be discussed at our meeting on 1 Nov. Our DCA officers who attended the BCA C&A meeting in August will doubtless include comments in their reports to the DCA meeting.
DCA?s minutes for our previous meeting on 28 June (on our website at
www.theDCA.org.uk) also record discussion on this but DCA has so far not attempted to make a decision for or against; nor has it instructed its officers on how to vote at a BCA C&A or BCA Council meeting. (It never does this, preferring to accept that DCA Officers are perfectly capable of reflecting the differing views of members). DCA Members all know that I, personally, am in favour of CRoW extension but I will make clear that, unless DCA formally states a view at its meeting on 1st. Nov., I cannot presume to vote one way or the other as a representative on DCA's behalf at a BCA meeting.
Jenny Potts,
DCA Hon. Secretary