I notice in another thread that South Wales Caving Club is having a provisional members' weekend and I'd be interested to know how other clubs deal with new members. Is it formalised (as SWCC would seem to be) or just ad-hoc? Is it always the same few people who take new comers on trips or is there some way of involving the wider club? Are prospective newcomers prepared to wait months before they get on a trip?

Our club (Wessex) deals with new prospective members in two ways. Firstly there are the ones that turn up in small numbers throughout the year and then there are the organised events.
The casual arrivals are either already known to us from our relationship with some of the universities or they contact us through our website. The known people just find their "niche" in the club. They tend to be competent cavers and are just moving from a higher education club to a mainstream club, they already know and have relationships with other club members and tend to just fit in. Those that contact us about caving are generally advised to come along on a couple of trips to see if its for them. They will be put in touch with somebody who will "take them under their wing" and also sort out stuff like gear for them to borrow. After a few trips they will normally apply for membership and hopefully will have built relationships with several of the members (caving together is very good for this) They are encouraged to acquire their own equipment, and also encouraged to go on their own trips or cave within a wider circle of people on club trips and such like.
We also run Formal "Try Caving" events. These tend to be for the whole weekend. Newcomers are encouraged to come along and we would also organise accommodation, food and other social events around the weekend. Lots of members are encouraged to come along and help with the weekend and with the caving.

Both ways seem to be reasonably successful 

As a memeber of two small clubs, both have a similar policy which is very different from the big clubs as described upthread.

New memerbs will get in touch with the caving secrtetary - being the only openly available contact details on website/descent. Caving Sec will "take them under their wing"and notify them of upcoming suitable trips - eg no SRT to start with - arrange spare gear provide information and answer questions. Caving sec may or may not be on the trip but will have informed whoever is 'leading' it. After a couple of trips this will no longer be required and they'll just be included in general mailings and make heir own minds up.

Memebrship - you only get 17 days? on provisional memebership so they generally have to have made a decision after the 1st trip. Bad weather can mean that their is a delay of several weeks between contact and actually getting caing for the first time, and severla weeks again until the next outing. This is sub-optimal, but difficult to alter.

Our club follow the ad hoc path. Interested individuals or small groups normally contact the Secretary who the in turn contacts various members. Between them they organise a weekend as soon as possible which is convenient to all and sort out a suitable trip underground with borrowed gear if necessary.

Les W said:

Our club (Wessex) deals with new prospective members in two ways. Firstly there are the ones that turn up in small numbers throughout the year and then there are the organised events.
The casual arrivals are either already known to us from our relationship with some of the universities or they contact us through our website. The known people just find their "niche" in the club. They tend to be competent cavers and are just moving from a higher education club to a mainstream club, they already know and have relationships with other club members and tend to just fit in. Those that contact us about caving are generally advised to come along on a couple of trips to see if its for them. They will be put in touch with somebody who will "take them under their wing" and also sort out stuff like gear for them to borrow. After a few trips they will normally apply for membership and hopefully will have built relationships with several of the members (caving together is very good for this) They are encouraged to acquire their own equipment, and also encouraged to go on their own trips or cave within a wider circle of people on club trips and such like.
We also run Formal "Try Caving" events. These tend to be for the whole weekend. Newcomers are encouraged to come along and we would also organise accommodation, food and other social events around the weekend. Lots of members are encouraged to come along and help with the weekend and with the caving.

Both ways seem to be reasonably successful 

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much the same for the YSS , we also have a lot of members who are also members of other clubs

Thanks for the replies, seems to be a fairly similar story. I'd be interested in ideas for engaging the wider club membership if anyone has any?

Round here we go quiet and stare at them.

Is that because they don't have webbed fingers? :

The BEC tend to shave them prior to setting them on fire 

Give them the tackle sack to carry

Actually, its reasonably structured...

A trip or two as someone's guest is a common introduction although not all new members do this.

Application for provisional membership and attending at least four meets picked from the meets list over a six month period followed by application for full membership. Novice cavers usually stick to horizontal systems or ladder trips, more experienced cavers of course have more to pick from.

Stupot said:

The BEC tend to shave them prior to setting them on fire 

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That could explain quite a lot about the demographic of the BEC... 

I was under the impression that joining a caving club meant being forced to endure games of soggy biscuit, 'funny' songs & other boarding school japes?

Blakethwaite said:

I was under the impression that joining a caving club meant being forced to endure games of soggy biscuit, 'funny' songs & other boarding school japes?

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And being the "ball" in a game of sofa rugby!

Provisional Membership!
Get the money off them before they find a better club.

Ship-badger said:

Provisional Membership!
Get the money off them before they find a better club.

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here's a bit of a devil's advocate question off the back of this based off a recent conversation in a pub...
Are clubs thinking about how BCA insurance fits into this? There is the 17 day cover for temporary members assuming the club is recording contact details of any newbies caving with club members and sending them to BCA according to their insurance FAQ's - do clubs really do this? Obviously newcomers need to 'try before they buy' of their new hobby and 17 days only gives effectively 3 weekends worth which isn't a lot really, particularly if they can't make every weekend! How many newbies turn up and decide they wish to commit to caving and join immediately and how many clubs have facilities to process any form of membership as fast as that if they do wish to join immediately?
Some newbies perhaps want to check around a few clubs to find one that suits them best (can they do 17 days with each club and be covered by BCA?) and probably won't want to pay for a years membership to any club for a month or two or even considerably more, plus the processing of forms and perhaps waiting for next committee meeting of a volunteer committee to process a new member could take a little while as well and obviously until they pay a membership to a club including the BCA insurance they have no cover. I guess some form of shorter term initial probationary membership may be the answer (plus obviously paying the BCA insurance rate) but are clubs really pushing something as quickly as the 17 days?
Obviously professional instructors/outdoor pursuits business have to have PL cover, but I guess in some ways clubs and club members are leaving themselves open should, heaven forbid, something go wrong while you have a newbie you don't really know on your trip, who decides they want to blame someone else rather than take responsibility for their actions... Unfortunately in the sad climate of 'blame culture' rather than allowing common sense to prevail, it does leave an element of needing to cover your own and your club's arse...  : 

I don't know the details of the temporary membership scheme, but is it really limited to one 17day period per person?
I would have thought that you could have temporary membership for several trips over a 12 month period to cover the getting to know you stage of joining a new club?
Interesting point though, as I don't this we have thought to do this when we have had new people on trips recently.

Doubt that Cavegirl otherwise everyone would have the tempoary membership if it lasted a year as there is no way of them checking how many trips you have done.

The RFDCC have a temporary/new membership scheme which from memory allows you 3 caving trips ideally taken in consecutive weeks. IIRC we don't charge for that but we do obviously take details so that they can be sent to BCA. However I have no idea how quickly those details are forwarded to BCA. It could take a couple of weeks to get the details there and quite often the forms might be filled in on the night that person starts caving. The forms are supposed to be signed by a proposer and then a committee member.

We used to charge a nominal fee (?5) and that was then deducted from your membership fee but it's easier to allow the 3 trips for free then charge the full membership if that person joins.

To avoid misunderstandings, as I understand it, BCA Temporary Membership works as follows:

Temporary BCA Membership is a gift available to all BCA Member Clubs who take their insurance through BCA. It allows an unlimited number of people to be gifted 17 days' temporary BCA membership (and therefore insurance). The Club is required to keep a record of the person's details, but no longer needs to forward these details to BCA (this needs updating on the FAQs). Each individual is limited to one period of temporary membership.

Damian Weare
(BCA Secretary)