Main CHECC Forum 2018 - Peak District - Training Announcement

Bratchley

New member
Student cavers!

It's time to think about what training you want to do at CHECC this year...

If you've not yet thought about it then get thinking - we have a great bunch of amazing volunteers ready to teach you all there is to know about everything!

TRAINING SESSIONS BEING RUN THIS YEAR ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. CAVE RESCUE WORKSHOP
This is kindly being run by the Derbyshire CRO and will cover basic cave rescue theory and techniques, possibly with some cave-related first aid. It will start at 11am on the Saturday and there are 20 spaces.

2. SRT WORKSHOP
This is being run by Jo White & Andrew McLeod with an experienced team to help you learn SRT. This will range from basic up and down techniques all the way to more advanced skills, with some rigging theory thrown in too depending on requirements. This will start at 10am each day and will be held at the indoor wall on site at Hope Valley College. We have a limit of 15 attendees per day.

3. PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
The award winning Stuart Gardiner has once again generously volunteered his time to run one of his brilliant Photography Workshops, where you'll learn the theory behind cave photography on the surface before heading underground to perfect that theory and turn it into reality. There will be 10 spaces for the practical underground session, but the theory session beforehand is only limited by room size. This will start at 10am on site on Saturday at Hope Valley College. Bring along any camera kit you have, you'll be amazed what you can do with it!

4. SURVEY WORKSHOP
Andrew Atkinson and Rich Smith are kindly running this years survey workshop, taking you from basic survey techniques, where you'll learn how to gain measurements of cave passage using common instrumentation, before returning to visualise it on a computer so that you can see your survey for all its glory! Please note that this will focus heavily on electronic and paperless surveying, so bring any club PDA's/Disto's and Laptops that you can get hold of - they will significantly increase how much you learn on this session. There will be spaces for approximately 10 participants, though you can pair or triple up to increase available slots. This will also start at 10am on the Saturday on site at Hope Valley College.

5. BOLTING/TECHNICAL WORKSHOP
Do you want to know how to place bolts? Are you an experienced caver interested in getting involved with expedition caving? If so, this is for you! Andrew Atkinson will be running a technical workshop covering skills useful on expeditions or during exploratory trips within the UK, particularly focusing on safely placing basic anchors and the things to look for when exploring and bolting vertical systems. It is hoped there will be an opportunity for each attendee to have a go at placing bolts, and attendees will meet at 10am Sunday on site with actual venue currently TBC. There is space for up to 15 attendees.

6. HYDROGEOLOGY & DYE TRACING
Dr Paul Hardwick from Limestone Research Consultancy/BCRA will be giving a presentation on water tracing (a guide for cavers). This will outline the methods and types of tracing used and there is plenty of space on this first session. There will also be a demonstration dye trace in Castleton at Peak Cavern afterwards, involving a short trip into the show cave area. The sign ups will be for the in-cave session, (only 7 places!), however the morning presentation session will start at 10am Sunday on site at Hope Valley College and has plenty of space.

The following sessions have no strict limit on attendance, but signing up will help us gauge numbers:

7. LEADERSHIP & TRAINING SKILLS
BCA's Youth and Development officer, Rostam Namaghi, will be running an informal session focusing on discussing the training system within your clubs. Many universities have felt pressure from their unions over the past couple of years regarding permission to run trips and fielding training related questions, so this will be an opportunity to ask questions if you have had issues and also seek to provide clubs with something to tell or show curious university guilds if requested. It will emphasise the importance of continuing non-commercial in-house and inter-club training within student clubs and how to make the most out of available resources including BCA Y&D and CHECC. This will be especially useful for club committee members and any future club leaders to attend and it is highly advised that every university club has an presence on this session. This will start at 12 noon on Saturday.

8. FUNDING FORUM
Brendan Hall, CHECC Treasurer will be running a sit-down chat session/discussion on how to make the most out of your student unions available finances. If your club regularly struggles financially or just needs more cash, come along to this session and discuss with other university committee members/CHECC and find out how to try for more. This will run at 3pm on Saturday at Hope Valley College (room TBC), spaces are not limited. Club treasurers are advised to attend.

SATURDAY EVENING PRESENTATIONS AND TALKS:
(Please note timings are subject to change but an up to date schedule will be available at reception on Friday evening)

16:30 - British Caving Library
Jenny Potts will explain what the library holds (not just journals and books), what facilities they can offer to visitors and also what they can offer remotely.

17:00 - CUCC Austria Expedition
Ruaridh MacLeod will showcase the long-running expedition to Austria by Cambridge University exploring the Loser Plateau and the massive caves which lie beneath.

17:30 - SUSS Tresviso Expedition
Louise Baddeley will tell us all about what SUSS got up to alongside the Tresviso Caves Project this year, camping high up in the Andara region of the Picos de Europa.

18:00 - Rescue Lessons
Dave Cattell and Rob Watson will have a casual session discussing their rescues earlier this year and lessons learned from them. Both rescues involved a large number of man hours and many hours stuck underground, however most walked away from each incident relatively unscathed - find out the details in this short session.

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Hopefully there is something going on here for everyone to take an interest in, if you want to join in on any of these workshops, please send me a message at checc.committee@gmail.com including your name, your affiliated club and the training you wish to attend (please check the timings for clashes).

Places are generally FIRST COME FIRST SERVED, though some thought will be given to trying to get some geographical distribution of attendees within each session.

Thanks,
Josh
CHECC Training Officer
 
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