New BCA CRoW Officer wanted?
After three years ?in the job? I have decided not to stand for a fourth year in this very important BCA role. Therefore after the June AGM, BCA will be looking for a new CRoW Liaison Officer to help fulfil the wishes of the membership in this respect.
At the last BCA meeting council supported my proposal to establish a ?campaign group? and this has yet to be set up. The new officer will have the freedom to build up this working group and I will be available to offer advice, particularly on the work I have already done, if that is needed.
To many people I have become closely associated with the CRoW campaign to the point that some elements insist on referring to it as ?my campaign?. I?d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that it is a BCA campaign, run on behalf of BCA members and the wider caving communities. I was not even a BCA member when our National Body ran a poll on whether to commence a campaign to ensure caving was recognised as a permitted activity under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. The poll resulted in a strong mandate for CRoW. Later when it transpired that the BCA Access Officer was unable to pursue a campaign due to a conflict of interest with his employers a new BCA role was created and I volunteered for it.
I committed a lot of time to the campaign particularly in gathering support from other organisations and individuals, researching details of the Act, promoting an awareness of the campaign through media as well as working on the conservation and landowner issues that run parallel. Most of my efforts have been recorded in my reports to council for all to see. Many cavers have offered kind words of support and that has been most welcome. Practical campaign help has been quite limited but I would like to single out Bob Mehew, to whom I am very grateful for the huge amount of research he has conducted behind the scene.
Unfortunately it has been the internal battles of the campaign within BCA that has been most challenging. Not just against the minority yet influential, anti-crow lobby, but also against an executive which for much of the time appeared to hold a two thirds anti campaign bias. This battle has been bloody at times and not for the feint hearted but I feel it is coming to an end. The internal barriers of the constitution which were put forward as an impediment to the campaign for a long time were emphatically voted out by formal ballot at the end of last year. Even the most fervent of the anti-crow lobby must surely accept the clear wishes of the membership. We?re leaving the EU on a 51.9% vote. The CRoW campaign received a 62% majority for the poll and an 85% & 88% (club/individual) majority to remove the impediment. With changes at the top imminent the new BCA exec would do well to keep this in mind.
Now would be a very good time for someone untainted by the battles of the past to forge ahead with this clear mandate. Whoever you are, I wish you the very best of luck.
Tim Allen
After three years ?in the job? I have decided not to stand for a fourth year in this very important BCA role. Therefore after the June AGM, BCA will be looking for a new CRoW Liaison Officer to help fulfil the wishes of the membership in this respect.
At the last BCA meeting council supported my proposal to establish a ?campaign group? and this has yet to be set up. The new officer will have the freedom to build up this working group and I will be available to offer advice, particularly on the work I have already done, if that is needed.
To many people I have become closely associated with the CRoW campaign to the point that some elements insist on referring to it as ?my campaign?. I?d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that it is a BCA campaign, run on behalf of BCA members and the wider caving communities. I was not even a BCA member when our National Body ran a poll on whether to commence a campaign to ensure caving was recognised as a permitted activity under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. The poll resulted in a strong mandate for CRoW. Later when it transpired that the BCA Access Officer was unable to pursue a campaign due to a conflict of interest with his employers a new BCA role was created and I volunteered for it.
I committed a lot of time to the campaign particularly in gathering support from other organisations and individuals, researching details of the Act, promoting an awareness of the campaign through media as well as working on the conservation and landowner issues that run parallel. Most of my efforts have been recorded in my reports to council for all to see. Many cavers have offered kind words of support and that has been most welcome. Practical campaign help has been quite limited but I would like to single out Bob Mehew, to whom I am very grateful for the huge amount of research he has conducted behind the scene.
Unfortunately it has been the internal battles of the campaign within BCA that has been most challenging. Not just against the minority yet influential, anti-crow lobby, but also against an executive which for much of the time appeared to hold a two thirds anti campaign bias. This battle has been bloody at times and not for the feint hearted but I feel it is coming to an end. The internal barriers of the constitution which were put forward as an impediment to the campaign for a long time were emphatically voted out by formal ballot at the end of last year. Even the most fervent of the anti-crow lobby must surely accept the clear wishes of the membership. We?re leaving the EU on a 51.9% vote. The CRoW campaign received a 62% majority for the poll and an 85% & 88% (club/individual) majority to remove the impediment. With changes at the top imminent the new BCA exec would do well to keep this in mind.
Now would be a very good time for someone untainted by the battles of the past to forge ahead with this clear mandate. Whoever you are, I wish you the very best of luck.
Tim Allen