What an AGM

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
My thoughts before the meeting were of trepidation.  Would the modernising proposals and people get elected?  Cavers can all come together so well in rescue events or organising Hidden Earth - so why not for our national organisation.  We were to see.  It was a packed village hall with about 75 folks turned up - more than I had seen at any other AGM in the last six years.  Here are the main results as I noted them down for my report;

Elections;

Mick Day - president
Matt Ewles - secretary
Howard Jones - tresurer
Jane Allen - publications and information
Louise Baddereley - conservation and access

There was a contenious issue as to whether Will Burns had been corectly nominated.  In the end the AGM voted to accept his nomination and to create a one off extra individual member rep position for him.  So all four nomination could now receive a position if voted for.

Tony Brocklebank - not elected
Dave Cook - not elected
Phil Rowsell - elected
Will Burns - elected

Club member rep

Dave Cook - withdrawn
Hellie Adams - elected
Gary Douthwaite - elected

Council proposals and Terms of references - all passed

Members proposals

Approving the Newtocaving leaflet - passed
Approving the new logo (against the old one) passed
Instructing council to appoint Gary Douthwaite webmaster under the terms submitted with the proposal - passed

The P&I proposals were amended to remove the constitutional changes and position on the executive.  Thus the following was passed - P&I to be abolished as a standing committee and replaced with the position of officer with responsibility for overseeing the outward facing publicity..... including current functions of the committee. (not exact proposal)

Finally the biggee on removing the two house voting system and replacing with individual electronic voting.  70% needed in both houses for this one to progress to a membership ballot.  The individuals voted over overwhelmingly for this and the groups just got there by 71%. 

Amazing and well done to everyone.  The clear signal from the day, in my opinion, is that good change is wanted by the majority of those who turned up to vote. There was of course a huge amount of talk and discussion, some quite feisty, and which I cannot recount all on here.  The minutes will reflect the true course of the meeting in case I have got anything wrong.
 

Pete K

Well-known member
Thanks for the overview of the day Badlad. Last minute work issues prevented my planned attendance today but I am pleased to see the outcomes I would have voted for have gone through. Roll on electronic voting so we can all have a say even if work gets in the way of attending!
 

Madness

New member
I thought that it was a good outcome. I don't think I'll bother with another one though, assuming we have online voting in future.
 

JJ

Member
My main observation was it was great to see so many people apparently under the age of 40......................... 
 

Madness

New member
I was surprised by the number of BCA Officers who weren't in attendance.

I was also surprised that Tony Brocklebank wasn't there, considering he was standing for election. Perhaps he wasn't really bothered about holding the position. Perhaps he only stood to try to keep Will from being able to stand. Who knows, and who cares now anyway?

Time for the BCA and British caving to move forward.
 

Wayland Smith

Active member
The thing now is to ensure that the "old guard"
do not mire down the changes in political games and delaying tactics
which have been seen so many times in the past.  :mad:
 

richardg

Active member
Congratulations to all of you who have been elected and thank you for standing for election.
This would appear to herald a great new era for the British Caving representative body....
Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in this agm.
Looking forward to good times ahead........
 

MarkS

Moderator
Speleotron said:
Any news on CROW? (not trying to start a war just wondering)

This is the CRoW Working Group Convenor?s Report:

The past 12 months have been a frustrating time for a campaign with any political content, thanks to Brexit and its immense fallout.

I have recently been able to discuss the issue of CROW Act access for cavers with a senior Labour MP who is involved with environmental matters, and he has kindly agreed to table parliamentary questions on our behalf. We will be drafting these soon, though it may prove wise to wait until the autumn as parliament will soon be rising for the summer recess.

When the Tories have chosen their new leader, we will make a renewed effort to make our case known to whomever is appointed Environment Secretary, initially via their special adviser. Other than this, there is nothing to report.
 

langcliffe

Well-known member
Speleotron said:
Thanks. I suppose parliment are a bit busy these days!

The members don't think so.

"SNP Commons leader Pete Wishart captured the mood perfectly at the start of the month when he told the government benches: ?To call this a zombie government would be to show massive disrespect to the brain-eating living dead, and the purgatory that we will now endure is acquiring a semi-permanent nature.?

Even prime minister?s questions, which was once the hottest ticket in town, struggles to pull in a crowd. Empty green benches are a common feature and the Tory faithful can barely muster a whimper for Theresa May when she arrives."


https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/politics/westminster/1748223/analysis-zombie-parliament-limps-on-with-no-brexit-deal-in-sight/
 

Cavematt

Well-known member
A very quick post, as my next few weeks (and years) have just got quite a lot busier!

Thank you to everyone who came to the AGM, regardless of how you voted. It was great to see such a large turnout (about 75 people), which is significantly up on the previous years.

I would like to acknowledge the huge amount of work done by the previous Secretary. While Robin and I may have held different opinions on many of the higher-profile topics, and we will work in different ways, I cannot emphasise enough how much he has done behind the scenes to address a number of items in the BCA admin, website content and housekeeping. Furthermore, his support for me taking on the Secretary role has been superb throughout the last several months.

I think the BCA is strongly positioned to expand upon the benefits we offer to our members and to British caving, and very importantly, to make more people aware of these benefits.

We go ahead from this AGM with a strong council, including several new members, and people in roles that they are passionate about. As well as new faces, we move on from this AGM with a new logo and several initiatives ongoing and coming to fruition.

As I have said before, the best way that you can all help the BCA is to stay positive about the organisation and register for BCA Online (https://members.british-caving.org.uk/users/login). It really is a massive help if we can communicate with more of our members by email. Read our newsletters and, for those of you on Facebook, follow us for all the latest information. There?ll no doubt be plenty of announcements and news over the coming months. There will also be a ballot of all members regarding the removal of the two house voting system.

Thank you again for those of you who gave up your Sunday. Hopefully we got done in time for you to get an afternoon walk up Penyghent ;)

Matt Ewles
 

Jeanrr

New member
We had a lovely walk up Penyghent - thank you.

It didn't take as long as the AGM!

Next time I will bring sandwiches and a flask.

;)
 

Pegasus

Administrator
Staff member
Jeanrr said:
We had a lovely walk up Penyghent - thank you.

It didn't take as long as the AGM!

Next time I will bring sandwiches and a flask.

;)

Penyghent looked stunning in the sunshine as we left.

I wish I'd taken food and a flask, instead scrounged food - to the cavers who kept me fed with toblerone, eccles cakes and hummus (not all at once  :) ), thank you  (y)
 

JJ

Member
Well I had to scrounge food too  :doubt: so thanks to those so organised to bring plenty :)
 

kay

Well-known member
Well done, Badlad, that's a very good summary of the day. I was going to write a summary for our club members, but I've referred them to your report instead.
 
Top