DCA News


The minutes, officer reports and actions register from the council meeting, 27th October 2018 can be found at the following link:

[https://www.thedca.org.uk/home/meetings]

The next meetings are scheduled for Saturday 23rd Feb 2019, this being an AGM followed by a brief council meeting. The agenda will appear online and will be issued to members in due course.

Volunteers required

We still have a couple of vacant officer positions available if anybody fancies volunteering for a role:

General secretary - to deal with day to day correspondence and preparation of meeting agendas, taking and issuing of minutes to name the main tasks.
We have a volunteer for membership secretary.

Access Officer - main duty is to deal with access issues that arise, and work closely with the conservation and project team.

More information is available from myself if anybody is interested, or knows anybody who may be interested in these roles.

Wayne Sheldon

DCA Chairman

Thanks to everyone who shunned the sun today and attended the DCA AGM. We celebrated the retirement of Pete Mellors, who steps down as a DCA Officer after 45 years (!!!!) of volunteer service. Cake and some specially commissioned artwork marked the occasion and we wish Pete a happy retirement.
On a more serious note, the DCA is now critically under-manned. Today we did not have any volunteers step into the vacant roles of Secretary or Access Officer. We have also lost the Conservation Officer today who has had to step down owing to a lack of time to undertake the role. We wish Chris well and thank her for all the hard work she has put in over the years. Cavers can read the minutes on the DCA website when they are issued shortly for more details, but currently, 3 of the main Officer posts are vacant and the other Officers are doing their best to cover these roles until replacements can be found. If you feel you can help with any of these roles, you don't have to wait for a meeting to pipe up. Drop us an email or speak to one of the Officers in person.
Cavers should be mindful that the current Officers and Volunteers of the Association will continue to do as much as they can for Derbyshire caving, but the lack of manpower will significantly limit what we can do. It is likely that the Association will only be taking a reactive role to issues as they arise for the foreseeable future. You should continue to use the relevant officer contact email for any enquiries and it will be re-directed to whichever Officer is caretaking that role. We're sorry to say that you might need to be patient for a response.
Following the meeting, a few of us new, old and departing went for a nice walk in Lathkill Dale. Just goes to show that we're a friendly bunch, so come get involved in your regional body.

Pete Knight
DCA Projects Officer