Devon & Cornwall Underground Council

Andy Sparrow

Active member
Devon & Cornwall Underground Council - not much information of the website.  Please could somebody advise me on the following:

How does it work?
Who are the officers?
How and when are they elected?
Who is eligible to join?
Is a copy of the constitution available?



 

royfellows

Well-known member
It MAY be defunct.
I will pass your query on to someone who was involved with it and come back to you.
 

fat pat

New member
Hi Andy ,when you get some answers, can you post them up on here. They have Cornwall in the title but many of us in Cornwall have no idea they exist and are clueless to their function.
  ps. this not hostility just an observation
 

Simon Wilson

New member
fat pat said:
Hi Andy ,when you get some answers, can you post them up on here. They have Cornwall in the title but many of us in Cornwall have no idea they exist and are clueless to their function.
  ps. this not hostility just an observation

The DCUC is your regional council, they represent your region at the BCA, they work on your behalf and they are very easy to contact. However, they are relatively small and there might be mutual benefit in more people taking an interest in them.
 
I've been going down holes for years in Devon and Cornwall and the DCUC was always talked about. I gather it's basically a load of control freaks talking about their empire, having all sorts of meetings about meetings and electing officers to be important at their meetings.

The rest of us team up and go down holes.  :beer:

 

Antwan

Member
Disgusted from Cornwall. said:
I've been going down holes for years in Devon and Cornwall and the DCUC was always talked about. I gather it's basically a load of control freaks talking about their empire, having all sorts of meetings about meetings and electing officers to be important at their meetings.

The rest of us team up and go down holes.  :beer:

Really valuable contribution there, lots of talking about things you don't understand by the sound of it.
 

Simon Wilson

New member
Antwan said:
Disgusted from Cornwall. said:
I've been going down holes for years in Devon and Cornwall and the DCUC was always talked about. I gather it's basically a load of control freaks talking about their empire, having all sorts of meetings about meetings and electing officers to be important at their meetings.

The rest of us team up and go down holes.  :beer:

Really valuable contribution there, lots of talking about things you don't understand by the sound of it.

I have some sympathy for the view of 'Disgusted from Cornwall' and I have used similar terms myself in describing my own regional council. Anarchy in caving would be wonderful if it could be achieved but we have to live in the real world. I accept that a compromise is the best option and it seems that a significant number of northern cavers think the same - hence the recent improvements in the North.

I know very little about the underground scene in Cornwall and it might be that the DCUC have nothing to offer them. If other underground folks in Cornwall are of a similar bent as Disgusted it would not be surprising if the DCUC were disinclined to communicate with them and that the Cornwall folk know nothing about the DCUC. So if other Cornwall folks are not interested in the DCUC, are not interested in even finding out if the DCUC have anything to offer and know nothing about them, fine but don't be so nasty towards them for no good reason.

And another thing - Disgusted from Cornwall makes a good case against anonymity on this forum.
 

rrx

New member
As someone who has been to a few DCUC meeting, although not been informed of any recently, they are the BCA regional council for BCA clubs, they however do not represent ALL the clubs and groups in Cornwall, i have in the past attended to try and represent some of the groups that are happy to be outside of the BCA and due to the fact we are open, fun, publish information freely and pretty much get on with things without masses of meetings we are disliked by a few people who hold high positions in the DCUC and a few other Devon based organisations (some Cornish ones too), Cornwall is very much outside the BCA in terms of control and this is also not liked either, we as a group are have always been happy to work with the DCUC and have done so in the past along with DCRO and other but due to the people at the top not liking us we are always given a very mute reception by some, until they actually learn the truth and then we normall gain more members  ;) We always help out where we can as we are the biggest and most active group down this way
 

rhychydwr1

Active member
[snip]

I know very little about the underground scene in Cornwall

[snip]

Perhaps this would help:

THE CAVES OF CORNWALL by Tony Oldham  2014  30 pp, text only available by email.  POA.  A DVD is now available.  It included photos, video and surveys.  To cover handling.  ?3.00 post free in the UK

 
Antwan said:
Disgusted from Cornwall. said:
I've been going down holes for years in Devon and Cornwall and the DCUC was always talked about. I gather it's basically a load of control freaks talking about their empire, having all sorts of meetings about meetings and electing officers to be important at their meetings.

The rest of us team up and go down holes.  :beer:

Really valuable contribution there, lots of talking about things you don't understand by the sound of it.

Ex PCG, Ex CMEC, Ex-BCA. Currently CBC (hacksaw officer)

I agree with your initial sentence. It is basically a load of emperors giving each other hardons......and they ain't welcome in Kernow!!!!!
 

mrodoc

Well-known member
As a former DCUC chairman I would like to refute Disgusted's comments. I was persuaded to do the job some years back and was chairman for a bit until I found the commute after a day in the practice was becoming increasingly tiring and was I  missing meetings. What I did discover is that representatives from Cornwall were few and far between. I was told that mining groups in Cornwall tended to be very secretive.  I did find things moved slowly in DCUC but one of the problems is that few people attended the meetings so I find accusations of self aggradisement rather ludicrous. If you want to get involved attend a meeting. I have a Cornish interest  as all my wife's close family live south of Penzance, many around St. Just one of the main mine areas. I have found it difficult though to visit the mines until recently when I met some individuals who were willing to share what they had eg the Carbis Bay Crew and members of the St. Just Group.

I think the main problem is that relatively large distances are involved for people to attend meetings and they have always tended to be in the Buckfastleigh area which is two hours drive at least from south Cornwall. Perhaps meetings need to be held at weekends and rotated around the region because of its geography - then some field trips could be organized at the same time. A great way for people to meet and network.
 

Simon Wilson

New member
mrodoc said:
As a former DCUC chairman I would like to refute Disgusted's comments. I was persuaded to do the job some years back and was chairman for a bit until I found the commute after a day in the practice was becoming increasingly tiring and was I  missing meetings. What I did discover is that representatives from Cornwall were few and far between. I was told that mining groups in Cornwall tended to be very secretive.  I did find things moved slowly in DCUC but one of the problems is that few people attended the meetings so I find accusations of self aggradisement rather ludicrous. If you want to get involved attend a meeting. I have a Cornish interest  as all my wife's close family live south of Penzance, many around St. Just one of the main mine areas. I have found it difficult though to visit the mines until recently when I met some individuals who were willing to share what they had eg the Carbis Bay Crew and members of the St. Just Group.

I think the main problem is that relatively large distances are involved for people to attend meetings and they have always tended to be in the Buckfastleigh area which is two hours drive at least from south Cornwall. Perhaps meetings need to be held at weekends and rotated around the region because of its geography - then some field trips could be organized at the same time. A great way for people to meet and network.

Thanks for that. From 300 miles away I now think I have been given a little understanding of the scene down there. It appears that there are a few cavers/miners spread out over a relatively wide area so running a regional council would not be as easy as in other regions. The Carbis Bay Crew appear to be a really nice bunch enjoying what they do out on the periphery and are welcoming to visitors. Any normal person would not see a problem with it and would offer friendship and support to both the DCUC and the CBC.
 

mrodoc

Well-known member
By the way as somebody with no axe to grind at all I am quite happy to act as intermediary for any bods reading this who are interested in the mines are in visiting Cornwall. However we do already have individuals like Gus Horsley and Ali Neill who do a pretty good  job at this.
 

Jason Pain

New member
Hi all involved in this thread,

My name is Jason Pain and for my sins I'm the Secretary Of Devon & Cornwall Underground Council ( DCUC )

Sorry for the delay in offering a response to your questions Andy, as until now i have not been a member of UKcaving.

In a moment I will attempt to answer some of your questions Andy.

For now if anyone would like to contact DCUC  I can be contacted at the following DCUC email address

secretary@dcuc.org.uk    -      Jason Pain

Other email Contacts are

chairman@dcuc.org.uk    -      Dave Warne

access@dcuc.org.uk    -    Roger King


 

Jason Pain

New member
Andy Sparrow said:
Devon & Cornwall Underground Council - not much information of the website.  Please could somebody advise me on the following:

How does it work?
Who are the officers?
How and when are they elected?
Who is eligible to join?
Is a copy of the constitution available?

DCUC is the regional council for Devon & Cornwall, working within the BCA framework.
In short we aim to Work to foster cooperation between all parties with an interest
in the underground world of Devon and Cornwall

As others have said and I'm sure many will realise we are not one of the major caving regions however the region has many mines.

Interest in running DCUC has been minimal for many years and has traditionally fallen to members of the 2 long standing caving clubs within Devon, Devon Spel?ological Society and Plymouth Caving Group.  During the last  3 years our Chairman Dave has been working on developing relationships with a number of the Cornish Mining groups with some of them now represented at meetings.  Our relationship with these groups continues to develop, and we would welcome anyone with a interest in the underground to get in contact.

DCUC act as access controlling body for a number of caves and mines in our region (mainly Devon and East Cornwall) and anyone wishing to gain access to one of these sites should contact our Access Officer Roger who will provide advice and keys if required to gain access to DCUC locations, he can also direct individuals to others with knowledge of other locations.

Note.  Other groups and individuals control access to underground locations within Devon & Cornwall outside of DCUC.

We aim to make access as easy as possible whilst working with landowners.


As you would expect we do have a constitution, Officers are elected at our AGM normally held early each year.
We plan to hold 3 meetings a year February AGM, July and October open committee meetings.

Our last 2 AGM's have been in Liskeard, Cornwall and this years will also be in Liskeard.
Other meetings have been in Plymouth or Buckfastleigh.


Our main committee post are

Chairman  -  Dave Warne  -  chairman@dcuc.org.uk
Secretary  -  Jason Pain  -  secretary@dcuc.org.uk
Treasurer  -  Roger King  -  treasurer@dcuc.org.uk
Access  - Roger King  -  access@dcuc.org.uk

We welcome anyone interested in the underground in our region to our meetings, and would welcome your input,
we are a small group, not perfect, but doing what we can.

Jason Pain
Secretary DCUC







 
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