BCA Northern SGM Request - 20 individual members please

alastairgott

Well-known member
In the last 24 hours I have been made aware of some proposed changes to the BCA constitution or working arrangements. At present, I do not know what they are.


What I do know if that I have known Matt Ewles for 11 years (and he's had the amusement of knowing me for the same length of time), I know Matt as a pretty steady and resolute guy, so to hear that he has taken the wildly out of character move to ask the BCA members to accept a resignation letter he has submitted.


I'm here to say no I don't think I do accept your resignation letter, but obviously it's not my choice whether you carry on or not.


Proposal
I am proposing a Special General Meeting to be held in the North, the purpose of this meeting is to decide whether the particular matters voted on at the 2020 AGM need to go for a vote of all members, before the BCA can ratify them into the constitution. (in the current online voting format).


I don't doubt that any single one of the policies which are being voted on are small and seemingly insignificant viewed in ignorance of the other 7 policies. from Matts reaction to the receipt of all 8 of these policies they amount to a radical turn in the direction of the BCA which he does not want to be a part of.


As such I sincerely believe that it would be in the best interests that the BCA members get a vote on EACH of the 8 policies individually, should they be passed.


I don't know when the AGM will be, but I have the sneaky suspicion that I have missed the deadline to propose this for direct voting at the AGM, however if the AGM decides that the membership will get a chance to vote on each of these 2020 AGM proposals that pass (on a case by case basis, no lumping of all 8 together for member voting), then there will be no need to hold a SGM in the North.


Process from here
I will need 20 people to submit this proposal with me in writing, it will be proposed whether or not I get placated and asked to drop the proposal. Yes I understand the severity of asking for a SGM, but I will not play regional politics over our (the members) future.


Once I see the 8 proposals, then I will be able to draft the SGM request and submit it along with any other people that want to request the SGM with me.


Conclusion
I only do this because as a member I want a fair BCA where regional politics are not played.
 

JoshW

Well-known member
I am an individual member, and I agree that I don?t want regional party politics to take over, but first I need to get the full picture I.e. know what the proposals are.

Once this information is provided, you may or may not have my support.

Either way, massive thanks to the work Matt has done so far for the BCA, I know he?s worked hard to get stuff done to modernise the BCA
 

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
I believe we will have more information about the proposals and the AGM in a week or so.  Several BCA officers are involved in fighting the corona virus so are actually more busy than normal.  Lets see how it pans out but I'm a possible.

Cheers
 

Cavematt

Well-known member
Hi Alastair

Thank you for your vote of confidence!

I am gutted that things have come to this. I was so excited about the future for the BCA and so many of the people we had/have on BCA Council are equally keen to support modernisation.

Our current BCA Council is, on the whole, a very progressive, forward looking group, who recognise that the BCA needs to move with the times. There are just a few exceptions. I think it is important that people know this, and recognise that there are many people doing excellent work on behalf of cavers across the UK, putting in hours each week and giving up several days each year for meetings. David and I have tried to ensure that the work being done by our volunteers has been showcased in the last few BCA newsletters.

Unfortunately, these 'exceptions' are much more vocal than the majority.

I'll be getting an interim agenda put together with the proposals/nominations submitted by the 4th April deadline... hopefully in the next week or so. My (non-BCA) workload is extremely high at the moment so bear with me. Obviously the AGM will be cancelled (I need to formally announce this) so there will be another date and another deadline so the agenda will only be an interim/draft document for now and may be updated with more content after the next deadline.

All of the proposals have to receive a minimum of 10 votes (or 25% of attendees, which ever is smallest) at the AGM itself, and they will then go to a member ballot (this was one of the changes introduced following the constitutional amendments last year). Therefore all individual members will get a say on each proposal individually. Prior to the changes, these proposals would simply be accepted by majority vote of physical AGM attendees... in Priddy... so we know how that would have gone! Thank goodness that can't happen any more!

With sufficient campaigning we could probably get most of these backwards-looking proposals rejected by the member ballot. My standing down is simply a combination of the attacks/abuse, the threats of formal complaints and the final and most significant straw being the sheer disbelief and disappointment that the CSCC have, in submitting these proposals, totally failed to recognise the BCA was moving in the right direction... the direction I think our members wanted!

I'm truly sorry to disappoint everyone. I tried my best.

Matt
 
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