Ari, your perseverance with the BCA is extremely admirable, and sorry to see that you are still stuck with the BCA IT role in the absence of volunteers. You have done a great job and I'm sure you will continue to do so.
Also really glad to hear we have another Y&D officer coming forward too. Thank you to Josh for your efforts in this over recent years, I have heard many younger cavers speak very highly of your involvement.
As sympathetic as I am with the belief that attendance was low due to the good weather, and a continued fallout from Covid, I feel several other reasons have not really been addressed:
Firstly, the communications about the AGM (and many of the vacant roles) were a little muted, but probably fulfilled requirements. Secondly, engagement between BCA and its members over the last few years has also been fairly limited, such that most cavers have developed disinterest (the last newsletter was three years ago). Thirdly, many cavers saw how the efforts to reinvigorate and modernise the organisation in 2019-2020 were thwarted by a small but potent handful of individuals, with memory of that still being fresh in the mind of those who might consider volunteering.
What happened in 2019 (a really well attended AGM with a massive influx of enthusiastic volunteers) demonstrated that there really is passion to support our National Body from across the caving world (clubs, individuals, young, old). However, the several months that followed showed how much our National Body fails to take advantage of that kind of enthusiasm.
Where does the BCA go from here? In terms of delivering on the housekeeping duties such as providing insurance as a membership benefit, administering membership and money and dishing out cash to projects and regional councils, it is doing fine, and has already taken pre-emptive steps towards more paid employees to deliver on these functions in the absence of sufficient volunteers. I respect the BCA’s forward planning on that one. Several other functions of the BCA continue to go well too. Overall, I cannot fault the delivery of most housekeeping duties, and hats off to the volunteers who have continued to deliver on these despite the high workload.
But what about the functions of a National Body that are best delivered by volunteer cavers in response to evolving situations? These are the areas the BCA will struggle to fulfil with limited volunteers. For example, continuing to lobby for caving to be recognised and promoted in future countryside access initiatives. Given the potential for a change in Government next year, now is the right time to start laying out our table. Will the BCA have the volunteers to be all over this kind of thing like a rash?
Getting new volunteers into a stagnant organisation is challenging, but transforming a stagnant organisation needs volunteers, so it’s a chicken and egg situation. The BCA lost a great opportunity to break this deadlock in 2019-2020 and it needs to learn from that.
To their credit, BCA has changed a lot since then and I get the impression that it is more harmonious at the moment. The reduction in the size of Council and the movement away from under-attended Standing Committees is a good start to avoid progress getting filibustered with excessive ‘democracy’ (which seems like a strange thing to be saying, but believe me, this was a serious problem).
The focus for this year needs to be on communicating with the members, reminding them what BCA does for caving, what aspirations it has for the future, and persuading people to come in and be part of that. Most importantly, if individuals do come forward saying “hey why don’t we do this differently?” the BCA must show that it can be open minded even if the new ideas challenge established procedures.
If the BCA does not step up their game at reminding cavers why they, as an organisation, are important, there is a risk that future increases in membership fees to pay more staff (no matter how cheap this remains by National Body standards) will risk more people deciding to not join, and in the worst case, some clubs deciding to step away, which may be the top of a very bad slippery slope. This is a real risk particularly as the insurance is no longer a requirement for lots of access these days (particularly up north). Back in 2019 the BCA was lucky enough to get the best Publications and Information Officer it has probably ever had who made it her mission to showcase what BCA offers to cavers. Sadly, she was treated very badly and left. Getting an enthusiastic and proactive PR/P&I person involved again is essential.
Fingers crossed things will improve and next year the BCA will have done enough to tempt back the volunteers it needs to deliver on so many more fronts. I would love to see BCA thriving and successful, because British Caving needs a strong and proactive national body.
Good luck and thank you to everyone who is currently doing their best to make a difference.
british-caving.org.uk
