BCA membership and those aged under 18

[BCA Membership]

This is a reminder than BCA membership is entirely free for those aged under 18 years old.

BCA currently has 200 members aged under 18, which is just over 3% of our membership - but we want more!
As I am sure everyone on Ukcaving already knows, caving is a great hobby for families, and children can gain a huge amount by safely exploring the underground.

So if you take your children/ nieces/ nephews/ grandchildren etc underground why not sign them up as members of BCA?
You can do it directly with BCA via our membership system
BCA sign up

 

[PeteHall]

Sorry to put it so bluntly, but what for?

I take my kids caving fairly often. They really enjoy it. They have invited friends to come along, talked about caving at school/Beavers/Cubs as their hobby etc.

I've thought about signing them up with BCA, but then I asked myself why. Other than getting a membership card (that you don't get any more anyway), I can't see any actual benefit for a kid as a member.

Have I missed something? Genuinely, I'd be interested to know why I should hand over my kids personal details. What benefits will I, or they gain. What is the benefit to BCA of them joining, other than more admin to do.


Just to make sure my post doesn't seem to grumpy, here is a smiley picture with hot chocolate!

 

[BCA Membership]

Hi Pete,

My view is why not? It is free and has some benefits - which is better than no benefits!

BCA membership means they are covered by the BCA PL insurance policy. Hopefully a claim involving a child is very unlikely but as it is free why not have that extra security/ reassurance?

Also certain caves require BCA membership - I am not sure about other areas but as a Derbyshire caver with 3 kids we take ours beyond the show cave in Peak Cavern, and the show cave requires BCA membership. If I remember right OFD also requires BCA membership and mine have done several trips in there.
And it is not just caves - I am aware some surface SRT training facilities etc require BCA membership. Not teaching mine SRT yet, but hopefully will before they are 18!

From BCA's point of view it is no extra admin - if they join BCA directly it is all automatic. (Might cause club secretaries some extra admin if they join via a club though)
BCA provides free membership for under 18s to encourage younger people to participate and help with access.
Whilst BCA gets no payment for this we hope that some of these young cavers will be become lifelong cavers, and hopefully stay members of the BCA!

Obviously it is completely up to parents/ guardians if they want to sign their children up as BCA members, and I am not gunna hard sell it.
This post is really just because I think a lot of cavers probably don't realise they can sign their kids up completely free of charge - and those who are members via caving clubs maybe don't realise they can sign their children up directly with BCA (useful when the club doesn't have child membership)

Hope that helps!
Katie
(Partly written as BCA membership admin, and partly as a caver with caving children!)

 

[Ian Ball]

I did not know that BCA membership was available let alone free!

 

[ChrisB]

A potential benefit to BCA is increasing membership count, which could (particularly U18s) be useful when apply for grants such as Sport England.

 

[PeteHall]

BCA membership means they are covered by the BCA PL insurance policy. Hopefully a claim involving a child is very unlikely but as it is free why not have that extra security/ reassurance?

For an older child/teenager, caving without their parents, agree completely, however the prospect of a young child under parental supervision being on the receiving end of a claim is farcical.

certain caves require BCA membership

Fair point, but not an issue I've faced yet in Mendip, South Wales or the Dales.

some surface SRT training facilities etc require BCA membership

As above, fair point, but not a problem I've faced.

BCA provides free membership for under 18s to ... help with access.

Here's where I think I can see some benefits, not just at a personal level, but at a national level, if membership data is leveraged in the right way.
There are certain caves which have age restrictions in place, which are arbitrary and make little sense. Why shouldn't I take my 6 year old to GB?
Perhaps the BCA youth and development officer would have more clout arguing to overturn these nonsense rules with a larger number of young cavers represented?

we hope that some of these young cavers will be become lifelong cavers, and hopefully stay members of the BCA!

This is sort of what I was alluding to with reference to the membership card. Helping the kids feel part of something. Developing a sense of belonging and commitment. Without the card, I'm not sure how much a younger child would even realise or understand that they are a member.

All the above is written with younger kids in mind, as they reach teenage years and start doing their own caving, that all changes.

why not? It is free and has some benefits

The same could be asked of many things, but in an increasingly digital age, data privacy is probably the biggest reason to avoid signing up to too many things online. Some parents share every detail of their kid's lives online. That will be there forever and the kids have no way to consent to the potentially massive infringement of their future privacy. I am generally pretty careful to avoid sharing my kids personal details online; I'm not obsessive about it, I share the odd photo, but I've certainly never given my kids full names or dates of birth online (except necessary forms for schools etc).
I don't think it's wise to hand out my kids private data without good reason (hence my post above asking if there is a good reason). I know the BCA isn't going to sell it, but data breaches happen so the less private information that's out there, the better.

 

[PeteHall]

A potential benefit to BCA is increasing membership count, which could (particularly U18s) be useful when apply for grants such as Sport England.

Another fair point. However, is the BCA actually short of money? Most caving clubs seem to have more money than they know what to do with!

 

[ChrisB]

is the BCA actually short of money?

It is. I discovered that when I was elected BCA Treasurer last year. The following is effectively part of my report to the upcoming AGM.

About ten years ago BCA had more reserves that it knew what to do with, so froze and in some cases reduced membership fees and encouraged spending on useful stuff. Covid, the CRoW court case and a bump in inflation meant that reserves dropped faster and reached the safe minimum with shorter notice than expected. As pilots know, the best time to start pulling out of a dive is before you reach minimum altitude, not after. Membership fees having been effectively subsidised from reserves and needed to be increased in a hurry for 2025, along with some budgeting. I've probably spent an average of 2-3 hours a day on BCA work for the last year. Funding isn't the only inherited problem - there's a lot to be done, and more volunteers will help.

Now I've had a proper look at the accounts, the increased income in 2025 will just about match what was spent in 2024, so with inflation and some extra costs to stay safe and legal we're still not at the point of balancing expenditure and income. BCA was set up to collect membership fees, bulk buy insurance and disburse money to Regional Councils and other constituent bodies, so while we need to ensure we don't waste money, cutting expenditure is both difficult and contrary to BCA's purpose. In order for BCA to continue to do useful stuff for cavers, fees will need to go up again for 2026 or 2027 but will still be substantially lower than parallel organisations like BMC and Paddle UK.

 

[BCA Membership]

Well this post is generating some interesting discussion, and that is great

Sounds like you have thought this through Pete, and because of that you are probably not the target audience for this post!
You already knew BCA did membership for under 18s, had considered it and decided it wasn't for you - which is all very sensible.

However I get a lot of emails a year from people asking if a 14 year old can join BCA, if there is a lower age limit etc. I am not really trying to persuade cavers to sign up their kids - it is more a case of making sure cavers know they can if they want to.
3 under 18s have joined since yesterday, so at least a few people have found this information useful!
My role with BCA isn't just taking money for membership but helping cavers/ clubs understand it, and select the right membership types etc.

I agree claims involving small children are unlikely. 17 year olds who can drive themselves to caves maybe more likely.
BMC's biggest ever claimed involved students - so aged over 18, but not by much.

I also agree with you that the vast majority of caves I have taken my children to do not insist on BCA memebrship . Although I did think OFD did require BCA membership, and my kids have caved in there but I haven't been to South Wales in a couple of years so may I have remembered wrong or it has changed?

Apologises if my reply to your initial query sounded like I was trying to persuade you to sign your kids up. That wasn't the intention.
As this discussion is all on a public forum I was trying to answer your questions in a way that would be useful to others reading the thread.
I agree that BCA membership for under 18s probably offers more benefits to a 17 year old, than a 3 year old.

Essentially I am aiming to raise awareness so cavers can make an informed decision on BCA membership. Which you have already done, and your queries have led to more information on this thread, which is all useful.

As you pointed out BCA doesn't get many direct tangible benefits from more members under 18, so we don't have an interest in pushing it. We just want cavers to know it is easily available and free if they wish to make use of it.

 

[Al S]

Possibly another reason for signing up youngsters...

We went away on a caving holiday at Easter and my teenage son had asked if he could come on one of the trips. As we'd always used BCA travel insurance we wanted to include him on the policy so signed him up to BCA membership for free. The BCA travel insurance was then very competitive (think my non caving wife and son paid similar for just "normal" travel insurance) and covered him for other activities such as via ferrata too.

 

[maxb727]

I know one of my clubs went to the Forest of Dean on the May bank holiday weekend recently and to go caving the kids needed BCA insurance with their membership numbers submitted for the permit.

We’ve got an ‘alien’ due in next couple of weeks and we can’t wait to sign them up - they realistically won’t go caving for a couple of years but we’re still keen!

 

[tdobson]

Caving with under 2s is a terrible idea. Just think how bad it'd be if they enjoyed it.

I've had to suffer watching back the videos of us in Kingsdale Master Cave about 100 times with the plea "more cahyve" and then "more cahyve, pleeez"

(Yes he is a BCA member for all those entertaining moments when someone tries to sue him for being too cute.)

[Photo shows grandma, Mini-tdobson, and mum in background]

 

[Pitlamp]

Look at that grin!