Thank you to everyone who has contributed constructively to this thread.
Finding a venue for CHECC is never easy as there are many criteria that go towards making a good CHECC venue. This year we have decided to take CHECC back north and JJ at the Dalesbridge has kindly offered to host this year's event, for which we are very grateful.
During the past 2-3 years, the CHECC committee have been making a conscious effort to move the focus of the event from the party (while this remains a legendary and essential part of the event) towards providing training and networking opportunities. It is essential to the longevity at the forum that we continue to build and maintain good relationships with our venues, and with this in mind I would ask that everyone attending this year's event takes extra care to keep the venue in good condition and to take the initiative with cleaning up on the Sunday. In addition to this, we will be enlisting the help of professional cleaners to help us finish off the job and to ensure that the venue is left in a better condition after the event than it was before.
I appreciate that we've been later than usual in securing and announcing the date and venue this year, but as others have pointed out it has become increasingly difficult to secure venues owing partly to a legacy of incidents relating to 'heavy' partying, including breakages. This year is a chance for us to turn this reputation around and to ensure that the continuing committee are faced with less of a challenge when booking future venues. Note that last year's venue on Mendip were perfectly happy with how the event went and CHECC is welcome to return there in future. Let's have a repeat of that.
Further information on this year's event can be found on the dedicated UKCaving thread at
http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=22306.0
We're looking forward to another excellent Forum this year.
Thanks!
Thomas Starnes
CHECC Chairperson