Oops, sorry Sam if I jumped the gun. I thought you were done.

It looks great from the bottom but beware. This will only give you some idea of the loose rocks and crumbling walls half way down the shaft.

Hi all We have now finished our work down North by North End Pot. The entrance dig has been tidied up and made stock proof, survey work is complete and new conservation taping installed around Llean Bean Aven and up to the Pig Trough. All our ropes and gear have been pulled out. Sam has...

If you have the time here is a seminar from the SRA. All on BCA exec and council would do well to watch it. It was the basis for my proposal several years ago to set up a vision group. Unfortunately it came to nothing.

I met up with Ben and Cath several times, both individually and at wider meetings of outdoor organisations. Both were extremely knowledgeable and helpful. I don't think anyone from British caving has been in touch with them since I stood down.

A couple more weighty threads of my efforts on behalf of the BCA. You may find them interesting, you may well not. At the heart of the CRoW issue was that British Caving was little understood by those in positions of authority so I took it as part of my role to promote caving where ever...

https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?threads/vip-caving-trip-to-gg-press-release.19574/ The press release at the head of this thread followed by the usual squabbling over the CRoW issue ;)

BCA has overlooked the advantages of seeking relationships with other like minded organisations for most of its history. To some extent the problem has been a lack of volunteers to effectively forge those relationships. The other significant problem is that neither the executive or council...

I understand there were good views all around Ingleton/Kirkby last night. Also for those up at GG preparing for the winch meet.

The perception of these risks is getting extreme. It is verging on scare-mongering. If officers and members are as liable as you suggest then who on earth would want to volunteer for an organisation or be a member of it. I recall a few years ago when a certain individual, supposedly well...

Interesting discussion but, I think you all need to step back a little :dig:

There is another large cost which is mostly hidden from view. That is the cost of holding large reserves of money during a period of high inflation and low saving rates. From my recollection the BCA held a reserve which averaged about £250,000 over the last ten yeans. During several years...

Yes the logo is Alum Pot. Pegasus modernised the BCA logo during her short stint as BCA P&I officer.

Moderator comment: Five posts moved to new thread on 'Outdoors for All' Please keep this thread on topic - BCA Finances. Thank you

It's is really pleasing to see someone from BCA prepared to engage with cavers on a public forum. I appreciate that has it risks as folk are often quick to criticise, but also cavers do generally applaud good work. Look back at the CNCC of old. They received substantial criticism for the way...

What is all that plastic? Is it old silage bags just dumped?

In my youth we set off an air bomb repeater firework at the bottom of Alum. Wow oh wow was it loud. We thought it was going to bring the place down and end the world, but it never did. Alum has amazing acoustics. On a different note, more recently, when we removed the old water tank from...

Borneo is huge and divided into three countries. Brunai, Indonesia and two states of Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah. Caves in all but Brunai. However, there is little freedom to just go caving. Much depends on where you are based. But a lot of the caves are difficult to access and require local...

Yes, try the Skylotec Spark (or Sirius) as an alternative to the Rig. Retail at about £180 only a little more than a Rig. The Harken Clutch is a great device for industry but hardly anyone uses them as they retail at £700. I'm not sure you'd find them great for caving anyway. I'm a Stop user...

Andy, interest rates have no where near matched inflation for a large part of the last ten years or so. BCRA will have lost the purchase power of a large part of its nett asset. The Bank of England inflation calculator shows that if you had 150K in asset ten years ago, you'd now need 200k to...