BCRA > Newsletter > Newsletter 6

This text contains news items extracted from BCRA newsletter 6, published in April 2006 (and expected to be delivered to members by the end of April.

Newsletter 6, April 2006. PDF format. 140K

Contents

• Hidden Earth 2006
• BCA Vacancy
• BCRA Vacancies
• Cave Science and Technology Research Initiative
• Tratman Award
• Copyright
• New Cave Studies Booklet

BCRA Vacancies

Following several recent retirements, and at a particularly exciting time for BCRA, we are looking for people to take up the following posts within BCRA. The job descriptions can be tailored to individual circumstances. Successful candidates will be very much at the forefront of the developing face of UK caving, directly involved in the new initiative to provide greater support to both cave science and technology. All the positions are unpaid although they offer an unprecedented chance to put something directly back into UK caving.

• Secretary: The Association's secretary is a member of the 'executive', and therefore a trustee of the Association. The secretary is responsible for routine correspondence, record-keeping, the compilation of meeting agendas, the recording of minutes; and all the usual duties associated with such a post. The present secretary will retire at the end of 2006, but it would be beneficial for there to be an overlap period of several months.
• Foreign Secretary: The FS is responsible for handling correspondence with overseas caving organisations, agencies and individuals, both promoting BCRA around the world and acting as a source of information about UK caving to overseas cavers. In addition the FS handles enquiries from BCRA members about caving abroad, and co-ordinates a network of foreign correspondents, who review journals and provide news for Speleology. Traditionally, the FS has been a Council member, but this need not be the case. The FS has had to resign due to ill-health and we need a volunteer to fill this post as soon as possible.
• Abstracters: BCRA is seeking volunteers to compile UK material for the international (UIS) publication Speleological Abstracts. This is an annual publication that aims to provide up-to-date information on caving around the world. The job will involve liasing with the BCRA librarian and several other officers within BCRA. We are seeking a dynamic person (or people, since the job may be too large for one person) who has fresh ideas and perhaps an understanding of bibliographic work, databases and web sites. The scope of this job is potentially large and so, ideally, we are seeking someone who can co-ordinate a team of volunteers, handle BCRA's journal exchanges and work with other BCRA officers to enhance BCRA's information services. However, even if you feel able to take on only a small amount of this work, we would still encourage you to contact us. For some time now, the amount of abstracting that BCRA can do has been extremely limited. There was a time when volunteers were available to index all the UK's caving material - or at least, all of it that was sent to the BCRA library. However, for several years UK caving club material has not been indexed. We would like to redress this situation. We need volunteers to help with this job as soon as possible.

Cave Science and Technology Research Initiative

BCRA's new Cave Science and Technology Research Initiative, announced in Speleology 5, has already received applications totally £9000. The awards panel has met to discuss these, and we hope to report soon. It has also been announced that the CSTRI will absorb the existing BCRA Research Fund. Revised documentation is being prepared.

Tratman Award

The Tratman Award is a small prize, given annually, for the best piece of speleological literature. It is awarded by the Ghar Parau Foundation, a subsidiary charity of BCRA. It has become apparent that nature and scope of the award needs to be re-addressed. One aspect for consideration is how publications are brought to the attention of the judges. Since the award could be given for a specific article in a magazine or caving club journal it may be unreasonable to expect nominations to be feasible. Another aspect of the award which might currently be unworkable is that all BCRA publications and GPF expedition reports are supposed to be automatically considered. But it is difficult to devise an infallible method of guaranteeing that all such publications will reach the judges. (It is some years since the BCRA librarian was on the judges' panel and therefore able to bring a substantial amount of caving literature to the attention of his fellow judges). Clearly, it can be appreciated that the judges need to be highly active in seeking out possible contenders for the award; and, perhaps, be accountable in some way for this activity.

And perhaps it would be appropriate to broaden the scope of the award? Perhaps the judges should now be considering web-based publications as well? These could range from on-line books (see Speleology 3, pp31-34 for some reviews) to personal web-logs and trip write-ups to which the readers of Speleology have also been introduced. One question to ask here is whether web-based publications (which could be subject to continual change) should be considered on an equal footing to more permanent media? But how will such work be brought to the attention of the judges: the Internet is a big place to search.

GPF is now seeking to revise and update the rules of the award to take into account the points raised in the present debate. Anyone wishing to participate as part of a small working group of interested people should get in touch with d.judson[at]bcra....

Copyright

BCRA is investigating the possibility of placing its publications on-line. This requires a change to the copyright licence that we obtain from our authors (which, at present, is implicit). We will be making some changes to the copyright statements in our mastheads and further information is at bcra.org.uk/copyright. Authors will be contacted to advise them of the new licensing situation.

New Cave Studies Booklet

The latest volume in BCRA's Cave Studies series is entitled Essential Sources in Cave Science. It is edited by Graham Proudlove and includes contributions from 14 authors on 18 topics. Unlike the previous cave studies booklets, this one is A4 in size, and has 56 pages. Further information is in Speleology 6, and at bcra.org.uk/pub/studies.html.