BCRA > Newsletter > Speleology 5

This text contains news items that were reported in Speleology 5 in December 2005.

• BCA Fees Reduced for 2006
• BCRA Membership Fees
• Why BCRA members should join BCA
• Future of Cave & Karst Science
• BCRA Member Benefits
• Speleology Magazine
• BCRA Cave Science & Technology Initiative
• Special Interest Groups
• The future of BCRA's SIGs
• BCRA Contact Details

BCA Fees Reduced for 2006

BCA membership fees for individuals are reduced for 2006. This is a reflection of the fact that the more members in the Association, the smaller everyone's contribution is to the insurance policy. The definitive table of fees will be in Speleology 5 and will be on the BCRA web site from 1st Jan 2006, if not before.

• From 1st Jan 2006 cave divers do not have to pay a higher membership fee to BCA. There are, however, still special arrangements for members of the Explosives Users Group.
• The additional BCA fees for Clubs providing Accommodation and Access Controlling Bodies are halved for 2006.
• The new fee for a Direct Individual Member of BCA will be £30. The membership benefits include Speleology magazine (three issues for 2006 are promised! and public liability insurance)

BCRA Membership Fees

At its AGM in September, BCRA members voted to accept the motion to amend the constitution to read, "Membership of the Association shall be open to all those members of the British Caving Association interested in furthering its objects". This means that from January 2006, the route to becoming a member of BCRA will be to join BCA and to pay a £10 supplement for BCRA membership. The definitive table of fees will be in Speleology 5. In summary...

• The BCRA membership fee is £10 and entitles the member to receive the BCRA newsletter and Cave & Karst Science.
• There are other member benefits such as a discount on publications (now increased to 20% on all orders) and entry to BCRA meetings.
• The £3 joining fee for BCRA members is scrapped
• The £3 and £5 postage surcharge for overseas members remains in force.

Points for BCRA members to note

• If you wish to benefit from the public liability insurance that was previously a BCRA benefit, you should now join BCA
• BCA Direct Individual Members (DIMs) will receive Speleology as part of their membership package. You do not need to join BCRA
• If you want to receive Cave & Karst Science you need to pay a supplement of £10 to join BCRA
• If you only want to receive Speleology and none of the other membership benefits of BCA, you can subscribe for £8/year, as a non-member of BCA
• If you only want to receive C&KS, and none of the other membership benefits of BCA or BCRA, you can subscribe for £16/year, as a non-member
• A Club Individual Member (CIM) of BCA does not receive publications unless they upgrade to a DIM or subscribe directly
• Affiliate and Commercial members of BCRA should join BCA as an Associate Member for £45. At the moment, this fee does not include BCRA membership, for which you still need to pay the additional £10

Why BCRA members should join BCA

Some BCRA members have voiced the view that they should not have to join another body in order to support BCRA - particularly if they are not an active caver. But BCRA Council is firmly of the view that we are now a single caving organisation. Moreover, membership of BCA is the method by which you can contribute to the process that makes caves available to you, as a scientist. Even if you never go caving, you are reaping the benefits of others that do, and this depends on access agreements, insurance for landowners and so on. Anyone who has a connection with caving, but believes that they should not have to contribute towards the cost of this insurance is entitled, of course, to hold that opinion; but BCRA Council believes that our members should contribute to this 'caving tax' in order to secure the future of cave science in the UK.

Future of Cave & Karst Science

Some BCRA members have also voiced disquiet at our plans for C&KS, which may have been misreported. Please note that all members of BCRA will continue to receive C&KS on paper until they are given the option of choosing otherwise. At this future time, it is likely that there will be a decrease in subscription for those who want to receive it electronically and an increase for those who wish to receive it on paper. The methods of electronic delivery (CD-ROM or web download) have not yet been decided. We will continue to offer C&KS on paper for as long as it is economically possible to do so.

BCRA Member Benefits

We have rationalised the membership benefits of BCRA to take into account the fact that all our members are now paying the same membership fee - i.e. £10 via BCA. Speleo-Abstracts will no longer be issued free as a benefit to clubs. However, all BCRA publications are now available to members at a 20% discount. This includes Speleo Abstracts and the Cave Studies series, and there is no longer a minimum order charge of £10 in order to qualify for the discount.

Speleology Magazine

Speleology 5 is well over a year late, but the magazine will be back in production for 2006! At BCRA, we're all acutely aware that the non-production of a magazine has posed distinct problems at a time when we needed to do all we could to encourage members to stay with us. But the lack of volunteers seems to be a problem throughout the caving world at the moment.

However, we are pleased to announce that BCRA have appointed a new editor - Erin Lynch - who will receive a small remuneration for her work. We are confident Erin will do an excellent job, and that that Speleology will appear regularly in 2006!

Speleology is now being published by BCRA on behalf of BCA. It will be sent to all BCA members whose membership package entitles them to receive a copy.

Those of you who have submitted material for publication and have not yet seen it in print are asked to contact Erin to check that it is still on file. It is possible that one or two book or magazine reviews remain buried amongst the paperwork.

Contact Details: Erin lives in China, and although email access is generally good, she reports that the post can be very slow. For this reason, David Gibson will continue to act as the UK contact point for post and telephone. Email to speleology[at]bcra... will go direct to Erin in China. If you have large files to send, please contact Erin first for advice.

BCRA Cave Science & Technology Initiative

To demonstrate its commitment to cave science, BCRA has announced its Cave Science and Technology Initiative (CSTI). BCRA President Dave Checkley made the announcement at Hidden Earth 2005, saying that the initiative aimed to provide £25,000 over the next five years towards cave research - in both science and technology. The objective is to raise an interest in caves and to further our understanding of them, and of the technology employed to enter and explore them.

Project areas could include

• Caving Technology
• Bio-Sciences
• Physical Sciences

No project will be too large or too small to be supported. Examples could include

• A few hundred pounds to test new equipment
• A few thousand to pay for a longer, more formal investigation
• Some help towards an under-graduate project
• Seed money for a PhD proposal.

The Awards Panel: Proposals will be considered by a panel comprising Nick Williams, David Checkley, Graham Proudlove and Trevor Faulkner, who may consult outside experts for advice. The panel will be involved in regular monitoring of projects and will be chasing you for a full report on completion of the work. Elections to the Awards Panel will be every four years on a staggered basis.

How to Apply: See the Cave Science and Technology Initiative web page or you should contact BCRA President, David Checkley, president[at]bcra...

Special Interest Groups

Speleo History: BCRA's Speleo History group has not been active for a while. In summer 2005 it was decided to wind up the group. Roy Paulson, the group's secretary, writes...

The SHG was the brainchild of Dave Irwin who produced a series of six newsletters from 1990 to 1994. The group then went into limbo until revived with a new series of newsletters in March 1997 and a journal, Record, running from Autumn 1997. Both publications ran until March 2004, numbered 12 and 9 respectively, although there was no activity during 2003. Dave, who was the linchpin throughout, resigned as publications editor in 2004.

Unfortunately, from its inception, the SHG has failed to build a membership base above about 30 which, from the point of view of 'author exposure' is a poor reward for the effort involved in research-ing and writing articles for publication. Authors could do much better by publishing in the general caving press.

We have accumulated a small sum of money over the years, including some from advance subscriptions. It is proposed to pass this to the BCRA Research Fund, although anyone who made an advance payment may contact me within the next couple of months for the return of their subscription.

The future of BCRA's SIGs

David Gibson writes: As noted above, the Speleo History Group has disbanded. Although the three remaining SIGs are still active, I think it is fair to say that BCRA's initiative on SIGs, in the mid-90s (which was largely due to Nick Williams, John Wilcock and myself) could be considered a failure in the long term! It has not encouraged small groups in the way we hoped it would. All the SIGs have depended (and still depend) on the work of a very few individuals to keep them going.

Outside BCRA, the Librarians' Group has disbanded, and two attempts to start a photography group (Underground Photographer magazine and then the Cave Photography Group) were, ultimately, unsuccessful because the number of volunteers prepared to support the ventures was too low.

Now that BCRA has divested itself of its national body functions, and can concentrate more on science, I hope that it will not forget the SIGs and the role they can play. In fact, there have recently been some SIG initiatives from BCRA Council, which has agreed to several financial measures to support the SIGs. These include the funding of the latest batch of HeyPhone PCBs, which CREG sells at cost, and the underwriting of CREG's loan equipment.

Also, BCA has confirmed that the public liability insurance will cover people who attend SIG field meetings, even if they are not members of BCA.

The SIG policy document appeared in BCRA newsletter 5, and is now at bcra.org.uk/sig/ Additionally, I think there is definitely a place for a 'virtual' SIG - one that charges no membership fee and which relies on Speleology and the BCRA newsletter to communicate with its 'members'. Rather than let small groups struggle on, or disband, I would like to encourage such virtual SIGs to submit articles to Speleology.