The British Caving Association

As reported recently, BCRA has ceased to publish Speleology magazine. Instead, Council has decided to replace it with a new publication, to be called the "BCRA Annual Review".

This will be edited by Dave Lowe (who edits Cave & Karst Science). The first issue will be published in the third quarter of next year, 2016. The Review will be published online as a free download, and will also be available on paper, for a fee, using a print-on-demand process.

The thought behind this is that BCRA needs a medium for reporting its activities that can be referenced in papers and articles, as this cannot be achieved in an ephemeral newsletter. By adopting the format of C&KS for the Annual Review we think we can achieve this without the "overhead" that a publication such as Speleology requires. Precisely what the content will be is still open to discussion and will depend, to a large extent, on what is contributed. As a minimum it will include field meeting reports, officers' annual reports (currently not produced) and a copy of our annual "Report and Accounts" to the Charity Commission. The first issue will clear the backlog of meetings reports from the last couple of years.

Sad news that we lose a very good semi regular printed publication although I can see the reasons. As for caving publications it is a shame we are just left with Descent this is a bit like losing the independent newspaper and finding only the Sun is available .

Andrew

AMW wrote:Sad news that we lose a very good semi regular printed publication although I can see the reasons. As for caving publications it is a shame we are just left with Descent this is a bit like losing the independent newspaper and finding only the Sun is available.Andrew

"Its a shame", yes, but that phrase doesnt really cut cut to the heart of the matter. The salient point is that there is apparently nobody available who is willing to produce a publication like Speleology. If such a person could be found then we could think again but, to be honest, I think both BCRA and BCA would take some convincing. Dont forget, its not only Speleology that has disappeared - the BCA Newsletter and BCA Handbook have also ceased publication because volunteers could not be found to produce them.

The good news is that because BCA is no longer providing any paper publications, it is cutting its DIM membership fee by £10 for 2016, with the obvious knock-on effect that the fee to join BCRA will drop by the same amount.

It is not true that the BCA Newsletter and BCA Handbook have ceased publication.

They are no longer being printed but will be published electronically.

We have a keen volunteer for the Newsletter and several edition have already been published on the website.

It is of course good news that publications are continuing on-line.

Andrew