The British Caving Association

In this newsletter...

• Hidden Earth Online Bookings
• Win free entry to Hidden Earth
• Hidden Earth: Call for Lectures/Workshops; new online form
• Hidden Earth: Photo and Video Salon updates
• Cave Studies Series Editor wanted
• BCRA Treasurer wanted

Hidden Earth Online Bookings
Hidden Earth - the annual caving conference organised by BCRA and BCA - will be on 25-27 September 2015 at Churchill Academy, Churchill, near Bristol. Apologies, but online bookings will be opening a little late this year - probably sometime this week and definitely by next Monday. Announcements will be made on at http://ukcaving.com and on the Hidden Earth forum at http://british-caving.org.uk/phpBB3/ when the booking form is available.

Win free entry to Hidden Earth
BCRA is looking for volunteers to man its stand at Hidden Earth. We are looking for four people, each willing to do a half-day stint over the weekend and, in return, we will REFUND your entry fee to the conference. (That means you pay your entry fee "as usual" and we refund you later). Your task will mainly be to sell our publications and answer simple enquiries. You need to be able to commit, in advance, to doing a specified full half-day session - i.e. not disappearing off to a lecture half-way through. If you want to take up this offer, email mailto:bcra-secretary@bcra.org.uk

Hidden Earth: Call for Lectures/Workshops; new online form
This year's lecture secretaries are Paula Grgich-Warke and Emma Porter. Contact details are at http://hidden-earth.org.uk/info/contact.html This year, there is an online form for you to use to register your interest in giving a lecture or workshop at the event. Go to http://hidden-earth.org.uk/forms/lectures

Hidden Earth: Changes to the Photo and Video Salons this year.

• Photo salon: digital entries must be uploaded in advance. You will not be able to deposit them on the day. Also, as last year, Photo Salon entries must be made in advance this year. There will be no entry on the day.
• Video Salon: the long (20 minute) competition will not take place. Shorter entries (10 mins) must be entered in advance and the media posted to the co-ordinator two weeks before the event. You will not be able to deposit your entries on the day.

Cave Studies Series Editor wanted
BCRA publishes an occasional series of booklets - the Cave Studies Series. For many years, Dave Judson was the Series editor. Dave has now stepped down and we are seeking a replacement. We do not want to be too prescriptive in what we are asking for and, rather than Editor, it may be that we are seeking a Project Manager. If you have book-editing skills and are interested in managing book publication projects, please read the description at http://bcra.org.uk/pub/cs_editor.html. We are looking for someone who is willing to take on a senior role that involves both managing the projects and doing most of the editing and layout work. Needless to say, there is no payment for this post.

BCRA Treasurer wanted
Our Treasurer, Dave Gough, has indicated that he would like to step down at the end of this year, so we are seeking a new treasurer for the Association. The treasurer is responsible for book-keeping, preparing the annual accounts and liaising with the Charity Commission. Even if you have no experience of the issues involved in being the Treasurer of a charity, it is still possible that you could help with the simpler task of book-keeping. It is also desirable for there to be a "hand-over" period. If you are interest in volunteering - at any level - please contact us as soon as possible.

David Gibson, BCRA Secretary

Web site: http://bcra.org.uk
Web forum: http://bcra.org.uk/forum
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1485495795064870
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bcra_speleology
Notices: http://list.bcra.org.uk

Some further August news items...

• Cave & Karst Science 42(2) now mailed
• Caves and Karst of the Yorkshire Dales: chapter 25
• Publicity Manager
• E-book Project Manager
• Council Members

Cave & Karst Science 42(2) now mailed
C&KS 42(2) has now been mailed and should arrive with subscribers some time next week. The online version is now available, at http://bcra.org.uk/cks


Caves and Karst of the Yorkshire Dales: chapter 25
August 2015 sees another chapter of this book completed ch.25 Caves around Malham and Settle by Phil Murphy. This particular chapter is a free download from http://bcra.org.uk/dales. Further chapters will be available during 2015 and, once they are all online, a paper edition of the book will be published.

In the last newsletter, I mentioned a couple of volunteers that we're looking for, namely Cave Studies Series Editor and A new Treasurer. Here are a couple more "vacancies" ...

Publicity Manager
We need someone to handle BCRA publicity. Specifically we need someone who can be relied on to keep the various online diaries, web forums and social media sites up-to-date with BCRA events. At present this is done on a slightly haphazard basis and we would like to recruit someone who can be relied on to approach the task promptly, imaginatively, and more comprehensively. (E.g. monitoring and responding to social media postings; creating content from the brief notes you will be issued with by Council members and possibly generating publicity on a wider front).

E-book Project Manager
We are looking for someone with the appropriate skills to manage the conversion of some of our web and printed book content to an E-book format such as EPUB. Additionally, we are wondering whether our PDF content should be converted to HTML for reading online, since PDF is not really an ideal online format, especially for the newer type of Internet-enabled devices. Possibly these tasks can be automated by running a conversion algorithm on a Postscript file? A third aspect of this project would be to present our "Cave & Karst Science Explained" texts in an appropriate e-format, with illustrations. (Follow the yellow stars on the Covers page at http://bcra.org.uk/pub/candks/covers.html for info about "Cave & Karst Science Explained"). This project will clearly need to move in whatever direction a volunteer wants to take it but - as a starting point - we "think" we need to start looking at EPUB format and "file converters".

Council Members
You do not need to be a member of BCRA Council to fill any of the above posts (apart from Treasurer, of course), but it would probably help if you were; and it would be good for us to recruit new Council members from time to time. As a Council member you would be a trustee of the charity. If you think you might be interested, please see the nomination notice at http://bcra.org.uk/agm/2015/index.html#nominations and contact myself, or chairman John Gunn (mailto:bcra-chairman@bcra.org.uk) for further information.