News; November 2016

[David Gibson]

New Publication: BCRA Review
The BCRA Review for 2015 (48 pages + cover; full colour) was published online on 21 Oct and was available on paper at the BCRA Cave Science Symposium. The Review is available as a free download from our news page, http://bcra.org.uk/news . This is a new publication that appears annually, before our AGM, and contains reports of the previous year's activities, together with annual reports from BCRA officers and a copy of our annual report and accounts that we send to the Charity Commission. It is edited by David Lowe in a similar format to Cave and Karst Science. The first issue of the BCRA Review covers the year 2015, but it also includes meetings reports from earlier years that did not make it into Speleology before that ceased publication.
The Review is primarily an online publication anfd so only a limited number of paper copies will be printed, which will be offered for sale at meetings, whilst stocks last (price £5). Please note that we will NOT be posting this item to members, although we will be sending a free copy to each Member Club (those that receive C&KS on paper) and to our overseas Journal Exchange partners. That mailing should take place by the end of November. Anyone wishing to receive a paper copy, who cannot attend one of our meetings (or if we have sold out of stock) can order one from the online print-on-demand service lulu.com. See http://bcra.org.uk/news

Membership and Subscription Fees for 2017
Fees are to be held at the 2016 levels for next year. BCRA Council has allocated additional funds to Cave & Karst Science so that, from volume 35(1) in April 2017, it will be printed in full colour. (At the moment, only about a third of the pages are printed in colour).

Council Members for 2017
Dave Checkley has decided to step down from Council at the end of this year. Dave has held a number of posts in BCRA over the years. He was our chairman for five years, and before that, our President. Also, some time ago, he did a stint as Foreign Secretary. In recent years he has made a valuable contribution to the running of the British Caving Library. Replacing him on Council will be Les Williams, who - as many will know - is the manager of the Hidden Earth annual caving conference. Apart from existing Council members, no other nominations were received by the deadline of 30 September so the number of nominations does not exceed the number of places on Council and there is no need for a postal ballot. Les will take up his post on 1 Jan 2017.