Work is ongoing behind the scenes to get this ballot to happen (I would like to acknowledge the work that Cookie, Gary and Wendy are putting in here). More news in due course. If you have registered for BCA online to receive communications by email, then you will receive ballot information by email; if you have not then it will come by post.
Please register for BCA online and save us some postage: https://members.british-caving.org.uk/users/login
In the meantime for anyone who hasn’t a clue what this is all about, it relates to a proposal to remove the BCA’s current two house voting system, in which individual members (CIMs/DIMs) vote in one ‘house’ and BCA group members (clubs and constituent bodies) vote in another, both having to pass for motions to proceed. The proposal puts forward the necessary constitutional changes to remove the group vote meaning voting would be by all individual members only. Concurrently, it will become mandatory for the BCA to make voting more easily available to all individual members, involving an online ballot for all proposals run for a roughly one month period after the AGM.
Full details of the proposal can be found in the AGM agenda (page 28-34), and a discussion on the proposal (including arguments for and against) can be found in the AGM minutes (page 19-21), both of which are here:
https://british-caving.org.uk/wiki3/dok ... ings:start
This proposal was accepted with high majority in the house of individuals and just passed in the house of groups at the AGM on 9th June (70% majority is required for constitutional changes). It must achieve 70% support in both houses in the pending member ballot too. We know that there are very mixed opinions on this, so we urge all groups and individuals to start considering this matter now and to participate in the ballot when it happens.
Of course, although the direct role of clubs in voting would be removed if this proposal were accepted, there is nothing to stop clubs educating their members on upcoming BCA proposals, and lobbying their members to vote in a particular way. In fact, this kind of engagement and discussion is great! Therefore clubs would still be able to exert influence on BCA democracy (and in a way that is more proportional to their number of members), but the final voting decisions would come down to each individual member.