BCRA NEWSLETTER MAY 2024

[SHEARSMITH]

BCRA NEWSLETTER MAY 2024

Our Social media news outlets...
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/groups/britishcaver
• BCRA News forum: http://bcra.org.uk/forum
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/bcra_speleology
• UK Caving http://ukcaving.com/board/?board=86.0

In this newsletter
• Next online seminar via zoom
• Information on the rest of this year’s seminar programme
• The 2024 BCRA Cave & Karst Science Symposium and AGM
• Changes to BCRA membership system
• CSTRF grants
• Hidden Earth Scientific Photographic Competition
• IT support
• Next Council Meeting
• Supporting BCRA

The next online seminar is on Monday 10th June, 19.30 to 21.00 via Zoom
What do karst and Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx) have in common? with Spela Conc, Anton Melik Geographical Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia. For further information, including details of how to log on, see bcra.org.uk/seminars. Last-minute changes to the programme will be posted to our Facebook page

Information on the rest of this year’s seminar programme
There will be a break in July and August, but the Seminars will start again in September with Ruairidh Macleod:{ r [at] palaeome.org} as the new organiser so if you have suggestions for speakers, please send them to him.

The 2024 BCRA Cave & Karst Science Symposium and AGM will take place on Sat 12 Oct, 09:30 to 17:00 at Northumbria University, hosted by Mike Rogerson. This will be a live event but, hopefully, we will be able to stream it live via Zoom. Further information, including a timetable, abstracts, and directions to the venue will be available later in the year on the BCRA News forum. Last-minute info will be posted to our Facebook page.

Changes to the BCRA membership system
The move to the Just Go system is well underway, however with all new systems there can initially be teething problems so we would be grateful for members patience during this transition. Further information will follow when the new system is launched in June You will also notice that we are no longer issuing plastic cards when you receive your new membership information.

Cave Science and Technology Research Fund Grants
The fund was established in 2006 and since then over £85,000 has been awarded to a wide range of projects. The objective of the fund is to raise interest in caves and to further our understanding of them and the technologies employed to enter and explore them. The BCRA Cave Science policy focuses on four major themes: speleogenesis (including hydrogeology), archaeology/palaeontology, biology and technology. However worthwhile projects in other areas of research will also be considered. At the core of our intentions is a desire to make the caving community and the scientific community more aware of the scientific importance of caves - and the synergy between exploration and science. It is a requirement of awards that the findings of the research be published in a BCRA journal and recipients are encouraged to present their results at a BCRA Cave Science Symposium and/or the national caving conference, Hidden Earth. Further information and how to apply is available at the following link on the BCRA website https://bcra.org.uk/researchfund/

Volunteers required to manage the Hidden Earth Cave Science Photographic Competition
One of the categories in the Hidden Earth photo salon is “Cave Science” but this was not a competition category in 2023 due in part to an absence of volunteers prepared to organise and manage the award. If there is to be an award at HE2024 we need a group of people prepared to manage the process. This would mean devising a set of rules and administering / judging the award. BCRA Council and the HE Team will assist but we do need an enthusiastic group to make this happen. Please contact the secretary of BCRA if you are interested in organising this aspect of the photo salon: bcra-secretary [at] bcra.org.uk

IT support – volunteers needed!
At the May meeting, Council accepted a recommendation from the IT team that BCRA migrate its web services to a new server, separate from BCA, and approved additional expenditure (over and above the existing IT budget) of up to £250/y to support this. David Cooke (BCRA IT Manager) and the IT team (all of whom are unpaid volunteers) have already started work on the transfer and would welcome support from members who have experience with IT / web services. They have also identified tasks that could be undertaken by anyone with basic skills and which would ease the load. If you feel that you can assist, please contact the secretary: bcra-secretary [at] bcra.org.uk

The next council meeting will be held on Sunday 7th July at 10.30-1600 at the British Caving Library Glutton Bridge.

Supporting BCRA.
Members will note that there has been a paucity of field meetings since the end of Covid restrictions and we encourage anyone willing to organise a meeting to contact the secretary. Further information regarding supporting BCRA is available at the following link https://bcra.org.uk/volunteer/index.html

The next newsletter will be at the end of June 2024