BCRA NEWSLETTER JUNE 2024
Posted: Wed 10 Jul 2024 08:57
BCRA NEWSLETTER JUNE 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
• Information on the rest of this year’s seminar programme
• Hidden Earth dates announced
• The 2024 BCRA Cave & Karst Science Symposium and AGM
• Changes to BCRA membership system
• CSTRF grants
• IT support
• Data breach
• Next Council Meeting
• Supporting BCRA
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. For further information, including details of how to log on see bcra.org.uk/seminars. Any Last-minute changes to the programme will be posted to our Facebook site
The Hidden Earth Annual conference will take place on the weekend of the 20th-23rd September at Pafiliwn Llangollen Pavilion, Abbey Rd, Llangollen LL20 8SW, UK HIDDEN EARTH: the National Caving Conference. From Friday evening till Sunday afternoon. For further information please see the Hidden Earth website
The 2024 BCRA Cave & Karst Science Symposium and AGM will take place on Sat 12 Oct, 09:30 to 17:00 at Northumbria University, this will be a live event but, hopefully, we will be able to stream it live via Zoom.
The symposium will be hosted by Chloe Snowling and Prof. Mike Rogerson at the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The programme of oral and poster presentations will be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more about cave and karst research and the underground environment. This year we are excited to announce our keynote speaker, BCRA alumna and British cave explorer Prof. Gina Moseley.
The symposium will be followed by an interactive monitoring workshop on Sunday 13th October.
The call for abstracts is open until 31st August. Further details, including registration and abstract submission, are available in the 1st circular, on the BCRA forum: viewtopic.php?t=1696 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.
The 2024 Annual General Meeting of the BCRA will take place at the end of the morning session on the 12th October. Motions to be proposed at the AGM and Nominations for Officers and Members of Council should be submitted prior to the meeting, with the full agenda published three weeks prior to the meeting. For further details on deadlines and the agenda please visit bcra.org.uk/agm.
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. 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.. Further information and how to apply is available at the following link on the BCRA website https://bcra.org.uk/researchfund/
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
Data breach
The following information will be sent to all members effected
On July 1, the BCA and BCRA became aware that some personal data was exposed to the public via the internet. This was investigated immediately and rectified within the hour. It is likely that the data was visible for some weeks, possibly from the beginning of May. We are bringing this to your attention because some of your personal information was included in this data. We do not believe this will have serious consequences, but we want to make you aware of it.
The exposed data is from a summary of membership payments made via Paypal for BCA's DIM members since 2020. It includes only name, email address, postal address, a Paypal identifier and the amount paid. It does not include any passwords, card numbers, dates of birth or other sensitive information.
The data was exposed as the result of an accident and not by malicious action. If it had been the result of a malicious attack, it would be likely to be in the hands of criminals with an intent to misuse it. This would only be the case here if they had happened to carry out a search, using Google or a similar search engine, for some of the information. We believe this is unlikely.
If, however, your data has come into the hands of a malicious person, they might deduce that you had a connection to the BCA or BCRA and attempt to ‘phish’ for more of your information.
Therefore, please be aware of the possibility of phishing emails purporting to come from the BCA or BCRA, perhaps referring to a membership payment and asking for personal details such as a bank account number or password. Neither the BCA nor BCRA will do this.
We are, however, moving to a new membership system managed on our behalf by JustGo. You can verify that this message is genuinely from BCA by checking for a similar message on our website at:
https://british-caving.org.uk/data-breach-dims/
Phishing emails are particularly dangerous on phones where it is not always possible to see the true address of a web site you are being asked to visit. You always need to be vigilant and aware of possible phishing attacks. For more information on phishing see the UK National Cyber Security Centre’s website: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/phis ... spot-scams
BCA and BCRA sincerely apologise for any trouble caused. We have taken steps to make sure this kind of situation does not occur again. If you have any concerns or questions please contact the BCRA or BCA via secretary [at] bcra.org.uk or dataprotection [at] british-caving.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 lack 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 July 2024 and an apology for this newsletter being late as the forum has not been available
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
• Information on the rest of this year’s seminar programme
• Hidden Earth dates announced
• The 2024 BCRA Cave & Karst Science Symposium and AGM
• Changes to BCRA membership system
• CSTRF grants
• IT support
• Data breach
• Next Council Meeting
• Supporting BCRA
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. For further information, including details of how to log on see bcra.org.uk/seminars. Any Last-minute changes to the programme will be posted to our Facebook site
The Hidden Earth Annual conference will take place on the weekend of the 20th-23rd September at Pafiliwn Llangollen Pavilion, Abbey Rd, Llangollen LL20 8SW, UK HIDDEN EARTH: the National Caving Conference. From Friday evening till Sunday afternoon. For further information please see the Hidden Earth website
The 2024 BCRA Cave & Karst Science Symposium and AGM will take place on Sat 12 Oct, 09:30 to 17:00 at Northumbria University, this will be a live event but, hopefully, we will be able to stream it live via Zoom.
The symposium will be hosted by Chloe Snowling and Prof. Mike Rogerson at the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The programme of oral and poster presentations will be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more about cave and karst research and the underground environment. This year we are excited to announce our keynote speaker, BCRA alumna and British cave explorer Prof. Gina Moseley.
The symposium will be followed by an interactive monitoring workshop on Sunday 13th October.
The call for abstracts is open until 31st August. Further details, including registration and abstract submission, are available in the 1st circular, on the BCRA forum: viewtopic.php?t=1696 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.
The 2024 Annual General Meeting of the BCRA will take place at the end of the morning session on the 12th October. Motions to be proposed at the AGM and Nominations for Officers and Members of Council should be submitted prior to the meeting, with the full agenda published three weeks prior to the meeting. For further details on deadlines and the agenda please visit bcra.org.uk/agm.
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. 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.. Further information and how to apply is available at the following link on the BCRA website https://bcra.org.uk/researchfund/
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
Data breach
The following information will be sent to all members effected
On July 1, the BCA and BCRA became aware that some personal data was exposed to the public via the internet. This was investigated immediately and rectified within the hour. It is likely that the data was visible for some weeks, possibly from the beginning of May. We are bringing this to your attention because some of your personal information was included in this data. We do not believe this will have serious consequences, but we want to make you aware of it.
The exposed data is from a summary of membership payments made via Paypal for BCA's DIM members since 2020. It includes only name, email address, postal address, a Paypal identifier and the amount paid. It does not include any passwords, card numbers, dates of birth or other sensitive information.
The data was exposed as the result of an accident and not by malicious action. If it had been the result of a malicious attack, it would be likely to be in the hands of criminals with an intent to misuse it. This would only be the case here if they had happened to carry out a search, using Google or a similar search engine, for some of the information. We believe this is unlikely.
If, however, your data has come into the hands of a malicious person, they might deduce that you had a connection to the BCA or BCRA and attempt to ‘phish’ for more of your information.
Therefore, please be aware of the possibility of phishing emails purporting to come from the BCA or BCRA, perhaps referring to a membership payment and asking for personal details such as a bank account number or password. Neither the BCA nor BCRA will do this.
We are, however, moving to a new membership system managed on our behalf by JustGo. You can verify that this message is genuinely from BCA by checking for a similar message on our website at:
https://british-caving.org.uk/data-breach-dims/
Phishing emails are particularly dangerous on phones where it is not always possible to see the true address of a web site you are being asked to visit. You always need to be vigilant and aware of possible phishing attacks. For more information on phishing see the UK National Cyber Security Centre’s website: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/phis ... spot-scams
BCA and BCRA sincerely apologise for any trouble caused. We have taken steps to make sure this kind of situation does not occur again. If you have any concerns or questions please contact the BCRA or BCA via secretary [at] bcra.org.uk or dataprotection [at] british-caving.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 lack 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 July 2024 and an apology for this newsletter being late as the forum has not been available