BCRA > Special Interest Groups > SIG Policy
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 17:02:23 +0000 To: BCRA Chairman, BCRA Secretary, BCRA Treasurer From: David Gibson Subject: BCRA SIGs - summary of discussion Nick, John, Julian The SIGs have now exhausted the discussion process that Council asked us to have. The results of this are as follows... The SIGs endorsed the list of proposals that Council agreed to adopt at the last meeting. Namely... ---------- begin list ----------- 1. That BCRA continues to support the concept of SIGs as groups of members with a common science interest 2. That BCRA continues to allow the SIGs to use the name 'BCRA' in their title, subject to certain guarantees, as at present 3. The members of a BCRA SIG must be individual members of BCA 4. That BCRA will investigate the possibility of providing similar services to the SIG members that it intends to provide to subscribers to C&KS - i.e. centralised collection of subscriptions, centralised printing and centralise mailing services. 5. That, because BCRA can now be more focussed as a science body, it looks at additional ways of supporting the work of the SIGs. ---------- end list ---------- Council specifically asked me to verify that point 3 was acceptable to the SIGs. It is. Council also asked me to pursue the idea of the SIGs becoming member clubs of BCA, possibly leading to a "recognised national body" status. There was little enthusiasm for this. SIGs may choose it, but they would still like the above route to be left open to them. I was asked to add some items to the above list of proposals. ---------- begin additions --------- 6. Can item (3) be in place, please, by 1/1/05 ? 7. Can BCRA confirm that "individual" means "DIM *or* CIM" ? 8. Can we add a proposal that "SIGs are eligible to apply for cave access permits". [My comment: I couldnt remember if CIMs were eligible to apply for permits. If they are, then this proposal is not needed. If they arent, then it is up to BCA to make this ruling for SIGs, I guess] 9. Can BCRA Council please confirm that, under the set of proposals given to BCRA, SIG officers would be considered to be BCRA officers (e.g. similar status to C&KS editor, Speleology editor) and therefore covered by the appropriate insurance) ? 10. For any SIG that does, at some stage, wish to pursue the "club member of BCA with club-activities insurance" route they would have to charge all their overseas members £6 for very little tangible benefit. The SIGs would therefore like a re-assurance that BCA will not object to overseas "subscribers", who are not "members". 11. For a SIG that goes down the "SIGs are groups of BCA members" route, they would like a "reassurance" from BCRA that, provided the SIG officers are members of BCA, there will be no objection to having "non- member subscribers". ---------- end additions ---------- I circulated the following table, which you might find of use, or wish to comment on. sig_options.pdf [note added 25/1/05: prices in that table refer to 2004. also there are a couple of updates. i) DIMs can now opt to be non-cavers. ii) club activities insurance might not apply to SIGs as "groups of BCA members" unless/until we get a written ruling from BCA.] -- David Gibson