Participants

Absent

Jonathan Mitchinson (JM) – Chair

Kate Evans (KE) – Secretary

Rob Cook (RC) – Walking Secretary

Will Jones (WJ) – Walking Secretary

Bethany Kippin (BK) – Orienteering Secretary

Kai Pheasant (KP) – BUCS Captain

Sebastien Morales Feliu (SMF) – Web Secretary

Conor Smith (CS) – Gear Secretary

Kate Callaghan (KC) – Social Secretary

Hugh Sanderson (HS) – Postgraduate Secretary

Matthew Rochester (MR)- Treasurer

Laura Bosomworth (LB) – Welfare and Inclusivity Officer

Harley Beattie (HB) – Voting Member

Jonathan White (JW) – Climbing Secretary

Alex Everest (AE)– Climbing Secretary

Item

Original item date

Brief description of original issue + update

Further action required from

13

22^nd September

Budget
 

Potential reallocation of activities budget to gear budget as we want to do things more local so less budget needed but we need more gear if we are running things locally.

No further update.

14

22^nd September

Plans for trips/semester activities?

Outdoor climbing?

Potential to get bus to Sally in the woods, with personal cars taking boulder pads, and with rocks behind campus. Issue with weather, daylight hours and planning anything in advance.

Learn to belay

Offer from TCA – 4 hour learn to belay course for £40 and months membership included in it (£39 by itself). Only issue is that the people have to be from the same household.

Currently asked for 12 spaces initially so waiting for reply. Need to find someone that you want to learn with and run 6 signups as TCA have said that you need to live with the person that you learn with – hopefully weekly climbing thread will help with meeting people. Will be run on Wednesday afternoon, but more info needed from TCA re: committee members escorting them etc.

Follow up about organisation of outdoor climbing?

2 possible lines around the back of campus so could try to arrange for 31^st Saturday morning with rotating groups of 4 there for an hour (with half an hour either side to get there and back) with AE and JW belaying as intro to outdoor climbing. Limitations of kit as can’t clean it; it has to be quarantined.

Increasing walk capacity 

Potential to trial running a slightly larger walk (8-10), but it is harder to maintain social distancing and risk of public perception of us, especially if the groups are bigger than 6. Ideally still have 4 groups as harder to run more groups on same route, and limits on number of leaders available. Need for more volunteers to run walks.

Instead, could give a step by step guide of the route so that people can go off and do walks of their own accord. Could organise groups of 6 to go out and be on campus seeing them off, and then give out phone number of a walking sec or another committee member so that if they get really stuck, they can ring us.

Activities rota?

Plan to set up a table that we can enter our names in to for events that we are happy to assist with. Need to ensure competency and that we have read risk assessment for the activities.

Update – all on hold due to lockdown

JW to liaise with TCA and discuss advertising

AE and JW to organise outdoor climbing

16

22^nd September

Alumni fund application

Reallocation of activities budget to gear budget so will apply for a dozen pair of new climbing shoes, of which we will pay £180 and ask for £180 from them.

CS to apply for alumni fund

20

8^th October

Inclusivity

Identification of need to raise awareness and engagement with resources, starting with committee and then working outwards, so that the environment in the club is welcoming, as history of culture in mountaineering being problematic for those from underprivileged backgrounds.

Can we liaise with race equality and SU diversity groups to do this, rather than having to start from scratch? Potential for financial subsidy from SU to help with inclusivity?

Update from sub-group of committee?

SMF, BK and KP to work on educating committee and BUMC about black and ethnic minority issues, through provision of information and sharing of posts etc. with an aim to focus on equity not equality. Plan is to attend a colour up Bristol session and hope is to open this up to the wider club later.

Feedback form to go out at the end of the month for us to act on before the end of the year.

Subgroup of committee to try to organise some actual events by the next meeting

KP to go to colour up Bristol meeting on Monday, and post saying that he’s going and anyone who wants to can go with him

23

8^th October

Bath City Race - Fundraiser with BOK

Orienteering event that we could help with and BOK can give us the funds made from it for the club, which we are able to use for our activities, providing we go through RAG.

We have checked to ensure that it is viable, and have emailed to see what is possible. Waiting to hear back about what they are happy for us to help with.

Bathampton down orienteering event

We can help organise an event in the end of February in Bathampton down, which they have the permissions for. Provisional yes that we can get some money from this (depending on how many people we can provide for an on the day team (ideally 10-15) so they have to provide fewer people). Our team would be coordinating welcome, check in, parking etc. so not too much effort  and good in terms of relationships with BOK so would be good to help them out, and we could get a large proportion of money from this. Money is less of an issue at the moment, but should increase involvement in the club and growth of orienteering in this year and future years. Good in terms of location as it is near uni so good to increase numbers and raise awareness about orienteering and no travel involved. Hopeful that it will still happen (COVID permitting). Potential alternative to a trip as well.

Given the go ahead so plan is to send out some feeders to see who would be willing to volunteer. Need to liaise with the SU and start organising.

BK to coordinate with BOK and SU

24

8^th October

First aid training

Contact with Matt Price (organises SU first aid training). Extension for expiry of certificates providing employer (SU) has shown that we are trying to rearrange ASAP training.

Update

Person who organises courses is now back at work and hoping to get courses to restart in November.

Item

Discussion/Description

Action required from

26

Club gear

Thoughts of doing some gear to offer people so they can feel like they are part of the club. For now, can order the SU sport Under Armour stuff with mountaineering on, then later on in semester we can do some of the club specific stuff later in the year. Company in Bath that we can get a discount on when we order over a specific amount.

27

Lockdown

Online offer and keeping the club active

Need to maintain some regular activity in club, which is structured and planned, not just giving them things to do. Also aim to increase committee attendance, as hopefully this will encourage other members of the club to engage.

Big issue is 1^st year disconnect as they don’t know how to meet people so they are struggling, so could put in buddy system and individual checking in with newer members by committee and older club members.

Consistency is KEY – invite people individually to things if you have engaged with them and know them, and keep things on the same days so people know

People find putting themselves out there on a teams channel is harder so engagement could be low. Idea is to sign up on a google form with who they are, where they are, what they want to do and timings that suit them and then pair them off, and give them an activity to do. Can see how many people sign up as if its fewer people then can check in with everyone, but if it is larger then may need to make a family system of 5/6 members who we can check in with and they can sort themselves out a bit more. This system also enables engagement with individuals as we know who wants to engage but is struggling to.

Online sessions

Need to make sure we are putting all the information on the google calendar, ideally 2 weeks in advance, so we can sufficiently advertise events on the ‘whats on’ page of the website and social media (ideally the main one rather than the internal one as this means events are definitely confirmed). Need to consider what we are wanting to get out of the club and the training sessions, and what the current older members would like to get out of the club to increase engagement and attendance, as currently lots of effort going into the engagement with freshers but we are losing the engagement of some of our current members.

S+C still happening on a Monday.

Plan for a gear night – Q+A type panel about what kit to get etc. and Dicks have offered a week extra online discount that we can use.

Socials

Discord pub or virtual social on a Thursday. Potential to expand this if we want to either add another event or change the day. Easy to not go when its online but this is applicable to most days of the week, as people are always busy throughout the week so we need to try to encourage as many people as possible to turn up, starting with committee. Smaller socials may be less intimidating and more personal, but we don’t want to separate out sports as this contradicts our aim to try to unite it all together.

Need to make virtual feel personal i.e. focus taken away from the interaction e.g. quizzes, online escape rooms, online Pictionary etc. Could do a watch party of a climbing film or favourite mountaineering youtube videos, as this might draw people in and then can chat afterwards. Could have different channels on discord for different things or arrange individual events. Ideally not netflix parties etc. where there is no engagement

Walking

Putting walks up on the website and on Instagram of where to go on a specific day (potential easy step by step routes around Bath, not just a map) and saying that you can take photos and send them in to be put on social media etc.

Potential for a scavenger hunt - similar to night hike but not an event, you can just go around and do it with 1 other person

Orienteering

Virtual Bath hill races still going with running and athletics.

Virtual BOK races on an app that we can use and promote. This has races and a maps that you can download and print, and then the app GPS tracks and times you as you go to the checkpoints then enters you into a leaderboard with others who have done that route. We can do something similar and make our own routes on campus and in the city, and then BOK have offered to make some routes and update the maps of uni on their app.

Potential to do an informal talk on how to plan orienteering events – maybe not enough interest for the Tuesday online sessions but could be done at some point

Climbing

Trad climbing, some advanced rope work e.g. putting up a top rope, anchor building etc. virtual teaching sessions which could be run by anyone in the club or could pay someone to do this for us. Need to be careful that people are not then going out and just trying things without being actually trained - no learn to belay etc.

Could do information package about how to get to outside climbing places for those who are able, but not able to offer any leagues etc. as not accessible.