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

Kate Callaghan (KC) – Social Secretary

Hugh Sanderson (HS) – Postgraduate Secretary

Jonathan White (JW) – Climbing Secretary

Matthew Rochester (MR)- Treasurer

Laura Bosomworth (LB) – Welfare and Inclusivity Officer

Alex Everest (AE)– Climbing Secretary

Sebastien Morales Feliu (SMF) – Web Secretary

Conor Smith (CS) – Gear Secretary

Harley Beattie (HB) – Voting Member

Item

Original item date

Brief description of original issue + update

Further action required from

7

20^th August

New SU Sport membership

BUMC/SU Sport members

2 membership lists in semester 1, prospective and full. Prospective members were covered under SU sport membership for £20 and full members needed to pay an additional £5 but were insured and able to access gear and trips etc. Prospective memberships are now starting to expire as they are only valid for 3 months.

Update – semester 2 policy

Prospective and full memberships have been extended and over Christmas the lists were merged and some members were lost, so we need to sort out those members who have been lost and get them reinstated. Also need to ask to keep the 2 separate membership lists to make it easier later in semester.

How do we deal with prospective and full members and how do we want to run memberships this year?

Keep it as in semester 1 so prospective membership is free and then charge £5 for any trips we can run or for members to pay the £5 for full memberships.

No need for BMC membership presently as there is likely to be few in-person activities this semester. Advertisement of the membership going forward needs to include reinforcement of the lack of in person events and that if they want to pay £5 this wont get them much at the minute, other than gear and potential in person events. If members would lie to borrow kit then they can pay the £5 for the rest of semester.

Need to ensure that people who have already paid £5 last semester are still getting something for their money, but that they are aware that we are unable to do much of the in person activities covered by the full membership.

JM to contact IT to get them reinstated

13

22^nd September

Budget
 

What is left? How are we going to spend it?

Currently have plans to spend all of the gear budget (£440 left) which Conor will spend. £200 on maintenance which mostly includes gear. £750 left for insurance. £1040 in our activities budget (-invoice from Ollie Mentz, unsure on amount). No strict allocations but this is roughly what we have left.

Reduced budgets for next year likely need to be careful that if we don’t spend any of our budget this year then we may have our budget slashed next year, which we don’t want, as if in person events resume we will need that money. Therefore, ideally we should spend most of our budget wherever possible, which will also show that the members are getting something for their money. Can spend some money on guest speakers, online socials (if possible), gear etc.

However, it shouldn’t be hard to convince the SU that we need our usual budget next year as we can clearly show that we haven’t been able to spend it this year due to lack of in person activities.  

MR and JM to discuss with Tom Sawko about paying larger deposits and about online socials

MR to follow up Ollie Mentz for invoice

16

22^nd September

Alumni fund application

Alumni fund has given us £540 so we will order 18 pairs of beginner climbing shoes and we don’t need to match the amount we have been given

Update  

We will order these in the next couple months but don’t need to worry about this now as no in person activities.

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.

Update from sub-group of committee?

Talks attended in Jan time and LB has created an inclusivity awards action plan.

Action plan formalises what we are already doing and identifies 3 groups to focus on – Black and ethnic minority issues, distance learners and people from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Black and ethnic minority issues – need to ensure our promotional stuff includes people from different backgrounds, and use social media to educate and organise colour up Bristol collab (if possible)

Distance learners - Weekly S+c sessions, socials on discord and training sessions which can be accessed anywhere

Low socioeconomic backgrounds – using alumni fund to buy climbing shoes that anyone can use to make climbing cheaper, free activities inc. walks and orienteering training. Advertisement of gear hire from the club for free to reduce costs of trips etc.

Update

Committee support ‘equal access for refugees and asylum seekers’ campaign written by the Bath amnesty society which is being put forward to the uni to ask them to provide 2 scholarships for refugees and asylum seekers

LB and subgroup of committee to implement action plan

23

8^th October

Bath City Race - Fundraiser with BOK

Orienteering event in Bathampton down, at the end of February that we could help with in order to increase awareness and raise some funds, providing we go through RAG and provide an on the day team to help out (10-15 people), coordinating welcome, check in, parking etc.

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. 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.

Update

CANCELLED – need to see what happens with regards to that and future dates.

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. Courses were supposed to be rearranged for November but due to lockdown they haven’t been able to go ahead.

26

5^th November

Club gear

Options are:

New constant climbing (small climbing brand with mountaineer on a Bath themed thing) t-shirt - ~£10-15 if ~20 people buy them. Good to be affordable due to fewer dedicated members.

Fleece/soft shell – John Moore sports? (~£15-16 spent previously and can get them with embroidery, could do a discount if you approach them nicely) Regatta used before?

Beanies – can get a plain 1 or 2 colour beanie with BUMC embroidered on but anything more complex than that has a minimum order of 30-50 and costs expensive

Update

Constant climbing t-shirt designed and order form has gone out to club for purchase

CS to organise orders etc.

28

3^rd December

Update on BOF affiliation

British orienteering sorting affiliation so we should be affiliated by January. As KE and JM are not members of British Orienteering then we cannot register this with them so we have just used the British Orienteering members from BUMC committee instead. Need at least 3 people on committee who are members of the British orienteering in the future.

31

3^rd December

Plans for semester 2

Update – lockdown friendly activities for the next few weeks

Those in bath this semester Harley, Rob, Kai, Conor, Will, Hugh, Jon Mitchinson

Those not returning/not sure – Jon White, Beth, Kate E

Need to organise some talks – aim for 1 per month e.g. K2 winter summiters, Jesse Dufton, David Coley.

Going to continue to put out walks once a week.

Discord weekly socials continuing and can plan some actual activities e.g. escape rooms, Netflix watch party, among us etc. as better engagement with properly organised socials, especially when used as a contrast to the normal casual socials. Aim to organise more formalised socials every other week? Could tie into AGM a meet the committee session on zoom where they can chat to us about roles as well.  

Virtual orienteering events to continue as decent engagement with these over the Christmas period, and beneficial for the development of those new to orienteering, which will be useful in future BUCS etc. Potential to do some online sessions where possible if there is some space? Don’t want to overcrowd the online stuff, but there is some distinction amongst the club so might be good to organise some online sessions.

Weekly strength and conditioning sessions will continue throughout 2^nd semester as well.

Hard to do anything relating to climbing during lockdown but hopefully if restrictions ease later in the semester then we could get some small groups going to Sally in the Woods or elsewhere to go climbing.

Update

Plans for some talks – currently AGM to be on the 4^th March, and hustings on the 18^th March

Aim for a orienteering talk for the 23^rd Feb by Cecilia (GB runner) and aim to schedule some more talks in for every 3 weeks so 9^th March – David Coley and aim for 6^th April – Jesse Dufton?

Possible other talks – walking gear/layering, wild camping, BUMC alumni

AGM

BMC has a corporate zoom account we can use, but also could use teams as that has all of the members on.

Charity event

Collaboration with athletics – create group and see how far we can ascend in a week

RAG usually set up a group fundraiser on virgin money that we direct people to  

Charities put forward for vote - Julian House (homelessness and domestic violence) or Baths dividon of Mind or Patterdale mountain rescue/Mountain rescue England and Wales G

Good to have something mountaineering themed to encourage participation, however need to be conscious that we are collaborating with athletics so don’t want to deter them

Could split the money so half goes to mountain rescue and then athletics could choose the other half

Vote – 9 for all to Patterdale mountain rescue and 3 for split between Patterdale mountain rescue and another charity

RC to contact Adriana Brownlee about K2 summiters

HB to contact David Coley about talk

JM to reach out to Jesse Dufton to arrange talk

BK to arrange talk with Cecilia

RC and BK to organise charity event with athletics

32

28/1/21

Attracting new committee members

Going to be difficult as there generally committee is made up largely of 2^nd years, but they haven’t had the same level of involvement and engagement as we have had previously.

Considerations – Who from committee will still be here next year? Who is coming back? Any freshers we can target/talk to about coming to events and running for committee?

Starting to fill in a spreadsheet for some roles we have ideas about.

Other things to consider - Any roles that could be delegated after the time/combined that are less intrinsic to the running of the club? E.g. BUCS coordinator could not be on committee but could just be a normal member nominated after the team selection or could be the climbing sec. Could voting member be available in the bi-election so then people can run if we have filled all of the other committee roles later in the year as more ideal to fill the other roles first. Could also have just 1 walking and climbing sec? Could combine social and web sec?

Seminar on building back the club post covid at the start of February run by the SU.

Item

Discussion/Description

Action required from

33

Pre-AGM survey

We usually do a survey asking what people have liked and what people haven’t liked etc. - Could integrate it in with an inclusivity

Need it to go out 2 weeks before AGM – aim for the end of next week

 JM and LB? to organise

34

BMC rebuilding clubs post COVID

BMC held a talk with all clubs about issues faced this year and how BMC can help

Main topics:

- Training in lockdown and loss/fading of skills – usually done by hiring of local guides to train committee or training at the start of the year to get people up to speed but obviously that isn’t happening this year –

- Linking up with alumni, local clubs and other committees more so they can collaborate e.g. more seminars/webinars – facebook page has little use

- Student club specific COVID guides as opposed to the guides that have gone out to the general public

- Recruitment and retention rates – not very much that can be done?

We seem to have done quite well in comparison to other clubs in terms of recruitment and in terms of budget  

Associate member for those who are local to Bath who can trad lead or drive vehicles may be useful next year as it enables those who are local but no longer at uni to come back and help

Key thing for us is need to ensure we have documented how to do things and ensure we can have a proper handover next year e.g. with booking transport, trip planning etc. as nobody will have any experience with that

Also first aid training etc. which may need to be done over the summer before freshers trip although not sure about access to budget

Hopefully so long as we are able to learn skills and do more things next year, we shouldn’t have too many issues as we usually have a good retention of members and we will be able to learn things next year if we can do more in person activities. We also have graduating members of committee who we can call on