Participants

Absent

Jonathan Mitchinson (JM) – Chair

Kate Evans (KE) – Secretary

Rob Cook (RC) – Walking Secretary

Will Jones (WJ) – Walking Secretary

Kate Callaghan (KC) – Social Secretary

Hugh Sanderson (HS) – Postgraduate Secretary

Jonathan White (JW) – Climbing Secretary

Sebastien Morales Feliu (SMF) – Web Secretary

Laura Bosomworth (LB) – Welfare and Inclusivity Officer

Conor Smith (CS) – Gear Secretary

Harley Beattie (HB) – Voting Member

Alex Everest (AE)– Climbing Secretary

Matthew Rochester (MR)- Treasurer

Bethany Kippin (BK) – Orienteering Secretary

Kai Pheasant (KP) – BUCS Captain

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, and we have asked 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?

Decided to 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 includes reinforcement of the lack of in person events and that if they want to pay £5 this won’t get them much at the minute, other than gear and potential in person events. If members would like to borrow kit then they can pay the £5 for the rest of semester.

Also 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.

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.  

Update re: SU budget and socials

Not allowed to spend budget on online socials. Out fo committee, 5 people would be interested in attending a paid social, but 7 people wouldn’t.  

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

MR to follow up Ollie Mentz for invoice

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.

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.

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.

31

3^rd December

Plans for semester 2

Update – lockdown friendly activities for the next few weeks

Going to continue to put out walks once a week.

Discord weekly socials continuing and can plan some organised 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?

Going to also tie a meet the committee session into AGM where people can chat to us about roles as well.  

Virtual orienteering events to continue as decent engagement, 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?

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.

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

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  

Decided to raise money for Patterdale mountain rescue

Update - Speakers

Jesse Dufton has agreed to do a talk just before Easter (15^th April) but would prefer to do it sooner

Ideas for future talks:

Karen Dark – para-athlete and paralympian who does lots of charity challenges etc. although not sure about price

Decided against recordings as reduce attendance as people have less motivation to actually turn up, and hard to control where recordings go after so speakers may be reluctant to agree to recordings

Update of charity event

Complexities re: what we are allowed to fundraise for with RAG – is Chris Lewis fund registered as enough of a  charity for RAG to give them money?

Could see if we are allowed to transfer money to Patterdale mountain rescue as a whole and then tell them what we would like them to do with the money

If unable to give it to Patterdale mountain rescue, then we can just raise money for RAG’s Big4

RC and BK to organise charity event with athletics

KC to put out poll to see who would be interested in an online paid social

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? Changes to roles?

Seminar on building back the club post COVID-19 at the start of February run by the SU.

Proposed that we will hang around after AGM, as we will have mentioned what our role is already, and they can ask us anything they want, and we can say that they can contact us directly if they want etc.

33

10^th February

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

Update

Pre-AGM survey completed and ready to go out

JM to send out pre-AGM survey

34

10^th February

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

Item

Discussion/Description

Action required from

35

Return to organised sports plans

Rule of 6 and return of formalised sport returns on the 29^th March so we need to organise something

12^th April gyms and indoor sports should reopen but no indoor organised sports?

Rough plan for a night hike type event later in semester

Aim to run a climbing event to Sally in the Woods but would need people to lead groups getting there on the bus, and some personal cars to get the mats etc. out to Sally. Hopefully later in the semester could try to get a trip running to Avon but harder to get there without organised transport.

Aim to run a walk a bit further afield if possible with public transport

Could encourage people to take their LFD testing on campus to ensure safety of events

RC and WJ to organise a walking trip

AE and JW to organise a climbing event and put rough dates on the internal calendar

36

Blues awards nominations

Only Blues awards we can nominate for are colours, and you need to have done BUCS for 3 years to do that but we haven’t had BUCS this year.

Changes to nomination criteria this year due to COVID.

Need to look into recognition for elite athletes such as Cecilia

Club of the year applications also within this, so we should apply for this.

37

AGM

Can be attended by people on placement, just need to sort out links to the teams/zoom meeting

Agenda

Finance update – £3000 left and can explain why we haven’t spent any of it, ideas on what we can spend it on?

Discussion about what next year might look like and the implications of this year on that – our impressions on what is likely/what is not likely for next year e.g. deposits down for trips so providing regulations they can go ahead, but also mention concerns re: transport and experience in the club

Committee roles:

13 votes (2 not present) to propose removing BUCS captain to be a non committee role for both sectors (climbing and orienteering) so the secretaries can organise the trials, and the captains can be a nominated member of the team. They can be invited to committee meetings if they are needed but minimal role in actual committee affairs. Discussion that BUCS co-ordinator role could extend beyond BUCS for both sports and into events co-ordination.

12 (2 not present, 1 abstained) votes to propose we have 2 orienteering secretaries instead of BUCS co-ordinator due to the growth of orienteering, and there being 2 walking and climbing secretaries.

Discussion about social and web sec to be combined but it is thought that those are very important roles, and can be filled by very different people.

13 votes (2 not present) to propose to change name of web sec to media secretary

13 votes (2 not present) to porose to add in the maintenance of the calendar to the role, as it is more about promotion etc. than maintaining a website.

Potential proposal to address concerns regarding filling committee by leaving voting member until the bi-election as commonly we have 1 person standing for each role and then lots for voting member, but it may be more of a priority to fill the other positions on committee. Might be easier to just do this unofficially, without having to go through the SU, as they might not let us.