The situation with the kids stuck in the cave in Thailand and the risks that the rescue teams have been and still are taking, has overwhelmed me.

I've written to Theresa May and copied in Jeremy Corbyn to ask that the rescuers be given some public recognition for their extreme bravery, and wondered if there's anything we could do as a club to show our appreciation and support too. I've no idea what, but if anyone's interested and has ideas, I'd look into following them up if possible.

Cheers

I agree, no idea what though, how about something on social media

Possibly but I'm not personally au fait with all that guff so I'd need help.

I've also thought about making a donation from club funds to Cave Rescue as we have some dosh, they need equipment and I think, to raise their profile. Even if we hope never to need them, they're obviously serving a purpose which is dramatic and traumatic at times - not just for clumsy chihauhas!

Would that be an Executive decision - shall I make a proposal?!!

shananna wrote:

Go ahead

Excellent call Shan, although I have no suggestions other than making the team members involved in the rescue honorary members of UCET. I remember talking to a cave diver called Rick Stanton a few years back (rememeber when UCET won the free night at TSG for best club stand at Hidden Earth?) who I assume is the Richard Stanton who found them - A bloody nice bloke to be fair.

In terms of Dosh, our very own local Cave Rescue team have lost significant funding this year (Circa £2k) and we have 2 stretchers which are nearing the end of their life (one expires next year and one in 2020 if I recall correctly)

Incidentally, UCET is one of only 2 local clubs who don't make an annual contribution. (NWCC, Grosvenor, PUG & GOES all donate £25 per year as the 4 founding clubs of NWCRO)

As someone said above, we all hope we never need them, but it's great that we have a local team and a fantastic skill set across the British Cave Rescue Team as a whole.

Today is a great day for British Cave Rescue. Let's hope they are all reunited with their families very soon.

Sweetie wrote:

I didn't know that

The guardian has an article on the rescuers:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/j...uting-the-volunteers

shananna wrote:
Personally I think we should let the dust settle as I'm sure there will be a national fund we could contribute to

Do you mean for the Thai kids specifically?

As has been evident in the press lately with Oxfam and all that stuff, donations don't always go where intended. However, if we gave to our own Cave Rescue (locally or nationally however it works) I think we'd be more certain it's used for it's intended purpose and could serve both home and abroad if required - we could buy a chihauha handbag to cart down!.

Either way, is there an agreement that the club could make a donation somewhere, it sounds like it, and unless anyone's media savvy we have no other ideas to show our support.

Two of the geezers involved are already 'decorated' it would seem, and I wasn't thinking of that guff necessarily, but just some specific recognition for their insane bravity (if there is such a word!) from our glorious leaders would be good.

Blah blah blah - let's do this thing you guys !!!

I am all for supporting certain groups , especially volunteer organisations. However Cave rescue should be getting funding from local or national government and should be canvassed through the BCA. I For the small amount of funds UCET has, I personally would prefer it to be used for equipment to keep our members safety paramount. I will spend some time speaking to local and national Government on how funding can be accessed for cave rescue organisations. Will post any information I get.

NWCRO and SMWCRT should get a yearly grant from the Welsh Sports Association. When I started as secretary of CCC I had to submit n application to the WSA for the Sports Safety Grant which we then passed to the two CRO's.
It was a bit of a faff as they had to provide the paperwork to me and then I submitted it. After two years the system was changed so they applied direct to the WSA and CCC had no role. AFAIK they still get a yearly grant to replace equipment and for training - but I have no idea how much it is now.

I think the BCA could take a role in funnelling donations from clubs, but if individual clubs want to fund their local CRO then I am fine with that. NWCRO seem to be quite low profile, they don't get many shouts (which is good), but it does mean they tend to fade out of view. Often other organisations get called out instead of them as people calling 999 fail to ask for the police and so get the fire service which then call one of the mountain teams out (as per the Cae Coch rescue a couple of years ago)

Dave

BCA have quite a substantial bank account

mike leahy wrote: Yes and at this years AGM the point was made that the BCA, caving clubs and rescue organisations had in total over £1,000,000 just sitting in bank accounts...

There was a suggestion the BCA should spend a bit more - I don't think there was a consensus on what...

Dave

After reading all this, I agree that making the individual team members honorary members of UCET would be a gesture we could make.

just a point though about donating to large charities like Oxfam, they have suffered a lot recently over the paranoia regarding donations, they are a huge organization working in all countries where people are suffering, often at great danger to themselves.
It is unfair to allow a few bad apples to affect our attitude to donating, there is no alternative to the aid that they and other charities provide, all governments are a worthless bunch of morons, including ours.

Just a cautionary note ....

Honorary members have the same rights as "normal" members in the club (ie. voting etc.)

Also, the more we have, the more we tip up tot he BCA every year in subs.

FYI we have two current honorary members.

Just saying

Ian

Just a cautionary note ....

Honorary members have the same rights as "normal" members in the club (ie. voting etc.)

Also, the more we have, the more we tip up tot he BCA every year in subs.

FYI we have two current honorary members.

Just saying

Ian

Ian wrote:
I think you said that twice Ian, have you been drinking, or have I and I am seeing double.

oh.

I think offering them honoury membership to a two bit tiny caving club in North Wales would be more of an insult to international cave diving folk. Just saying

A cool discussion, thanks.

If I've got it right :_

We fail to donate to our local cave rescue team when all of our peers do. This is £25 annually.

Our local team lost £2000 funding this year and need equipment

UCET have a small amount of funds

The BCA have a huge amount of funds (£1,000,000! really, is that true!!!)

In theory, members think the BCA should funnel some of this dosh towards clubs generally

Other sources of money may include the Welsh Sports Association, but Ade is also on the governments case. There may be others but I was overwhelmed by acronyms sorry!

We shouldn't taint charities because of a few bad apples (I personally think more about the staggering wages of the executives!).

And to extend honorary membership to the rescuers isn't hugely favoured.

In starting this chat, the bottom line for me still remains that there are 13 young people trapped in a dire situation underground. One highly experienced cave diver has already died in his efforts to rescue them, and the risk of further deaths is increasing by the hour for everybody on or in that mountain.

I've cried every day since hearing about it and feel sick to the stomach thinking about it. They're the same age as my kids, they could easily be our kids or grand kids in any other situation. Wrangling over who 'should' do stuff doesn't progress anything regardless of the circumstances. If I was in that situation, what I think I would appreciate most is knowing that whoever COULD DO something, did it, that I wasn't failed because of 'politics'!

So, my proposal to the UCET Committee is that :-

we immediately make the £25 annual donation to our local Cave Rescue Team to bring us in line with our peers, and continue to do so from here on in (it's less than £1 each on membership!)

we make a further one off payment of say £100 to them to show additional support for the time and effort they give for those 'just in case' moments (yes they should be working on raising their own profile but that's a different matter)

Longer term, we pressure the BCA to filter our cash for the benefit of the caving community as a whole rather than the bankers. This could be either as an individual club or collectively as a united north Wales attack. My suspicions being that the latter would get us further, and reinforce the notion of safety for everyone in the underworld, whether there deliberately or accidentally. I would be happy to represent us (though the help of people who actually know 'stuff' would be best!)

The end, thank you.

My apologies for any stepping on of toes in my ignorance of 'how things work', no offense intended and I'm happy to be put straight, but please let's do something, because actually, we CAN!