The person who first took me caving
25 years ago turned up at the annual
conference in 2001 - his first appearance
for many years - and was amazed to find
that he still recognised many of the people
present. His experience typifies what we
have all known for a long time - cavers are
getting older and there are not a large
number of new faces appearing.

The make-up of caving clubs has
changed too - SRT saw to that - and, from
BCRA's point of view, there seem to be far
fewer volunteers around to do the tasks
that we would like to be able to do.

It may seem rather strange that, in this
climate, we are attempting to embark on a
new venture but there are reasons - we
think they are good ones - why we have
decided to do this, as outlined in these pages.

Contributing to Speleology

BCRA members do quite a bit of
'science' but much of it does not get
reported. Many of the science lectures at
Hidden Earth would make suitable articles
for this magazine, if the authors could be
persuaded to write them up.
 

Speleology and Caves & Caving

It is not the intention of this magazine
to poach articles from Cave & Karst
Science but sometimes - even for
presentations at the BCRA Science
Symposium - a peer-reviewed paper for
C&KS can be some way off and a brief
report for Speleology would be welcomed.

The Special Interest Groups produce
their own publications, which are mostly of
specialised material, but the more general
articles would be suitable (perhaps in a
slightly revised form) for Speleology, and
would help to promote the groups.

BCRA has always felt that 'exploration'
comes under its remit, so expedition
reports will be welcome here although, as
stated above, a full report may be more
appropriate for the special edition we are
planning. The various BCRA editors will,
of course, work together to make sure your
article appears in the place most
appropriate for it.

Guidelines for authors are available on
our web-site at www.bcra.org.uk/speleogoly/
or from the editor.

Next page

Mag changes

This new magazine replaces Caves & Caving as BCRA's "bulletin". The new editor, David Gibson , explains why.