Some of you will be aware that there
have, for some time, been discussions on
how to 'consolidate' the activities of
BCRA, NCA and the various regional
councils. NCA is the national body, but
does not allow individual cavers to join,
whereas BCRA - a specialist science body
- behaves as a 'representative national
Body' for cavers to join.

This bizarre situation - coupled with the lack of volunteers to fill these sometimes- duplicate posts and the fewer active
cavers that there seem to be - is driving the 'consolidation' discussions that are now underway.

Another more pressing reason for these
discussions is that public liability insurance
for cavers is suffering a bit of a shake-up,
with premiums likely to rise considerably.

It makes sense for there to be one national
scheme covering everyone than separate
BCRA and NCA schemes. Much of this
debate has been reported in Descent - see,
for example, the Newsdesk column in issue
168 (Oct/Nov 2002).

BCRA Council - in support of this 'one
stop shop' concept - has issued a statement
that it hopes will help to move the
process along. BCRA confirms that it is
willing to drop its various 'national body'
activities, which it has accumulated over
the years, and to concentrate on being just
a specialist science body. That may have
an impact on BCRA membership, but it
paves the way for a new national body to
emerge.

A statement from Nick Williams, the BCRA chairman is on the first page in this section. 

'Consolidation' discussions - NCA / BCRA