Rostam Namaghi

Russell Myers

Rostam Namaghi

My name’s Rostam and I’ve been a caver for 12 years, starting with Sheffield University (SUSS) and am now a member of the Wealden, the BEC and UCET. I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world and have 15 or so expeditions under my belt. Caving invested in me early, taught me skills and has brought me many lifelong friends – cavers are some of the most eccentric adventurous people and I have so many stories as a result. I’m passionate about growing this community as I’d like to give more people the opportunity to experience what I’ve experienced.

I started out volunteering as Treasurer for SUSS, I moved the club over to online banking and built up a healthy surplus over 3 years. I continued as Chair of the club and with a bit of innovation led the club to a bumper year of recruitment despite starting the year with minimal leaders and drivers. I took this experience in leading, training and organising to Northern CHECC, and then joined BCA as Youth and Development Officer. I stayed in this post for 5 years, first learning how the BCA works and realising that we needed more than just one person representing ‘Youth Caving’ and set it up as a group bringing in many people. This led to working closely with scout caving, CHECC and a body of experienced volunteers shielded from the chaos and time wasting of council.

We learned from each other and achieved a lot; we represented university groups in discussions with unions, started 4 new student caving clubs, set up the emergency kit loan system, set up a bureaucratic service to write constitutions and other paperwork, set up the child safeguarding officer, made DBS checks for voluntary work for BCA members free, made BCA membership free for under 18s, started an at cost procurement scheme for BCA, took on a discrimination case against under 18s, procured legal advice and safeguarded many access agreements protecting under 18 access in the process.

I have spent the last year in Publications and Information where; I authored the demographics report, developed the proofreading service, developed a data gathering and interpretation service with input from professional statisticians, regularly sought feedback on BCA services, created a clear publication pathway and standard formatting, handled requests from the media and built a modern social media interface. In addition to this I stepped in to provide support to the Secretary and Chair commiting roughly 2 hours a week to giving advice, doing the constitutional/operations legwork to work out what they should be doing and helped draft agendas and proposals in an effective way. I implemented many of the simplifying things that Phil Rowsell tried to drive – like the online submission of reports, proposals and nominations. I also wrote terms of reference that constituted the new IT working group and successfully kept it apolitical. I drafted the covid recovery plan which has yet to be fully implemented.

I think I would make a good chair as I know how the BCA works, how the grassroots volunteering works and I would prioritise things that will bring new people into the sport and keep the buildings, charities and clubs full of people.

To put it more exactly I would:

• Increase transparency by ensuring documents are published ahead of deadlines, and record votes on clear proposals so that members know which way their representatives voted
• Actively recruit more volunteers for working groups and delegate more things from council
• Shrink the size of council by giving time for what will be controversial proposals to be worked through by affected parties
• Order agendas through priority of issue importance and cut down the frequency and bulk of reports to allow a manageable workload for Council
• Automate secretarial tasks and integrate this with the rewrite of the Manual of Operations
• Be proactive in identifying roadblocks for BCA volunteers and adopting a ‘how to get it done approach’ rather than a ‘delay it till next time’ one. Change the meeting to meeting culture and just focus on groups operating continuously.
• Attend meetings of various member bodies and listen.
• Wear a BCA T-shirt (for some of the time) at caving huts at weekends so that people can chat to me if they want to, I also promise not to bring the BCA into disrepute.

Russell Myers

BCA has been through a number of tumultuous years lately and not least this last one compounded by the Covid pandemic. I volunteered to join the Executive Committee of BCA in April 2020 to help the incumbent Secretary, Matt Ewles, who subsequently stood down the following month and I found myself co-opted as Acting Secretary at the Council Meeting in July.

Shortly after that meeting, the incumbent Chair, Les Williams, stood down and Council found itself co-opting a new Acting Chair, Phil Rowsell at its August meeting.

The situation settled down but there was plenty to do, catching up with almost 6 months of stagnation when Council had not been able to meet in its normal format due to covid restrictions but Zoom meetings opened the way forward.

The Executive Committee formed a strong team driving business forward but for personal reasons, Phil stood down shortly after the December meeting and out of the permutations to solve the dilemma, Allan Richardson came forward as Acting Secretary and I moved into Acting Chair; both of us being co-opted by Council at the subsequent February Meeting but both positions subject to election at this 2021 AGM.

The attritional rate of change in the Executive Committee of three Chairs and three Secretaries in 6 months during this last year or so, is not sustainable for the good governance of BCA. I know that I have made mistakes, fortunately of no great consequence but brought about essentially from learning the ropes through this turbulent period. What is required is a sustained period of stability, which I am prepared to establish if elected.

On this basis, I pledge to uphold the core values of BCA and reinforce its objectives by:

• Ensuring the Public Liability Insurance scheme continues to benefit to all BCA members.
• Ensuring the continued funding of Regional Councils in conservation, access and other important work.
• Providing training workshops and a training and certification scheme for cavers.
• Ensuring funding for the anchor placement programme.
• Ensuring continued funding to the Ghar Parau Foundation for expeditions.
• Continuing to work to improve cave access.
• Driving support for the development and support of youth caving.
• Publicising advice on matters affecting caving.
• Ensuring the continued funding of the British Caving Library.
• Maintaining links with International Caving Federations and Organisations.
• Continuing the modernisation of BCA.

I look forward to receiving your support and vote in the forthcoming election to secure the position of Chair; in return I promise to do my best for British Caving and all the cavers who form its community.