PLEASE READ - We are experiencing an unprecedented situation in our society and we as a club need to do our part to protect each other, our families, friends and the community at large. To that end we are cancelling all meets until further notice, this includes all weekly indoor climbing meets and all club trips/events.
All club members are requested to heed the advice from the government and The British Mountaineering Council about participating in outdoor activities.
Come and share the adventure with the Bowline Climbing Club! Rock climbing, bouldering, mountaineering, cycling, walking; based in the Leicester area we welcome new members, with or without experience. For more information please contact our chairman.
E-mail sent by Andrew Potter, Friday, 25th September 2020 @ 11:00am
Hi All,
We were pleased to see a good turnout of 38 members for the club AGM on Tuesday night (via Zoom). A big thanks to all those who took the time to attend, it was really great to be able ratify the changes to the byelaws that the committee have been working hard to prepare over the past year. See my separate email on changes to the byelaws.
The AGM heard a report from Andy Railton on the impact of COVID-19 and the non-running of the Charnwood Hills Race. We are fortunate that the club doesn't depend on the income from the Charnwood Hills Race, although the money it raises is very useful for making improvements to the club hut. We are expecting to make a loss of perhaps around £600-£800 on the club hut due to the reduced income from hut fee's, but we will cover this from our reserves.
We hope that the situation with COVID-19 doesn’t change before we can benefit from being able to gather together again, but if it does then one of the tasks for our new committee will be to find a way to make things work in a world where restrictions are likely to continue to beyond the next AGM. We’ll need to consider how club members can still enjoy climbing and walking together without putting themselves or the wider community at unnecessary risk. And also, how we can maintain the social cohesion of the club during these difficult times.
The AGM was also our opportunity to elect a new committee for the club. We gave our thanks to outgoing committee for their hard work over the past year. There has been a lot of effort behind the scene’s both during lockdown with handling the impact on the club, and before lockdown in preparing the various byelaw changes to support bringing the clubs membership rules in line with our current practices. Particular thanks went to Simon Lofthouse for his many years service as our membership secretary.
We are pleased to announce that Zoe Pickering has taken up the role of Vice Chair, and Tony Bishopp has taken over from Simon Lofthouse as membership secretary. We also welcome Stepan Ptacek to the committee as one of our ordinary members. You can find details of who is on the committee and the contact details for the club officers on the club website.
Hope you are all staying safe and well. Make sure to get out and enjoy (maybe) the last of the good weather!
E-mail sent by Andy Railton, Thursday, 17th September 2020 @ 8:55pm
Hi Everyone,
As promised here are the AGM documents re-sent.
This is the complete set:
It includes:
AGM 2019 Minutes (PDF)
AGM Agenda (PDF + WORD)
Income & Expenditure Accounts (PDF)
The Proposed Changes to the Byelaws (Marked up in Colour) (PDF + WORD)
An explanation of the proposed changes in the Byelaws (PDF + WORD)
A brief financial assessment of the impact of Covid on the Club & also Cancellation of CHR (New) (PDF + EXCEL)
The last one is new it's a brief assessment of the financial impact on the club of Covid and also cancelling this year's CHR.
E-mail sent by Andy Railton, Tuesday, 15th September 2020 @ 10:19pm
Dear All,
Just a quick reminder that it is our Club AGM next Tuesday. We would urge all of you to attend the AGM, it is your club so it is your opportunity to have your say.
We do also need to be quorate for this to be a valid AGM, so please do attend. A proxy vote doesn't count towards the quorate total unfortunately.
Because we are holding the Meeting by Zoom it is important that you REGISTER that you are coming and let us know by which method you intend to Vote 1) Using the Zoom Applicatiion (The preferred method) or 2) Voting by Email.
A big thank you to all of you who have done this already.
We have sent out all the documents for the AGM so you should have all the documents that you need for the AGM. Just in case you missed this I will send out the AGM documents again this Thursday.
Because we are holding the AGM by Zoom it is important that you read the AGM documents prior to the meeting, I would strongly recommend that you have printed set of the documents or a very good computer screen on which to view all the documents.
We will be sending out the Zoom invite this Thursday by Email. For those of you who will be dialing into the meeting the invite will include a number which you can use to dial into the meeting.
If it is really not possible to attend the meeting and we realise not everyone will be able to attend, then you can EITHER register your PROXY vote on the motions FOR or AGAINST each motion or you can nominate a PROXY to vote for you in your place. To do this you will need to fill in the PROXY voting SLIP which is attached to the end of the AGM AGENDA and return it to the Club Secretary (i.e. me). The proxy voting slip needs to be returned to the Club Secretary no later than 48 hours before the AGM starts, that is by 19:30 this Sunday.
E-mail sent by Andrew Potter, Thursday, 3rd September 2020 @ 11:04pm
Hi All,
We're a little late again with this weeks news but that's because we've been pouring over the latest guidance released by the British Mountaineering Council regarding restarting club meets. The good news is that (local lockdocs permitting) we can return to at least single day club meets. The catch is that there are various requirements we need to comply with including having details of those attending the meets, having risk assessments in place, complying with social distancing, etc. However our initial take on the guidance is that these things are manageable for us.
The club committee will be meeting on Monday evening to discuss how to use the new guidance to get club meets going again. This is likely to start with a few trial meets to see how the process works, probably a local meet and a day trip to the peak. Looking slightly further ahead we are planning to hold a couple of day trips for Mountain Biking in October in lieu of our normal MTB weekend. One of these day trips will be to a trail centre and the other will be a day out riding probably in the Peak District. Dates to be announced soon.
The Chairman's walk will also be going ahead and the date for this will be Sunday 29th November. We aren't expecting to have a post walk meal this year and the walk is likely to be fairly local although as always the location won't be announced until nearer the time.
It's good to see the hut is getting booked up by club members with most weekends now booked until end of October. Much more availability in November and December, there is always some great fun and adventures to be had at the hut no matter what the time of year so grab yourself and weekend and enjoy!
Looking forward to giving you more news on meets next week and hopefully seeing you on a meet soon.
E-mail sent by Michael Jones, Monday, 31st August 2020 @ 9:45pm
Good evening,
I'm sorry I have not been in touch sooner, but I now have something to talk about.
There is a whatsapp group been set-up for climbing at the station. This is so members can align their session with other members, if they wish to do so.
Simularly I will be setting up a 'Slawston Bridge' and 'Cademan Woods' Whatsapp for the same reason. These are wholly OP-IN so if you would like to be included please reply with which group and your number.
Take care and look out for the chairmans email very soon.
E-mail sent by Andy Railton, Friday, 28th August 2020 @ 11:00am
To Club Members,
There have been a few minor changes to the AGM documents plus I also forgot to attach the 2019 AGM Minutes to the formal notice of the AGM, the changed documents and 2019 AGM Minutes are attached:
In Brief the Changes Are:
The AGM Agenda (PDF and WORD) - Changes to Item 9 Proposition 3 - This has been changed to "Modify Rule 5.1" rather then "Delete".
The explanation of the Changes in the Byelaws (PDF and WORD) - Primarily this has been changed so that the order of propositions is exactly the same on the Agenda and there were a couple of minor changes to eliminate some typo errors that had crept in on numbering.
The colour coded Byelaws (PDF and WORD) has had one slight change, but only on the colour coding - the text has NOT changed, to better illustrate a change for Proposition 7 (Item 9).
2019 AGM Minutes (2019) Revised (PDF)
Everyone Should Now Have the Following Files for the AGM 2019 Bowline Income & Expenditure [signed] (PDF)
AGM 2019 MINUTES - Revised (PDF)
bcc-byelaws-2020-jan-all-changes-colourcode_V3 (PDF & WORD)
Bowline CC - 2020 AGM Agenda Draft V5 (PDF & WORD)
Byelaw Motions Explanation_V4 (PDF & WORD)
Can we request that everyone who is going to attend registers for the AGM, this would be enormously helpful to the Club. If you can't make it please also do indicate that via the registration process. There is also the option of voting by Proxy if you can't attend the AGM, which is explained on the AGM Agenda document, but you must send back your Proxy Voting Slips within 48 hours of the AGM.
Also if you are intending to dial in and not use the Zoom App/Website and are going to Email your votes in or if there are two people using a single device and so one of you is going to Email your votes in then the Club needs to know this in advance, you indicate this as an option during the registration process.
We will be holding a Zoom Practice for those of you who are new to Zoom in the Week before the AGM. Andy Potter will send an invite to the Zoom practice.
Just a reminder that we are also looking to fill the Vice Chair position so if you think that you would like to do this please do let us know.
Fun times at the club bouldering competition