EXECUTIVE NEWS

• Funding for access work
• Incorporation
• Annual Gathering Reminder
• Annual General Meeting Agenda
• Annual Report & Accounts
• Abridged Minutes of 2004 AGM
• Mountain Article Competition Final Reminder

Update on Future Funding for
Access and Conservation Work

By Beryl Leatherland
Vice President & Chair
MCofS Access & Conservation Committee

Following on from the situation we described in the previous edition of this magazine we are pleased [and relieved!] to be able to report that thanks to the generosity of the BMC and the Scottish Mountaineering Trust, and match funding from SNH, we now have enough, but tight, funds to support the A&C work programme for the 2005-06 financial year. We had secured BMC funding some months ago, but without the additional contribution from the SMT we would be looking at vastly reducing our planned work over the course of the year, and it would also have been very difficult to respond to the many unanticipated issues that tend to arise. We should point out that both the SMT and SNH have been very generous in supporting us financially over many years already.

During the course of this year, it is urgently essential to source alternative financial back-up for this area of MCofS work, which benefits all our members [and non-members!]. So, if you feel you have expertise or keenness to contribute to our efforts in fund-raising, we really would like to hear from you. Additionally, we are always keen to co-opt folk interested in participating in A&C work.

Incorporation?

By Richard Spencer
(Executive Member)

The Executive will propose a motion at the AGM seeking the Membership's authority to incorporate the MCofS.

Some members will say, “About bloody time, too!” and go and look for a pint of 80/-. Others, however, will want to know what this involves, what it will cost, and why we need spend valuable time on such formality.

Currently your MCofS is an “unincorporated association”, or to put it a little more clearly, a bunch of nice people. No more. No less.

An “unincorporated association” has no legal existence at all. It cannot sue, or be sued (but the individual member who signed whatever paper is being shaken under his or her nose can be sued for every brass farthing that (s)he is worth). It cannot own land. More important, in reality, is that in our increasingly accountable, transparent and bureaucratic world, no public or lottery funding is going to be available very soon now to bodies whose legal status is not neatly pinned down and we receive grants from sportscotland and SNH.

Members of the MBA will know that that body's recent incorporation was painless. We intend that the MCofS should follow the same path.

We hope that the membership will approve the proposal that the MCofS becomes a “Company Limited by Guarantee”, that is to say a company without shareholders, which distributes no profits. Each member of such a company undertakes that if (and only if) the company goes bust, (s)he will pay a single sum, not exceeding a year's subscription (or perhaps a fixed sum, like, maybe £25) into the ruin, but has no further liability.

What will incorporation cost? The expenses of setting up as a company will, we understand, be covered by SportScotland. The on-going running costs of being a company, over and above our current normal administrative expenses, involve the payment of fixed, standard fees to Companies' House when documents are filed, and are not excessive.

What changes does this mean to how we operate? The changes required at the AGM will mean only those issues pertinent to a 'company' in company law, such as election to the board (the new name for the Executive Committee) can be discussed. The way in which we discuss and agree new policies would have to change – perhaps be done in a separate 'Members Forum' like the BMC? And members should realise that there would no lawful requirement for the directors to adopt anything at such a forum (although they would be silly not to alienate the members by so doing).

Your Executive hopes to carry the membership with it on this matter, which has nothing whatever to do with our Mountaineering, but is important to having a strong, organised, and accountable body which can put the Mountaineering community's views and interests to Government and other bodies firmly and effectively.

We hope that there will be a full debate at the AGM, but in the intervening time, the MCofS' web-site provides a forum where all members are encouraged to post their opinions and to seek any further information that they want.

Saturday Events: 9am-3pm The following FREE activities will be on offer:
Between 9.30am and 3pm
(Availability may change - full details in June magazine and on our website)

1. Come-and-try-it Climbing - 1/2 day session 9.30am
   For non-climbers wishing to try it. Families with children welcome on the indoor wall or outdoor tower
2. Coaching in Rock Climbing - 1/2 day session 9.30am & 12.30pm
   For those climbing at any grade wishing to fine-tune their technique in the climbing wall
3. Coaching in Winter Climbing - 1/2 day sessions 9.30am & 12.30pm
   For those climbing at any grade. Technical gear provided at the dry tool wall
4. Tying on and Belaying - 1.5hr am session 9am
   Essential for anyone starting out in summer or winter in the store area
5. The Assisted Hoist - 1.5 hr am session 10.30am
   Getting out of trouble in the climbing wall
6. Protecting the abseil - 1.5hr pm session 12.30pm
   Personal abseil protection and stacking
7. Lovely Toys for girls & Boys - 1.5hr pm session 2pm
   All those fancy new climbing devices
8. Holding a Fall - 1.5hr session 9am
   Practice holding a climbing leader fall on the outdoor tower (weather dependent only if dry)
9. An Introduction to Classic Scrambling All Day Session 9am
   Ridges and Aretes in the Cairngorms
10. Loch an Eilean Safari - All Day Session 9.30am
    Walk round the National Nature Reserve and over the tops
11. Abernethy Walk - All Day Session 9am
    A walk from The RSPB Lodge in Abernethy Forest, over Meall a'Buachaille back to Glenmore Lodge
12. GPS use & misuse - All Day Session 9am
    Participants need a Garmin Etrex (yellow) or Etrex Summit (brown). Some receivers are available to borrow
13. Micro Navigation with compasses - 1/2 day session 9.30am
    How to be accurate with compass navigation in the Lodge grounds
14. Digital Mapping & transfer outdoors - All day session
    Mapping on your computer and how to use it outside with your GPS in the Lodge and grounds
15. Climb and Abseil - All Day Session 9am
    For young climbers with some experience of climbing. Bring your own gear, outdoor clothing and packed lunch.
16. Hill Walking and the outdoor environment All Day Session 9am
    An introduction to the walking world and the environment.
17. A REALrock Weekend Event - All Day Session 9.30am start
    An invite to families who attended the REALrock sessions last summer. Parents must attend.
    Saturday:- visit to local crag
    Sunday:- coaching in technique from Dave MacLeod and Scott Muir at Cummingston

PLEASE REGISTER (OR CONFIRM) YOU'RE PREFERENCE DURING BREAKFAST between 8am & 8.45am

Saturday Event: 6pm-8pm

Discussion: The State of Scottish Climbing
See the “Talking Point” articles in the last three issues of the magazine.

Introduced and Chaired by John Mackenzie (President)
The Debate so far – by Kevin Howett
Your Views – an open debate

BUFFET MEAL & ACCOMMODATION

EVENING ENTERTAINMENT 10pm
Kingdoms of Experience by Andrew Grieg and Liz Duff
A celebration of the life and climbs of one of Scotland's most enigmatic climbers - Mal Duff.

Liz met Mal while they worked in the Insurance industry!!(before he became a professional mountaineer). She was the first British female to reach 23,000ft on the Tibetan side of Everest and the first to summit Pumori (24,000ft) with Mal in 1991.

Andrew Grieg is an award-winning Scottish Poet and novelist with 6 collections of poetry and books about Himalayan expeditions. Resident half the year in Orkney(where he writes) he was introduced to climbing by Mal.