EXECUTIVE NEWS

Contacting the MCofS
2006 Mountain Article Competition
MCofS Incorporation
Climb Through History

CONTACTING the MCofS

- New Tel & Email

By Telephone:

The MCofS now has a new telephone system with direct dial Phone Numbers. Specialist Officers and Administration also now operate VoiceMail. The NEW NUMBERS are detailed below. Please note that the old numbers are still active but will be phased out in due course.

By Email:

The following emails are directed to the relevant member of staff:

Mountain Article Competition 2006

Enter Now

PROSE Category

1^st PRIZE £100; 2^nd PRIZE £50

POETRY category

1^st PRIZE £50

Deadline 1^st June 2006.

We are extremely grateful for the offer of help with the administration of the Mountain Article Competition by previous prize winner, Joe Brown. Joe will coordinate entries and judges on a voluntary basis, so entries should now be directed to him:

by post (please mark your envelope “mountain article competition”) send to:

Joe Brown, Mountain Article Coordinator

c/o the MCofS, The Old Granary, West Mill Street, Perth PH1 5QP

by email to: article@mountaineering-scotland.org.uk.

INCORPORATION:

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers!

By Richard Spencer
(An Elected Executive Member and Lawyer)

At our last AGM, at Glenmore Lodge in June 2005, we voted massively (well, of the rather less than 1% of our membership who came, there were no votes firmly against!) in favour of the proposition (in principle) that the MCofS should incorporate. This was a great start, really, but now we are into the nitty gritty! Before we go to Companies House to register the new company, we have to write the two documents which are, in effect, the CONSTITUTION of our new, improved, MCofS.

Many of us like to spend what little time wife, garden and job allow them in the hills (climbing, hill walking or cross-country skiing) and have not the slightest wish to get themselves involved in legal paper work – my dog barks – why the hell should I try to do it for him? Although most of my best mates are either lawyers, or, worse yet, you may well say, policemen, we are not the answer to all questions. If, with the invaluable help of sportscotland’s legal advisor, I produce the necessary “Memo & Arts”, on my tod, a good few of us will find faults, many of them justified.

Most of us probably chose the hills as our playground because we are anarchists who want to do our own thing – in Hugh Munro’s day that was realistic, but in today’s world (avoid politics, the Editor said) that simply doesn’t work – the best we can hope for is a loose variety of democracy, which, in turn, requires member participation.

Shortly I will produce drafts, which will be posted for download on the MCofS Web site, and e-mailed to those Club Secretaries who have advised our office of their e-mail addresses. It would take up too many pages of this excellent magazine, to print the documents in Scottish Mountaineer.

In the meantime I ask all members to think about how we incorporate, and in particular:

“National Governing Body”

Few, if any of us, want to be “governed” in our sport. Hell, we can read our own maps, and part of the joy is the risk. On incorporation I think we have to declare the MCofS to be the NGB for Mountaineers, Climbers Cross-Country Ski-ers and Hill Walkers, BECAUSE any club or group applying for funding from the National Lottery or many other sources, must declare that it is affiliated to the relevant NGB. The Memorandum will declare that the function of our “governing” body is to represent the interests of climbers, etc., NOT to control them!

Voting!

Should clubs vote their paid-up members as a bloc vote, as the Club in general meeting mandates, or as whichever committee member attends AGM thinks right, or, as currently, with a fixed number of votes, allocated in bands, like Council Tax? Or, indeed, should club members’ votes only be counted if they either attend, or fill out and sign a proxy?

Eligibility for membership!

I think that MCofS membership should be open to all who either stay in Scotland, or who hold themselves to be Scots, wherever they live. For Clubs I think that the qualification should be similar – either the club is based in Scotland, or it is a Scots Club (is there a Scots Climbing Club in Bruxelles? If there is, I’d welcome them, and accept their subs with joy – although they won’t get insurance cover under the terms of the policy!)

Term limits!

One reads in the papers of self perpetuating cliques which settle in to national and international governing bodies, and cannot then be moved on. MCofS already has term limits of elected members fixed, and it is intended that this should continue on into the Incorporated MCofS – given the lack of enthusiasm of many people to “waste” their time on interminable committee meetings and so forth, our current draft allows people who have hit the buffers at the end of their term limit, to stand again for election after only a year out of office, always assuming that there is a vacancy, and the candidate can drum up support. I think that is sensible, but others feel that a longer wait is necessary. What do others think?

The guarantee!

We are not going to Incorporate as a shareholder’s company, steadily easing prices up to pay dividends to the guys who have put money in to fund the set-up, but as a “Company Limited by Guarantee”. Such a company has no shareholders, and therefore pays no dividends. It’s liability is limited, which means that if the membership enjoys reading Scottish Mountaineer, enjoys the insurance protection provided, but doesn’t give much attention to the management of the MCofS, allowing the Executive to run off the rails, it is only the company that goes bust, not the members, except to the extent of the guarantee! I think that the guarantee should be set at a realistic figure, say, £25, (half a tank of diesel for the car) per member, which is payable if and only if the company does go bust. Others think it should be set at a measly quid. My point is that if the MCofS were to enter into any serious deal, whether the lease or purchase of new offices, computer systems or anything else that it could lawfully do, the other side might like to be sure that if things go wrong he had a reasonable hope of being paid something! What do members think? Does anyone have any experience from the other side?

Once the Alpha drafts are firm, they will be posted, and paper copies will be available to any member without e-mail access. Clubs will be encouraged to hold meetings to debate them, and I or some other member of the Executive will be eager to attend (at no cost to the Club) to explain them, to answer questions, and carry back comment and suggestions for improvement.

It is never a bad idea to look, discretely, over the fence at how the neighbour does his thing! The English BMC’s current Memo & Arts are available on their web site – although these are likely to be substantially revised in the near future, I think they are extremely well written, in most respects, and I encourage members to download them, read them carefully, and consider whether, and if so how our equivalent documents might be better drafted, and more appropriate to Scotland’s needs! I will not merely be happy, but frankly overjoyed to have any comments or suggestions to richard.spencer@zetnet.co.uk

The English never admit how much they owe to Robert Burns – we, in our turn, like to forget our debt to William Shakespeare!

Climb Through History

Each issue through the rest of the year will feature another climb from the event that catalogues the most important routes in Scottish history, drawing from quite a few recent completions and articles submitted including Ardverikie Wall, The Last Eighty, Crowberry Ridge, Excalibur and Crows Nest Crack.

Everyone who has signed up already to do a route and is awaiting the right weather or circumstance is urged to try and complete this year. There’s quite a few out there who have indicated they have done their route but are yet to write about it. Remember, the submissions need not be prose, but can be poetry, a drawing, a photographic montage, a painting or anything resembling art that we can include in the magazine.

Anyone interested in participating, should have a look on our website as there are a few routes still awaiting a suitor.