Let's Go Belay and Boulder Together

We held our second AGM on the 27th of November 2022 at the Quay Climbing Center.

A huge thank you to everyone who came along to recap and celebrate our achievements in 2023 and to look forward to 2024.

Please read on for a review of what we covered:

Voting

There were three areas for members to vote on:

• Membership fees for 2023
• Constitutional amendments 
• Committee officer elections

29 ballot papers were handed out and 28 votes were cast. All motions were approved by a majority (detailed results available on request)

Membership fees for 2024

The cost of membership fees will rise every year; the cost of BMC affiliation this year will increase by 7.5% which is below inflation for 2024.

In 2023 The committee proposed that the adult membership fee would be rounded up to £25 (£2.25 above the minimum) so the club had a small surplus to spend on equipment, transport, etc.

For 2024 the committee proposed that all fees would be rounded by approximately 11.5% on a voluntary basis to the nearest amount so the club had a small surplus to spend on equipment, transport, etc. It was also highlighted that members could pay more than the amounts discussed if they choose.   

	BMC Club membership 2023	BMC Club Membership 2024	Increase	Voluntary top up
Adult Club Membership	£22.25	£23.90	£1.65	£27
Student Club Membership	£18.35	£19.75	£1.40	£22
Discounted Club Membership	£16.45	£17.70	£1.25	£19.50
Upgrade from club membership	£16.70	£17.95	£1.25	N/A

Constitutional Amendments

There were two constitutional amendments this year:

• 2023-01 Change of terminology for committee roles to minimise constitutional amendment.
• 2023-02 Change to disciplinary process to allow for a clear disciplinary process for committee officers and committee members.

These amendments were passed by a majority vote.

Full details of these changes can be found here:

An updated version of the constitution is at the bottom of the club rules page.

Committee officer elections

This year the majority of committee officers and members stood for re-election this year. However, Josh Brockhouse Smith chose not to re-stand and Jack Woolley stood down from the EDI role. We also introduced two new roles this year:  Safeguarding and Plymouth Rep

Re-standing officers and members:

• Nominee for Chair – Mike Phillips
• Nominee for Treasurer – Simon Aplin
• Nominee for New Members’ Officer – Char Harrison
• Nominee for Training/Equipment Officer – K Woolley

New and moving officers and members:

• Nominee for Secretary – Julia Bradley
• Nominee for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Officer – Joe Spurrell
• Nominee for Safeguarding Officer – Liz Morrison
• Nominee for Plymouth Rep – Jack Woolley

All roles were voted in by a majority. Congratulations to everyone who stood for election.

Moving to Discord

It was discussed that we will move from Signal to Discord over the next month, why we are moving and that we will be entirely using Discord for club communications from the 27^{th of} Dec 2023. Current members are being contacted with the link to move across and new members will be sent the link following their 3rd session with us.

EDI member’s demographics survey update

We are looking to update our voluntary, anonymous member demographics survey and we welcome any suggestions or feedback to be sent to hello@climb.lgbt.

Our proposed changes and questions can be seen in this document here:

Slides from the meeting

AGM Minutes 2023

Additional Documents

We’ll be holding our second AGM at the Quay Climbing Centre from 6.30pm on Mon 27th November.

The AGM is a bit of a formality, but it will be a chance to review what we’ve achieved together in the last year and set out our plans for the future.

A key part of the AGM is voting in the committee members for next year, and voting on amendments for the club constitution.

We’re pleased to share this year’s committee candidates and constitutional amendments below.

Following the damning and fear mongering distraction tactics from the Conservative party conference, we wanted to speak up. Lets Go Belay and Boulder Together CC are proud to have many trans members, and know how tiring, scary and hurtful the last few days have been for our members, followers, friends and family. We do not condone or support any of the hateful language or policies used within politics at the moment and want to express our love and support for all our members, but especially our Trans members at this time. We fundamentally believe in LGB with the T and we will continue to fight for all LGBT+ people’s acceptance and spaces within climbing, the outdoors, and society.

Allies, raise your voice in any and every way that you can to combat this narrative, contact your MP and use your vote to make a change.

Trans siblings- know that you are always welcome as part of our family and to climb with us. If you need any support, we will do what we can to help. Please keep talking to your support networks, make use of the support lines highlighted and don’t feel like you are alone.
You will always have space and support with us, and we truly love you all. T as in trans, T as in together.

Want to try something new this pride? Try climbing! The Life Centre climbing team are offering climbing taster sessions this afternoon.

There’s expert instruction from the Life Centre team, a friendly atmosphere, and bargain prices. Try bouldering or roped climbing for just £4.

Just drop-in between 12.30-4pm.

Many thanks to all who took the time to reply to our members survey and give us valuable insight into what our members want from the club. We really loved all your enthusiasm and positive comment and have taken the feedback provided and put it into action at our last committee meeting.

You said:

• You would like the committee to be more visible (you weren’t sure who was on the committee) and transparent. – We’re committed to making the committee more visible to members, by updating our website so you can see those who are working behind the scenes on the committee and through a series of social media posts. We’re also going to be updating members more regularly on what’s happening behind the scenes with posts such as these.
• You would like the website to be kept up to date, especially the calendar – we have committed to keeping the website updated and continuing to update the calendar each month
• You would like us to plan a beginner friendly outdoor session and/or bouldering trip – we are planning an outdoor bouldering trip and have already hosted a few beginner friendly roped sessions, but will continue to do so over the summer months (weather permitting). We want to arrange sessions for all abilities and support everyone to progress.
• You have fed back to us that signal isn’t ideal for communication and messages can be overwhelming or missed when there’s lots of activity – we have been looking at using another platform for communication and will be asking members to trial it shortly (once the committee have done so), we’ll then be asking members whether they would prefer to move over to this new platform for communication rather than signal (by way of anonymous vote).
• You asked for more clarity around planned trips and skill levels required for the trips – we have discussed that most of the trips organised by the climbing club specify the skill level needed, however unofficial trips that members may invite people to aren’t organised by us. We will continue to post the skill levels required for our planned trips, and make sure we’re using language that all members are familiar with. We are always happy to clarify or answer questions should members want to know more details about planned activities.
• You asked for ‘non-climbing’ social events – we’re really delighted at how being in the club helps people make new friends and find a community. We enjoy chatting in the cafe before climbs (and sometimes pubbing afterwards!), but everyone in the committee volunteers in their spare time and there’s a limit to what we’d organise. We’re really happy for members to organise each other to events, and use group chat to spread the word.

We’re really sad to announce that Laura stepped down from the committee in June.

Laura has made some really positive, constructive contributions to the running of the club, including devising and delivering the members’ feedback survey off her own initiative. The positive feedback from the survey is heartening and the suggestions are insightful and actionable – as well as designing the survey, Laura analysed the results, compiled the results into an action plan for the committee.

She’s said she plans to keep climbing with us as a member of the club. Thank you for all your hard work!

Your chance to learn to lead outdoors, or improve your skills – exclusive free courses for our members in July

We’re delighted to have arranged some exclusive, fully funded courses to help club members learn to climb outside this July, and to support you in coaching and developing other climbers.

The courses will be professionally delivered by our qualified Mountain and Climbing Instructor friends at Ibex Outdoors. The courses are incredible value for money, thanks to full funding by the Alpkit Foundation.

Principles, skills and tactics for lead climbing – Sun 16th July

Want to learn to lead climb outdoors?

If you’ve seconded another climber outdoors, but haven’t learn to lead, this course is the perfect introduction to trad lead climbing.

We’ll cover: crag and route selection, placing and extending runners, principles of good belays, types of belay and when to select them, personal abseiling

Requirements to attend: Min – 10 trad routes seconded, ideally with indoor / sport leading experience.

Venue: aprox 9am-5pm on Dartmoor, exact times and venue TBC

Introducing new climbers to (outdoor) climbing – Sat 15th July

This course is ideal if you know how to lead trad already, and want to learn to bring other climbers outdoors with you safely.

We’ll cover: Crag and route selection, group and environmental impact, equipment, rigging routes simply and safely, belaying outdoors, supervision of belaying

Requirements to attend: Min 5 Trad Lead Climbs or equivalent, an interest in introducing others to outdoor climbing!

Venue: aprox 9am-5pm on Dartmoor, exact times and venue TBC

Sharing your skills – Sun 23rd July

A follow-on course, open to attendees on either of the previous days, to help you recap what you’ve learnt, and learn best practice for passing your skills on to other climbers in the future. Highly recommended!

Syllabus: (may be flexible depending on needs of those attending) Assessing participant experience, basics of teaching and learning, keeping everyone safe when teaching others, developing independence safely.

Requirements to attend: Attended one of the previous courses

Venue: aprox 9am-5pm on Dartmoor, exact times and venue TBC

How to book

The courses are excellent value and an incredible opportunity, but places are limited. To secure your place, we’re asking everyone to pay a £10 deposit, which will be refunded when you attend.

Please fill in a booking form and pay the £10 deposit to the account below:

Pay by bank transfer:
Account name: LGBT Climbing Club
Type: business account
Sort: 30-98-97
Account: 66976062
Ref: Ibex training

We’re all volunteers, who set up and run the club in our own free time, borne out of a love of climbing and the joy of community.

The committee are democratically elected by the membership every year, in our AGM in November.