Lots of cave rescue business

Last year, there was a big change in the way we have to run our cave rescue team. Traditionally, if people wanted to join us, they could just show up for a few trainings, and if they liked it, and the team liked them, they could apply to become probationary members. And then after a certain number of events attended, they could become full members. But then insurance changed, and only members could attend trainings. That means we have to sometimes sign people on as probationary members without ever having met them.

We did implement the change, but it did result in some organisational quandaries. For instance, we now had a whole list of probationary members from before the change, and probationary members from afterwards. We used to have criteria for changing probationary member to full members, but it was deemed that that system wasn't fit for purpose anymore in times of Covid, so nobody had become a full member in years. And then this happened. So we had to go back to the drawing board.

We had a committee meeting planned in which we intended to discuss that, and make executive decisions. By coincidence, three days before we had a callout. We also had a new training officer, who needed to think about how to document training attendance. If we ever need to call on our insurance, they will certainly want to know what regime the people involved in the insurance claim have been through! So two days after the callout we had a meeting (an online one) about that. And then that committee meeting, which was in person, in Plas y Brenin. In it, we managed to set new criteria for becoming full members, and also for staying full members. People who never show their face will end up not being called out anymore.

And after every incident, we have a debrief meeting. That one is coming up. I'm not done with these meetings yet!

Altogether it seems my life has been reduced to work, running, and cave rescue. Oh well! Work is a necessity, running is lovely, and the more involved in cave rescue I get, the more I feel like an actual part of the team, rather than just someone who thinks the team desperately needs women in this pathologically male-dominated underground exploration world, in order to be an acceptable rescue service. And if not me then who. 

I'll have to do some admin work now; changing the documentation, and changing the membership status of a whole number of people. And then the new training season will be upon us. Another year, new surprises, I'm sure!