BB JOURNAL OF THE BRISTOL EXPLORATION CLUB
Vol. 9 No.89
February 1955
Report on the Annual General Meeting 1955. Dan Hasell was elected as Chairman for the meeting. The Minutes if the 1954 A/G.M. were adopted. The Hon. Sec’s report was brief; membership had risen by one to 118. The estimated number of 95 people at the dinner was an increase of 40 on last year. The club donated £5 to the Balch Testimonial Fund. Members had so far subscribed £2/2/-. He stressed the need of advising change of address. The Hon. Treas. Report was adopted, subject to a small item being rectified. The usual Belfry profit this year had been absorbed by the re-felting of the roof. He did not favour the building of a new Tackle/Changing Room until the matter of site ownership was cleared. A slight decrease in the number of caving trips was reported. This seemed due to bad weather. R. Gardner asked when something was to be published on Cuthberts. D. Coase replied that this would be done when the Proceedings were published. K. Dobbs was asked why the entry restriction to Cuthberts was continued. The answer was that the cave was not yet fully explored. Due to the size of the cave it is impracticable to let people wander around, but parties are catered for. Tackle. It was reported that the club now has 55ft. of wood and wire ladder, 70ft. of dural and 36ft. of ultralightweight. The usual Question ‘Where are the digging implements?’ was asked, and, as usual, was not answered. The use of the ultra-lightweight tackle was explained that it was not robust enough for general use and that the safety factor of this tackle was low. Belfry. Bed nights were down by 84 to 746, possible due to fewer outside clubs visiting Mendip, and a drop off of older regular users. A vote of thanks was proposed to Sett for his services as Hut Warden. He will be no longer able to continue in this office. It was decided to refer the complaint about the locking of the Belfry to the 1955 Committee for action. Library. As a result of the Library Report it became obvious that even less books were borrowed than last year. It was suggested that a list of stationery Office publications should be obtained with a view to purchasing relevant books for the library.