[shark]

Ordinarily a contested election for President would be the stand out news for a BMC AGM but this year it is overshadowed by the proposed changes to the constitutiion.

I think the only other time there was a contested election was when Doug Scott stood against Rab Carrington.

Personally, I am delighted that the former Peak Area secretary, compulsive hugger and all round good egg Lynn Robinson is standing. I think she would be an excellent choice and a breath of fresh air in the role. Her full statement is here

Lynn says:

"I am a current BMC Vice President. If elected as President, I will use my extensive experience to steer the organisation to further success at this time of change and challenge.
 
I care passionately about representing and involving members, about keeping the BMC active as the National Representative Body and about supporting volunteers to make the BMC the best it can be."


The other candidate is Les Ainsworth and he says:

" I am standing for BMC President because of my concern that the polarising affects of the organisational change process could lead to the loss of many good, long-standing members, whichever way the vote goes. Although many members may see these organisational changes as peripheral to their personal climbing and mountaineering interests, the organisational structure that we adopt will impact the full range of the BMC’s activities. Whilst I fully accept that members hold passionate views on both sides of this issue, I am saddened that debate has become to some extent characterised by claims of ‘steam rollering’, ‘misinformation’, ‘withheld information’, ‘overinterpretation of subjective data’ and ‘deliberate bias’. This has all led to a degree of mistrust and so a lot of bridge building will be needed to unify the BMC whatever the outcome of the vote."

His full statement is here

I gather both Lynn and Les are attending the Peak Area meeting tomorrow night so you can hear what they have to say and ask questions

More info including those standing for other posts is here:  www.thebmc.co.uk/bmc-agm-candidates
 

[Will Hunt]

Is this big news? Having read both their statements (and voted already), they both seem to be occupying largely the same platform?

[Oldmanmatt]

Is this big news? Having read both their statements (and voted already), they both seem to be occupying largely the same platform?

I believe the critical word there is “seem”...

[shark]

Don’t know him but Ainsworth is the preferred candidate of Pettigrew and other tier one signatories.

[Will Hunt]

I know Les a bit. Really lovely bloke from my experience with him. Works his socks off for others in his various BMC volunteering roles. Worshipped as a minor god in Lancashire for very good reason. Can be outspoken on certain issues (he's no lover of Rockfax, I don't think it would surprise anyone to hear). I think he can be a little old fashioned at times - he doesn't do Facebook or anything of that ilk - which shows a little in the comparison of Lynn's and his statements.

He worked on the ORG which made the recommendations that the Tier 1 crew object to so much. Maybe he isn't happy with all of the recommendations but that hasn't shown in his statement. His statement mentions that he's not much for indoor climbing and comps etc but he recognises that times change and that these things are a part of climbing now. It doesn't look very Bob to me.

I've only met Lynn once but she was indeed a very good egg and good hugger. It seems like they could both do the job well, if not quite differently I would imagine.

[andy popp]

Splitters! From a distance (and, admittedly with zero interest, just as I would have if I still lived in the UK) this is starting to look faintly ridiculous.

[Fiend]

Pretty sure I've met both, pretty sure I approve of both due to having good traditional values and hearts in the right place etc, but from what I've experience, Lynn is less old-fashioned than Les and for that reason would get my vote (as long as the traditional values are still in place). A female overlady in a male-dominated (especially in the history of climbing organisations) arena would be interesting too.

[Oldmanmatt]

Splitters! From a distance (and, admittedly with zero interest, just as I would have if I still lived in the UK) this is starting to look faintly ridiculous.

No, no, no...
We’re the Popular Peoples 8th September Front of Judea...

[shark]

Les gave a presentation last night and it was obvious that he was very different to Lynn.

Lynn was as usual gushingly positive and optimistic - glass all full. Les was downbeat and quite negative particularly at NC and the ORG - glass largely empty.

Lynn unequivocally stated she was an option A supporter. Les said he was only an Option A supporter because of the last minute concessions obtained by Jonathon White from the Option B group.

He also made a very strange (and obviously public) accusation about an incident to do with the competition team which was illuminating as he was clearly repeating what a parent said at the NW area meeting and had not looked into it any further with the BMC office. I thought this showed poor judgement. Fortunately the Comps Officer was there to rebut this.

He also claimed the professionally commissioned surveys from the ORG were crap. I was waiting with anticipation for Rab Carrington to rebut this but unfortunately he chose to bite his tongue.

He made no reference in his presentation to hillwalking which Peter Judd picked him up on. He also claimed that Area Reports were no longer a topic on NC meetings. The NC reps said they are but discussion had been shelved in recent meetings due to ORG heavy agendas.

Those were the key things that stuck in my mind but overall his presentation struck me as based on piecemeal anecdotal stuff rather than a coherent forward-looking vision based on a deep knowledge of the BMC as it currently is today.


.

[highrepute]

Thanks for reporting back

[galpinos]

Are they both doing a tour of all the areas?

[teestub]

So Lynn is Hillary Clinton and Les is Donald Trump?

[Will Hunt]

I know your tongue is in cheek there, Tee, but just to come to Les' defence again, I do think he's a nice bloke.

Shark's post adds some insight (though obviously Lynn is the BMC's preferred candidate and Shark is a BMC stooge now ( ), so it's not impossible that his post is biased). I voted a while ago but in light of Shark's info I'm still happy with how I voted.

Anyway, the only reason I'm posting is because things like this nowadays can get very polarised and unpleasant. It wouldn't honestly be fair to brand Les as a Donald Trump or Bob Pettigrew character. When I saw him and Lynn in the same room recently he was hugged, perhaps to near unconsciousness.

[r-man]

Policies aside, Les has spent decades cleaning overgrown crags* and tackling the script for every edition of the BMC Lancashire Rock guidebook. He has done loads for the climbing scene in the northwest. Painting him as a Trump figure and the enemy of good sense may make it easier for some people to decide their vote, but it's a long way from the truth.

*Not just a few routes here and there. Whole crags. The amount of effort is astounding.

[shark]

I know your tongue is in cheek there, Tee, but just to come to Les' defence again, I do think he's a nice bloke.

Shark's post adds some insight (though obviously Lynn is the BMC's preferred candidate and Shark is a BMC stooge now ( ), so it's not impossible that his post is biased). I voted a while ago but in light of Shark's info I'm still happy with how I voted.

Anyway, the only reason I'm posting is because things like this nowadays can get very polarised and unpleasant. It wouldn't honestly be fair to brand Les as a Donald Trump or Bob Pettigrew character. When I saw him and Lynn in the same room recently he was hugged, perhaps to near unconsciousness.

Yes I should make clear views expressed are my own and I should elaborate on my biases/perspectives. My views have been informed by being outside the BMC until purchasing this website with the BMC as our longest advertiser. Following that I attended Peak Area meetings and writing a fixed gear policy and largely rewriting the High Tor and Raven Tor sections of the new guides and reviving the newsletter with Cofe. I had an 18 month stint as Peak Area National Council Rep and joined the BMC office on a 12 month contract as a contractor for the BMC in Jan 2017 providing commercial partnership services. This was renewed for a further 12 months. So I have (uniquely?) interacted with the organisation in a number of ways.

I like the fact that we have a large powerful national representative body but I frequently despair at the slowness of decision making, lack of strategic clarity and general un-business like way things are done. I appreciate it is a public body but efficiency and effectiveness and clarity in operations and best use of member money isn't inconsistent with its purpose.

Modernising aspects like empowering a professional Board (in attitude rather than salaried) gives me hope that maybe the BMC can start making more ambitious moves in that direction and work more effectively with other partner organisations to achieve common goals. The ORG was a great piece of work and much like the Beveridge report we now need a Nye Bevan type character to put it into practice in spirit if not necessarily in detail (even Bevan made compromises).

Les struck me in his presentation as too rooted to the past and status quo (not to say hes not a nice person or an amazing committed longstanding volunteer). Lynn I believe has the energy and commitment to drive significant change and is a better choice for keeping the BMC relevant to climbing as it is now rather than what it was. She has a disarmingly down to earth personality and has a passion for volunteers and volunteering. Hopefully she will build bridges and win trust once the dust has settled.

In case you didn't guess I will be voting for Lynn.

[Offwidth]

If Lynn is Hillary I guess I'm in deep shit. 

I agree with r mans point about Les and his gargantuum Lancashire efforts but In defence of Lynn's efforts she has contributed masses herself and is less well known for that part of her BMC work and possibly to even more guidebooks than Les (I count 14 now) even though she only really started officially in 2000. She has been up to her neck in anything from rhododendrons to tramp detritus, in guidebook cleaning, on countless grit and limestone sessions from Woodhouse Scar down to Turning Stone, and at a few 'elsewhere' climbing festivals besides (inc 5  Facelifts... the Yosemite variety). This is for someone who would rather be climbing in the mountains.  She's also helped a few climbers editing private book stuff (all for free of course).

Les IS a nice bloke, please keep it clean.

[teestub]

So more Thatcher Callaghan?

[Offwidth]

Sure... all those millions of Thatcher hugs erased from history by a hostile Labour press ;-)

Lynn also used to be quite handy on padding slabs. There is a highball pure padding problem just right of an easier V7 slab arete at the back of Ramshaw, Dangerous Crocodile area, where she top roped a prospective line without a fall, brushing it clean all the way up. No one else in our group got up without a slip. Nice project for a proper slab meister... pads in the groove below the upper section.

I hope that is uxurious enough for y'all.

[shark]

Lynn also used to be quite handy on padding slabs. There is a highball pure padding problem just right of an easier V7 slab arete at the back of Ramshaw, Dangerous Crocodile area, where she top roped a prospective line without a fall, brushing it clean all the way up. No one else in our group got up without a slip. Nice project for a proper slab meister... pads in the groove below the upper section.

That’s all very well but what has she done in the Indo-Tibet (China) border region of the Punjab Himalaya (Himachal Pradesh).

[teestub]

I hope that is uxurious enough for y'all.

Well I've at least learned a new word!

[andy popp]

And a great word it is too.

[JR]

He worked on the ORG which made the recommendations that the Tier 1 crew object to so much.

Les didn't work on the ORG, but we did get a list of the report's spelling mistakes from him.

He has done a huge amount of work for the BMC, and I respect highly what he's done for Lancashire, and guidebook work with the BMC.

That said, I don't believe he is the right person for the presidency at such a critical time, and for that reason I'm supporting Lynn.