[Nails]

Does it not strike you as more than a little bit worrying that the Finance and Audit Committee don't have basic knowledge of the finances. The notion that these "details" need chasing down is ridiculous. They should be readily to hand. There will be a considerably better breakdown of expenditure than that given in the Finance Report if you  simply look at the Corporation Tax return.

I don't think members should actually focus on anything at all until there's some basic transparency regarding expenditure. The Finance Report is a massive red flag as the breakdown given looks like a deliberate attempt to  muddy the waters and prevent members from seeing where money was actually spent.

 

[Offwidth]

Of course it's ridiculous. Six of us, including both FAC members, wrote a letter to Council and Board last March (23) about serious concerns around overall finances, areas that seemed to demonstrate lack of financial control, serious stakeholder communications in GB Climbing, overoptimistic looking forecasts of membership growth and breaches of our governance requirements (wrt informing Council) and a number of other issues. Subsequently Council formally challenged the Board in April (23) under our governance rules.

Mismanagement and substandard Board oversight had led to these problems. Since that time Council have been doing our best under our governance remit but we only advise on general strategic and financial direction: Senior  Management run the organisation day to day,  under the guidance of the Board.

Further management problems in 2023 occured until our CEO left. Then until the end of 2023 we were in a holding position due to remaining management and Board having to cover the CEO work alongside managing a restructure in some areas to cut costs and sorting out several other problems (including reassuring funders and funding partners). The situation in 2023 was further complicated by a shift to a new finance system (good in itself but it made 2022 information harder to retrieve). Things finally started improving quickly in 2024 with the appointment of our new CEO.

We can't change the past but we can learn from it. Financial planning is more realistic. Improved financial openness is agreed across the BMC. Financial control in GB Climbing will be strictly maintained. Stakeholder engagement in GB Climbing must be seen to improve:  we hope current plans will acheive that but if they don't (and sadly there are still clear issues visible for now, around athlete quotas) everyone is watching, so the plans will have to change again. Plus lots of other initiatives too.

[Aussiegav]

Difficult to learn from this when there’s lack of understanding, rigour & governance structure to identify where it’s gone wrong. Further compounded by the lack of integrity & probity in the way the BMC runs.

Hats off to Shark and others who valiantly fought to hold the BMC to account and act in the best interests of BMC members.

I’m seriously considering ceasing my membership and transferring the funds to the Peak Bolting group.

Any recommendations for a company that offers good travel insurance for climbers

[Offwidth]

As I said, serious mistakes were made. However they were people issues (and people can break the best of governance systems). However, in the last couple of years, the hundreds of volunteers and staff (away from leadership and governance) just got on with their good work. Why punish them for mistakes in leadership (mistakes that are already a good way to being fixed).

Simon has been a real help on pressuring for financial openness (his was one of the first points I raised when I joined Council),  sadly he was a bit late to this 'gig', as Council were working towards resolution last March. If you have concerns let your Council reps know: evidence from members was how we broke the internal governance communication 'log jam' last spring.

I wish someone else would speak up about this excellent work in really difficult times (since 2017 really, but especially in covid and 2023)... I've just finished a monthly national access meeting celebrating some past BMC work and a discussion on how this is leading to future similar developments and better relationships with conservation groups.