21

competitions / Re: Olympic qualification Paris 2024

« Last post by teestub on Today at 03:48:51 pm »

Yes 20 into semis, 10 Olympic places available overall from the 2 events combined, so maybe that’s what it’s showing as a cut off?

22

get involved: access, environment, BMC / Re: BMC Resolutions shout out 📣

« Last post by tomtom on Today at 03:29:02 pm »

Email just come in from the BMc. Presumably all members will get it: copy pasted below.


Dear Members,

This is a painful message for me to write as one of my first major communications to you all.

My approach from starting the role in February 2024 has been to operate with honesty, openness and transparency and the purpose of this open letter is to lay out the financial situation of the BMC, following our annual audit.

Regrettably, today, I need to announce that the BMC made a larger than expected loss of £625k in 2023 and we have finished the financial year with our reserves down to £217k.

These losses are significant and place a considerable amount of strain on the organisation, far beyond what was understood in February 2024 and the starting point I envisaged coming into this role.

Since February, we have undertaken an enhanced audit of our accounts and procedures to be able to gain clarity on what has occurred in 2023 and why. This identified several misstatements that require adjustments for the end of year balance.

A significant area of our losses relates to the funding of our performance operations. For this we apologise and recognise swift and impactful change was and is needed.

The main reasons for these losses are grouped as follows:

1.    Reconciliation of grants relating to GB Climbing and poor controls of budgets resulting in additional cost to the BMC.

2.    Inaccurate accounting of VAT resulting in additional cost to the BMC.

3.    Profit reconciliation across several areas including bad debtors and fees for services owed. 

4.    Loss of insurance income in July 2023.

5.    The costs of restructuring, redundancies, and staff departures due to not tracking ambitious growth targets.

This year, the BMC will be focused on resetting and bringing stability to the organisation. The immediate actions we have taken are focussed on ensuring our funded activity operates within its means plus additional areas of cost saving:

1.    Restructuring GB Climbing department to bring costs in line with grants received, resulting in a reduction of 4.6 full time equivalent (FTE) roles since the end of 2023.

2.    The ending of the contract for ‘Unit E’ Performance Centre.

3.    Reducing Competition, Training and Education and Marketing budgets.

4.    Restructure of the BMC online shop from 1 August, with reduction of 1 FTE role.

5.    Reducing office overheads. 

6.    Pausing recruitment for non-essential positions.

To move towards better processes and more transparency in our financial systems we are working with an interim financial leader. We will be separating out the financial reporting of grant income from membership and commercial income as part of our accounting systems. This will be reflected in a clearer and more transparent structure between our grant funded and membership funded activities. 

The Board of Directors have recognised the need for urgent change in our risk and audit oversight and have approved structural changes to the operations of our funded areas.

I have updated and consulted with Members Council, your elected representative group, on the status and looked for support and direction from them.

We will be publishing the detailed audit as part of the annual report for the AGM, and I would welcome your questions and engagement in the upcoming events listed below.

Having identified and addressed the issues that have led to this position, I am optimistic that, while the starting point is further back than I had hoped, we can commence building reserves back, remaining absolutely focussed on representing the interests of our community.

I want to thank each and every one of you for your support, which currently is more important than ever. My commitment to you is to take care of this wonderful organisation to the best of my ability.

Warmest regards,
Paul Ratcliffe


BMC CEO 

23

news / Re: There’s a bloke fighting this weekend

« Last post by Moo on Today at 03:26:13 pm »

Yeah styles make fights and I think these two are unquestionably the best boxers at heavyweight right now.

24

competitions / Re: Olympic qualification Paris 2024

« Last post by sherlock on Today at 02:59:52 pm »

Links to the livestreams/replays here for when they're up: https://olympics.com/en/sport-events/olympic-qualifier-series-2024-shanghai/replays

Hopefully it'll be possible to just click that link and pick a stream/video - last time climbing comps were hosted on the Olympics site (World Champs last year maybe?) it was impossible to navigate to the replay without first seeing who'd won 

Just noticed Droyd posted link above.....
Doh!
I thought it was 20 in semi and 8 in the final?
Doesn't really mean a lot at this stage surely?

25

get involved: access, environment, BMC / Re: BMC Resolutions shout out 📣

« Last post by Tony on Today at 02:54:00 pm »

Does anybody want to see the BMC die? I don’t (never did cancel my membership, decided you can’t argue for reform and leave).

Firstly, I’m glad to hear this.

I would suggest that your posts in this thread do not demonstrate “financial illiteracy” [I commend the excellent quote] but, rather,  highlight the support you and your business receives through well developed policies, procedures and governance learnt from across the group of companies and their experienced leadership.

I’d also point out that (much like E grades…) we don’t expect finances to scale linearly; scaling from your €100M, the BMC would require a CEO’s signature on every bill of more than £450. That doesn’t seem like a good use of time.

Given the God awful job of ensuring any sort of sensible governance/oversight the previous incumbent did, I doubt it would have helped in any case.

I completely agree with voices as disparate as the Council and Remus that Nails is delusional if Nails thinks they could get anywhere near approximating the spending split *retrospectively* within the BMC within a day with the (evident) haphazard accounting that occurred in the period. From the noises being made, I suspect the paper trail may simply be impossible to reconstruct (at least without excessive expense - [dubious] finance IT system “migration” was mentioned). As Remus says HMRC only cares about tax its owed from the organisation overall.

The Council and the new leadership have taken a sensible and pragmatic approach. The best thing members can do now is to support and encourage the Council to constructively hold the Board to account.

26

competitions / Re: Olympic qualification Paris 2024

« Last post by galpinos on Today at 02:53:18 pm »

It seems to show 10 "qualifying" athletes in the results. Is it only 10 in the semis?

27

bouldering / Re: Non-Quality Bouldering Videos

« Last post by Wellsy on Today at 01:41:32 pm »

Yeah that probably works. I think if you're mega tall it's 5+, I'm 5'10 and I had to do a mighty leap

28

bouldering / Re: Non-Quality Bouldering Videos

« Last post by lagerstarfish on Today at 01:23:58 pm »

The only way I could make the start 5+ was to "French" start it. Bounce up from one foot on the floor.

29

competitions / Re: Olympic qualification Paris 2024

« Last post by sherlock on Today at 12:14:39 pm »

Full Qualifications on replay now, all 5 hrs of it. On Olympic Channel App but can't post link for some reason.

30

get involved: access, environment, BMC / Re: BMC Resolutions shout out 📣

« Last post by Oldmanmatt on Today at 11:35:57 am »

Thanks Ben

Being kicked in the nuts by MC currently feels like the last straw from a personal perspective.

Some say it’s too fucked to fix. I can see how it can be rescued in terms of drastic actions to take to stop the cash burn and rebuild from there but the politics of having competent leadership in place with experience of business recovery and being given that sort of mandate still appears a long way off when the Board are still quibbling over trivia.

In one respect, Offwidth is right. The past is the past and there (at the moment, pending further revelations) is no reason to believe the organisation is beyond salvage.
End the BS and platitudes, come clean, investigate properly (external audit?), publish the action plan and remedials and watch the support grow. Does anybody want to see the BMC die? I don’t (never did cancel my membership, decided you can’t argue for reform and leave).