Securing the Future of the GOC Caving Group

GOC Caving Group has been active for over twenty-five years.  Will it continue for another twenty-five – or even another two or three?
The Group has a reputation nationally and internationally for its challenging trips as well as easy ones for novices.  Like most caving clubs, the Group has always been small, but throughout its existence there have always been enough members to support ten to twelve weekend events each year, in addition to several international expeditions.  During a joint expedition with Moscow University Caving Club, GOC Caving Group found new caves, and pushed the exploration of one which proved to be Russia’s deepest.  Other significant expeditions have been to the Gouffre Berger in France – famous for being the first to be explored to a depth of more than 1000 metres – and to caves in New Zealand.  Within the UK, the Group is noted for its exciting caving trips, such as visits to St David’s sump in Daren Cilau, to the bottom of Birks Fell Cave, and to Maracaibo, in the Lancaster Easegill System.
For the whole time of its existence, I have been the Group coordinator.  At sixty-nine I am in good health and still enjoy the task but it is time to think about the future.  I can still cave as hard as most cavers but how long will that continue?  More importantly, the caving group needs a younger leader if it is to go on attracting new members.  Anyone enquiring for the first time must wonder how serious a group is about a sport like caving if it is organised and led by someone coming up to seventy years old.
GOC Caving Group has been so successful that I think we can claim it would be a loss to caving, not just to GOC and the gay community, if it were to close down.  We urgently need to find someone to take over from me – either by first stepping in as co-leader or by taking over outright.  It could be an existing member of the GOC Caving Group but it could be a keen caver who is not in the Group – maybe not even a member of GOC – because they do their caving with another club.
Might you take GOC Caving Group forward?  Please contact the ne (Philip, Caving Group Co-ordinator) or  Douglas (Groups Liason) if the idea interests you.

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