Northern Pennine Club
- Where Next?

In the last newsletter I did an article raising a number of questions about the future direction of the NPC; were we being too complacent in thinking (knowing) we were the best caving club in the world whilst the rest of the world was passing us by?

The response to the article was quite amazing, I received dozens of E-mails, letters and was harangued at the committee meeting and in the pub.

Thank you for all your contributions, some of which went to several pages (Andy W). There were basically two schools of thought:

• What is this idiot talking about ? Leave things alone and life will go on as normal
• This idiot has a point; life is changing and what was once a good basis for a club is becoming out of date

Obviously the common theme is idiot but by far the majority consensus view was that we need to change, if the club is to be around for another 50 years.

To quote one response:

I completely agree a change of attitude is long overdue. The increase in ease of personal transport with more cars and personal caving through SRT has greatly reduced the NPC spirit and made people more independent. We cannot fight this but we can look at the aspects of society from which we can benefit. In particular we can use a team work approach to large projects. Technology allows us to organise ourselves, share information faster and motivate the club.

We all want to maintain our identity as an autonomous club based on small groups of even more autonomous groups but we also want to have more connection between the groups. We want to eliminate the 'cliques'.

The big idea, as far as there is one, is to try and establish a wider feeling of ownership of being a member of the NPC and to encourage the sharing of experiences (caving, drinking, cycling, fishing, dinners and social events) by doing things together and also sharing ideas and information by using technology better; more mid week communication of what is going on across cliques not just within them.

If we have a wide degree of agreement as to what it is we all want from a club then the big question is how do we get there?

Everyone sent me their own ideas but there were some remarkably common themes. Probably not surprising, really. We all belong to the same caving club already so we must have a few things in common.

There was a huge consensus on the following:

• We need to pick a speleological problem, which will interest and involve a lot of people. This could be an expedition next year (which Dewi can organise) where all interests and abilities could be accommodated (offers?)
• We need to ensure everyone is aware of it and wants to be there
• We need a local project to concentrate our minds at weekends (offers?)
• We need to publish a Journal (Paul M)
• We need an interactive Web site to keep the social chatter going (Andy W)
• We need to link more closely with other clubs; again possibly using the Internet (Andy W)
• We need to apply for another Lottery grant (Iain/Tim/Paul M and Alien)

Not everyone has access to the Internet so we will still need to keep the old fashioned newsletters and phone calls going but our new members and, more importantly, our future members will take it for granted.

There was also a sizeable group who thought the unthinkable:

• We need to abandon the Clapham Gobbin, Jim Eyre cartoons etc. and develop a new logo
• We need to revitalise the committee and make it more relevant; we could use technology to exchange ideas
• We need to overhaul our social calendar

I do hope this article generates another round of heated debate.

Iain Crossley