QUODCUMQUE FACIENDUM : NIMIS FACIEMUS
Editorial
Once again, it is Christmas time. On behalf of the B.B. team (now much
enlarged!) your editor would like to wish all club members; all readers of the
B. B. and all cavers everywhere a very happy Christmas.
No Medals For '76
With an almost record low level of publication for the B.B.
this year, it has been decided to finish as we have unfortunately gone on, and
not to make this issue of the B.B. the traditionally large one which has come
to be the usual form for Christmas. Thus, we have the 'normal' page B.B. Instead, effort is going into the January B.B. so that we can hopefully
get 1977 off to a good start and go on from there. If all goes well, we hope that it will be a
very different tale by Christmas next year.
Apology
With 'only' a normal page B.B., the editor apologises to
readers for the relatively large space taken up by his own annual contribution
- another of the allegedly humorous tales of Pete Pushem and Co. This was written some time ago when it was
hoped that the B B. would be large enough to 'lose ' it in. Sorry.
Goodbye To A5
As explained last month, once again we are about to change
the size of the B.B. - by almost the unanimous choice of those present - to
twice the present page size. As hinted
last month, I found myself in a minority over this choice, but have no reason
to grumble, since the meeting made it clear that, should I feel strongly
enough, about the format, it would remain as it is now. The new arrangement has some advantages over
this size, and some disadvantages. One
of these is that, even if we manage to increase the normal recent size of the
B.B. from 20 pages like this, it will still look thinner. However, we hope we shall be improving the
general appearance of the B.B. next year to be more in line with what the club
might hope for. Time will, of course,
tell.
The N.C.A. and All That
For some time now, the B.B. has carried no real news on the
subject of N.C.A. and its possible reorganisation. The reason, as you may remember, was that
while the Working Party on the structure of N.C.A. was conducting its research,
it was thought best not to try to influence matters in any way. This Working Party has now finished its work,
and will be presenting its findings to the Annual Meeting of N.C.A. on the 4th
of December. The Southern Council is
going to ask for the report to lay 'on the table' until a special meeting - to
be held in the spring of next year - can have time to consider it and act
accordingly. One hopes that, both at the
Annual Meeting and the Special meeting (if agreed to) commonsense will prevail.
Alfie