BC Membership For Div 4 Races

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Patrick O'Hara
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BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by Patrick O'Hara » Fri Aug 13, 2021 10:53 pm

Does anyone know how things now work with regards to BC membership for Div 4 races? It used to be that adults had to be a BC member or pay for a day membership and juniors also had the option of being a member of a club that had a BC registered youth section. The BC website now says "Entry-level competition and participation events - Club Associate members are covered by insurance for entry-level competitions organised for, or on behalf of, British Canoeing Discipline Committees, or participation events organised by Regional Development Teams". So it sounds like all club members rather than just juniors don't need BC or day membership.

If this is the case, is there a list of BC affiliated clubs? What proof must the organiser see to be satisfied that someone is a club associate? Does this only apply to English clubs or can an event in England accept Div 4 entries from Scottish and Welsh club members with out requiring full or day membership?

JimW
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by JimW » Tue Aug 17, 2021 12:24 am

Great questions.

I can't answer them, but can confirm that SCA use different insurance so this almost certainly will not apply to SCA competitors at events organised in England or Wales, nor to BC or CW competitors at events in Scotland.

It is pretty rare that div 4's travel more than locally, exceptions might be when Llandysul run a div 4 with other divisions that families travel to, or Breadalbane run an Aberfeldy div 3/4 in the week before a div 1 at Tully....

CeeBee
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by CeeBee » Tue Aug 17, 2021 9:47 am

Hopefully it does apply as charging membership for introductory events is a barrier to entry. The sport badly needs new blood after covid and we need to take proactive steps across the sport to encourage paddlers to take up slalom. It is a great sport to be involved in.

We always used to allow this at Scottish events before someone decided that charging day membership raised money and muddied the waters by claiming it is for insurance. The insurance is unnecessary as there are lots of people at events who are not members and therefore not insured. The club insurance for running the event is more than sufficient.

Allowing non members to race allowed paddlers to come and try slalom a few times and see if it was for them. Once they are promoted, they would be delighted and happily pay the membership fee to join the SCA and continue competing.

As a club organiser, asking paddlers for the entry fee of £6 and SCA day membership fee of £5 isn't easy when you are trying to attract young paddlers to the sport particularly if there are siblings paddling too. There are few enough organising clubs too so again, the governing bodies need to make it easier for organisers to run races.

djberriman
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by djberriman » Mon Aug 30, 2021 10:08 pm

I've been banging on about this like a bad record about this for a number of years.

Div 4 paddlers should not need to be a BC member to try the sport regardless of age, a step forward would be to allow BC affiliated club members of any age even if we can't do 'anyone', I'm amazed that the sport can still have an age discriminatory rule, why is a young paddler covered by club membership but an adult not, doesn't seem very inclusive.

Not only does it put a barrier in place for 'come and try it' entries but it puts off mums and dads who might have a go and causes a cost issue when you ask someone to jump in a boat to make an event quorate.

I'm pretty sure other disciplines do not require BC membership at their lowest level so I'm unsure why slalom does.

CeeBee
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by CeeBee » Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:18 pm

I too have raised this for many years and had a long chat with the BC Slalom committee on the topic.

For those of us working with the grassroots, I find it really hard to introduce people to the sport when you have to pay the entry fee and then day membership fee. Surely paddlers can do a couple of taster events before committing to membership. We need to find ways for people to do slalom rather than having barriers to entry.

djberriman
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by djberriman » Tue Aug 31, 2021 8:44 pm

Daft thing is there is nothing (in most cases) preventing any member of the public paddling the course. We've had to rescue day trippers before now who've decided to run Howsham whilst an event was on. The event has public liability insurance provided by BC, you could argue the paddlers are covered by club affiliation so why do they need individual insurance if they are an adult, makes no sense.

CeeBee
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by CeeBee » Wed Sep 01, 2021 9:06 am

Hard to conclude that it is anything other than a money making ruse hidden under unnecessary insurance.

alan1nckc
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by alan1nckc » Sat Sep 04, 2021 12:09 pm

Clubs are allowed to run taster sessions for non-members - officially up to three times per individual. This ought to apply to slalom as well.

Patrick O'Hara
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by Patrick O'Hara » Sat Sep 11, 2021 11:25 pm

Duncan, your wish has come true, all club associate members are now covered for entry level events, not just juniors, see https://www.britishcanoeing.org.uk/guid ... /insurance. My original post was about how event organisers validate someone's club associate membership status.

djberriman
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by djberriman » Sun Sep 12, 2021 12:36 am

Well that is good news!

Not heard about it. Phew that saves a lot of faff for associate members. Must make sure all the rules and info reflect that (if they don't already).

I can check any BC membership is valid, if associate members get a BC number (possible these days). Should be possible for organisers to have access.

If not you'd have to have proof of club membership I guess and perhaps check that club has renewed its membership.

CeeBee
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by CeeBee » Sun Sep 12, 2021 5:06 pm

That is very good news.

Looks like SCA use the same insurance as BC so will apply in Scotland too.

The wording is quite clear.

Entry-level competition and participation events

Club Associate members are covered by insurance for entry-level competitions organised for, or on behalf of, British Canoeing Discipline Committees, or participation events organised by Regional Development Teams.

djberriman
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Re: BC Membership For Div 4 Races

Post by djberriman » Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:31 pm

Club associate members should sign up on the BC portal and then associate themselves with their club, they should then get an associate membership. I believe that process requires manual intervention at the moment by the club administrator (ours is raising an issue to get it sorted).

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