UKC

What are you thoughts on the BMC membership? Is it worth it? Do you feel like a valued member of the BMC? 

Morally, being a member of the BMC is brilliant. Knowing that I am supporting the BMC, who finance the protection of crags, locations, footpaths and legislation. Financially supporting the improvement of accessibility of the sports covered by BMC is brilliant!

However, what do I gain from this? The benefits in terms of discounts are more limiting and not as good as what is provided by MTA. But also you can access the members benefits page without being logged in, because currently there is no log in that works. I have never individually directly gained from being a BMC member. 

Rather than a slating and an odd quip from some people, I am just looking for peoples thoughts on whether it is worth it? 

In reply to Reader_Rambles:

The cost per route if I counted up how many times I climbed at Tremadog would likely be worth it, morally, but also if you go back to foot and mouth era the bmc access staff worked hard with lots of agencies to open up a few places. There was a secondary fence at the top of Tremadog, Cwm Idwal was fenced or walled (that's the gateway you now use). Think of it as insurance for future, we never know when we'll need a collective voice.

In reply to Reader_Rambles:

Have you thought about the 3rd party insurance cover?

In reply to Reader_Rambles:

I'd say that if you're thinking of it in those terms the answer is almost certainly no.

In reply to Reader_Rambles:

It's the little things that count.

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rock_talk/wintours_leap_access_gate_lock-...

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/crag_access/newstones_-_access_incident-7...

In reply to Reader_Rambles:

I don't buy a lot of gear but my membership usually pays for itself in discounts. I suspect it will even at the new price.

In reply to Reader_Rambles:

I thought you answered your own question tbh?

 

In reply to Reader_Rambles:

Of course. That's not a failure by the BMC, it's just a reflection of them being very different organisations with different memberships. As BMC members, we're just a bunch of punters and the companies offering discounts have no special incentive to get us wearing their gear beyond the profit they can make from it. As MTA is for professionals or aspiring professionals, the companies are keen to offer better discounts because they assume those professionals are likely to influence what gear their clients buy (either by direct recommendation or just being seen in it). That's also why the organisation for MIAs and MICs used to get better discounts than the one for SPAs and MLs, though I'm not sure whether that distinction still exists.

In reply to Reader_Rambles:

A Monty Python quote comes to mind:

"Apart from financing the protection of crag, locations footpaths and legislation, what has the BMC ever done for us?"

There are many crags where access would not be possible had the BMC not made the case for climbers via various methods including inputting into CRoW, negotiations with landowners, etc. And that's just for starters.

In reply to Reader_Rambles:

Betteridge's law of headlines and thread titles applies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines

In reply to Reader_Rambles: You're not going to have much of a career if lots of places get banned for climbing, so yes it's probably a good idea.

Unless you're proposing the MTA absorb an awful lot of new members with no intentiion of ever becoming instructors etc.