Normal service resumed...

Not a great deal of climbing has gone on in Dobland in the last few days, so theres not a great deal of stuff to write about. Today is my first day back at work after a week and a day off - see prv post. Had a good break, been busy but have had a good time. Shed loads of emails to wade through this morning.

Briefly went to the Tor yesterday - with the Honey monster! It was fairly rubbish conditions. Humid and wet. Although the car read only 15degrees there was no breeze and pockets were damp. As usual with such a popular crag, people have been trying to climb when its wet and packing wet holds with chalk, which serves to create a toothpaste patina of slippyness on the surface of the holds. Left after about 30 minutes. Weather forecast for this week is not good, so I dont hold out too much hope of Wednesday being better, and with that in mind I am thinking of having a board session. There hasn't been much movement on the future of the school, although there was a mail from Nic from which the following is quoted :

"the outcome of the meeting ... on the 9th. It was generally thought that the idea of taking the whole place on wasn't really going to work. The plan is to encourage the council to do more in the short term, such as ongoing repairs, whilst we slowly look into the possibilities and try and get more tenants for the unused studios. Generally playing for time at this stage really.

We're meeting up with the council in early September and asking that they bring all the available info they have such as repair costs for work needed, total rents and running costs etc. I'll keep you updated as we go."

I am reading that if we are to fill the other spaces then the future of the building must run into the medium to long term? surely noone's going to rent a space which is only going to be usable for 6 months? we wait and see.

On the email that was going round I wrote that we should review the membership. I think there are people who are members who either haven't been for a long time and have even moved away from sheffield/given up climbing. I understand that once you have obtained coveted school membership you're not going to want to give it up, as its difficult to get in, and part of the issue is the price, its so cheap that non local people, or people who havent been for ages probably think they will keep membership on as its only £80 a year. £80 a year for access to the best board in the country? bargain. However, there's a shortfall between running the building and the rental income. Basically, I suggested increasing school subs. Proportionally, there are more people using the board than use the artists studios, so maybe we should contribute more (but then again, we could keep the money within the collective and invest it in board upgrades). Increasing the rent might discourage 'sleeping members'. I know of some people who are no longer Sheff-resident, but who retain a place on the list as its cheap, and once you have forfeited, you cant easily get back on. That's not to say that a non sheff resident who is still regular (someone from derby par example) should be excluded...

On the other hand, if you weed out the non visiting members then the board will get busier. This has a positive slant, and thats that there will be atmosphere, people will push each other - we might even see an increase in some climbers standards! but it will be busier, and it doesn't take much for it to be too busy to use. For those new-non-members, there'd be more people going up regularly to buddy up with so they should still be able to get in?

Sigh. Better do some work.