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ABCTT October Newletter

John Roberts (incoming ABCTT Chair of Trustees) and Martin Chester (ABCTT Executive Officer) at our recent Annual General Meeting.

Dear All

It was great to see many of you from our NICAS and NIBAS walls at our recent AGM, held on 28th September 2017 at Plas y Brenin. Have a read of the Annual Report and the details of our new trustees who were elected into post at the AGM. We are really excited to have a full board of skilled, motivated trustees, selected to be able to deliver on our key strategic priorities ahead.

All the best,

Executive Officer, ABCTT

Meet our Chair: John Roberts

It’s an honour to take over as Chair of the ABCTT, and step into Neil Wightwick’s shoes. Neil, the trustees and the officer and admin team at the ABCTT have created a fantastic scheme and organisation with excellent governance.

I’m grateful to all of them for putting the ABCTT in such a strong position for supporting climbers and climbing walls in the future to grow the scheme.

We’re now joined by 4 new high calibre trustees who I know are looking forward to supporting Martin and the team to develop and deliver our next 5 year strategy. It was also a pleasure to meet many you at the ABC AGM a couple of weeks ago, and I look forward to meeting more of you during my tenure as Chair.

Logbook cover photos
We really value the feedback we receive from walls and have recently replaced our Level 1-3 logbook cover shot.

We want to promote excellence with our logbooks, and we would love your help! If you'd like a candidate from your centre to feature in a future logbook, please send us your hi-res images for consideration. #NICASinaction

Level 3: Free PDF
For centres with candidates using the previous Level 1 to 2 logbooks, and who now wish to move to Level 3, there is an option to use a free PDF of L3 assessment pages; rather than buying a new logbook.

Contact us to obtain a copy (NB you must deliver Level 3 at your climbing wall to be eligible).

Technical Top Tips
We plan to include top tips from our Technical Officer, Iain McKenzie, in each newsletter. These will be based on the enquiries that Iain receives out and about at walls, plus in response to queries via our website.

Have a look at his top tips for running a great session at the wall.

Candidate Database
We're very close to being able to communicate our database rollout plans in the coming weeks. We will have a phased rollout starting with Course Directors / Administrators who are already TahDah account holders. Essentially, if you have an MT account, our system will use the same login you already have. We will be providing guidance nearer the rollout time, including short training videos to aid a smooth transition.

Mountain Training: Coaching
Have you seen this recent "get started in coaching" MT video, which features one of our NICAS Technical Experts; Katherine Schirrmacher.

There is also a coaching podcast from one of our trustees; John Dunne, available via the MT website.

NICAS Website
Since July, our updated website has been generating traffic (over 3,500 unique visits), and driving customers to NICAS providers through our "find a centre" search function.

We have had 61 website generated requests since launch, from teachers asking about GCSEs to centre staff asking about orders. We're really pleased with how the new site has been received so far.

NICAS Graduate News
July 2017 saw our highest ever number of NICAS Level 4 graduates, with 36 progressing onto Level 5. We are very excited about this and wish them all well as they move through the Level 5 syllabus.

Level 5 Graduates
Well done to the following climbers who have graduated from NICAS in recent months; their names and presentation titles are as follows:

Surrey Sports Park:

Charlotte: Evolution of Climbing Shoes
Ralph: The BMC and its RolesJessica: Evolution of the Karabiner,
Kristen: The IFSC Boulder World Cup - What is it and how does it work?

The Pinnacle:

Robert: Equipment required for lead climbing (e.g belay devices, ropes, harnesses, helmets, quick draws)
Connor: The history behind the scheme, how it was rolled out through climbing walls in the UK; requirements of the levels and how they link to the wider world of climbing.

We always love to hear about your Level 5 graduates, and we will send them a badge as recognition of their achievements. Contact us with their first name, and details of their presentation.