RAFMA Executive Committee
1 Jan 2025
There's a lot in this New Year update so here are the key points if you’re short on time!
We did lots last year – thanks to everyone involved, it was awesome! We’re low on members and therefore money is tight.
Next year we will be focussing on:
Dear RAFMA member,
Happy New Year! I hope this message finds you all well, and that you had a great holiday period. Hopefully, that included an opportunity to get out into the mountains, hills, gym or whatever your preferred venue and activity might be in the wonderful world of mountaineering.
Given that the New Year is traditionally time for taking stock and planning for the future, I thought I’d just take a few moments (ok, maybe a few more than that – get yourself a cup of tea and settle in...) to set out a summary of what we [RAFMA] achieved last year and what we’ve got planned for 2025. Some of you may have heard elements of this already if you came along to our AGM in early December. But for many of you, I suspect this will be new, and hopefully useful.
Firstly, a look back to 2024. Despite some challenges which threw it in doubt once or twice (Storm Lilian in particular causing some last minute stress before the August meet!) RAFMA’s Ops team delivered the full set of 12 monthly meets including two flagship winter and summer concentration weeks which provided amazing opportunities for skill development and adventure. We also, with particular help from the RAF Climbing Team, brought the community together through the stand-out Festival of Climbing event. In total we had 159 different members attending some form of RAFMA activity, logging an incredible 597 days of mountaineering. It’s easy to dismiss these meets as routine, but please don’t underestimate the hard work and persistence it takes behind the scenes to co-ordinate such a rich and varied programme across the country – great work from the ops team and thanks to you all for being part of it!
In terms of expeditions, it was also fantastic to see two really successful trips planned and executed in 2024. Ex VENTURE SPORTIVE was led by the climbing team but involved participants from across RAFMA, with a wide range of previous experience, to deliver a really inspiring programme that produced many personal bests and new achievements. Likewise, Ex ALPINE VENTURE showed the power of a positive mindset and a determination to succeed, organising an exped to the Swiss alps with only a few months to prepare and then faced with challenging snow conditions on arrival. It was great to see four RAFMA members overcome these obstacles and achieve their Alpine Mountain Foundation qualifications, and for some of our most experienced members to pass on their alpine knowledge to the next generation. You can read more about both of these expeds (and much more) in this year’s beautifully curated 75th anniversary RAFMA journal.
We also had some truly impressive competition successes in 2024, with the climbing team growing from strength to strength. It was a genuine pleasure to sign off so many letters awarding RAF colours for presentation by station commanders to RAFMA members who have represented at the inter-service competitions this year, and fantastic to see such individual success with the likes of Rhys Hall and Brandon Phipps dominating the bouldering this year (see this awesome video from BFBS) and podium places for Dan Heath, Dino Stock, Jasper Ray and Samantha Spencer at inter-service competitions. Well done to all involved! Looking ahead now to 2025, it’s important to begin by acknowledging some challenges that RAFMA currently faces, as they set the context for some of the plans and priorities that I’m asking the committee to focus on over the next 12 months. Specifically, our membership levels are currently quite low by historic standards (approximately 250 compared with a normal average of around 500). Whilst there are likely to be many factors at play here (COVID lockdown perhaps or a smaller overall RAF workforce), the drop in numbers can primarily be traced back to changes in our subscriptions payments system when we moved from direct debits to recurring card payments taken through the website. These changes were long overdue and necessary to bring the organisation and management of our membership onto a modern and efficient system, but had the inevitable effect of shedding some members who might otherwise have been willing to let their existing payments continue to tick over, and forcing the normal trickle of departures to happen over an artificially short period of time.
The reduced membership levels impact us most immediately in terms of our subscription income, which, alongside our grant from the RAF Central Fund (which is also partly determined by the size of our membership), makes up a significant proportion of our income each year. As a consequence, we’re predicting that RAFMA will have made an in-year loss of approximately £4k last year, following from £2K the year before, and we are forecasting that we are likely to do the same again in 2025 by about £3k. Clearly this isn’t sustainable in the long term, and this is something that I, our Head of Finance and the trustees are very much focussed on correcting – but doing so in a measured way that doesn’t make the situation worse by degrading the experience for you, our members.
There is some good news, however. The first is that RAFMA has a very healthy underlying reserve that can sustain these in-year losses for the time being. In other words, we are funding our activities from our reserves in place of subscriptions income, and the association is not in danger of becoming insolvent or taking on debt. The second is that RAFMA’s membership numbers are gradually increasing again and we have a current growth rate that should see us reach a balance of income vs expenditure by the end of 2026.
Of course, I would like us to achieve that balance much sooner if we can. Which brings me to my first priority for the committee to focus on this year – to increase membership more quickly than the current rate, with a target of achieving sufficient subscriptions income to balance expenditure by the end of 2025. We’ll be working on a range of initiatives to do this, from recruitment drives, to a refreshed website and re-invigorated new-members’ meets.
But for now, can I firstly thank you for being a member and continuing to support your association with your own annual subscription – your individual contributions are invaluable. Can I also please ask for two things from you all:
How can we make RAFMA better or more welcoming? If something is putting you off or making you consider leaving, then please tell us about it so we can fix it. I can’t promise that we can do everything for everyone, but we’ll definitely listen and do what we can. Stand by for a survey to follow in the next few weeks and please engage when it comes out, but in the meantime, just email me at mountaineering.chair@rafsport.org.uk with your ideas and feedback.
Also on my list of priorities for 2025 is to see RAFMA offering a wider range of expeditions across different mountaineering disciplines, experience levels and locations so that we have something on offer for everyone. Whether that’s high altitude alpine mountaineering in the greater ranges, trekking in North Africa or big walling in Scandinavia, RAFMA is the ideal organisation to help bring people with the right skills, experience and ambition together, with support and oversight available to anyone who wants to step up and lead. Again, look out for more communications in the near future explaining the RAFMA exped programme for 2025 and beyond, and crucially, where we have gaps for leadership that you can fill. Stepping up to lead an exped is beneficial in so many ways – not least you’ll develop skills and experience that will serve you immeasurably in your wider roles (it will look great on your annual report), but you also get to shape the aims of the exped and decide where to go and what you want to do!
Another area of focus for the committee this year will be on working towards more inclusive participation – particularly with respect to non-serving members operating alongside serving members on expeds and UK meets. Our non-serving members have so much to offer the organisation, not least in the vast quantity of mountaineering experience they hold amongst them. We’ve made considerable progress in this area over recent years, to the extent that non-serving members are now able to work in mixed groups on meets across a range of activities. But there are still some important aspects still to resolve – such as being able to recognise military mountaineering qualifications held by a non-serving member after they leave, and serving and non-serving being able to operate on the same ropes. These are complex areas of RAF and Joint Service policy and need to be worked through in concert with the various service authorities, but I’m hopeful that we can overcome these last remaining obstacles.
And lastly, but by no means least, I want to make sure RAFMA continues the growth of its competitive success. Competition climbing caught the nation’s attention at the Olympics this year with some amazing performances by the GB squad, and RAFMA has had its own share of victories this year, too. I’m really keen to capitalize on that success and profile and I’m delighted that we have a really strong sub-committee dedicated to the discipline and making great strides. I’m sure we’ll see more of that in 2025 as the Climbing Team implement their “grass-roots to Team GB” strategy that will provide competitive opportunities for all levels of climber. The beauty of RAF Sport in my mind lies in the opportunity for curious amateurs to try something new and be supported by world class facilities, coaching and opportunities. Why don’t you give it a try this year and see what you can achieve?
And whilst competition climbing has understandably been the focus of our competitive mountaineering efforts, I’m also keen to explore other competitive disciplines. I can’t say that it will be easy or that we have lots of resources to offer, but if there’s interest and you have some time available to help make it happen then I’d love to see volunteers come forward to help RAFMA field a fell running, skimo or ice climbing team. Anyone feeling ambitious?!
Thank you for making it all the way to the end, I appreciate this is quite a long message – they’ll get shorter, I promise! Please let me know what you think to any of what I’ve written.
Have a great 2025 and see you on the hill soon!
Yours,
Mark
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