The BCA has need for help in the following positions and tasks. Each one comes with a FREE one year full membership.
Artist to redesign our logo (Cichlid with Union Jack colours or other idea)
Articles for our quarterly publication Cichlidae
Online Meeting Manager (Runs our planned online monthly meetings, Zoom or similar)
Index our Cichlidae Articles (100+ online issues ready to be indexed)
Please contact the chairman at the following gmail.com address if you’d like to help : britishcichlid.chairman@
Join the BCA Management Committee!!!
All officers, except Non-Elected Officers, will retire each year but will be eligible for re-appointment. Notification of nominations for posts will be made to the Secretary no less than 20 days before the annual general meeting. Nominations will be posted on the members only area of the forum no less than 14 days before the AGM. Where more than one nomination a notification of election will be made on the members only area of the forum.
Committee Posts:
Chairman.
The Chairman is ultimately responsible for the BCA. The post involves a mix of diplomacy and firm management to ensure that the Association delivers all the services it offers and is run in a professional manner, and in accordance with its Constitution and Rules and statute law. It requires a good knowledge of how the Association is run, and is best reserved for members of many years standing, who will ideally have previously held a lesser Committee post. The Chairman may need to make difficult decisions, and to find solutions to new situations where the Rules and precedent are no help.
Honorary Secretary.
The BCA Honorary Secretary position has changed hugely in recent years with many tasks now being allocated to the Events Manager. He/She now solely deals with the formal business and correspondence (paper and electronic) of the Association.
Treasurer.
The Treasurer is the ultimate authority on finance for the BCA and has the final say on what can be spent – except where limits are imposed by the Rules – and may impose additional limits on expenditure by other persons from time to time.
Cichlidae Editor.
The Cichlidae Editor is responsible for the publication of the Association’s bi-monthly journal Cichlidae. This is probably the most time-consuming Committee post and requires meticulous attention to detail in order to maintain the high standard required. Scheduling is important to ensure the journal is published on time. Ideally the Cichlidae Editor will be organised, highly literate with good spelling and grammar, up to-date with aquatic science and cichlid taxonomy, familiar with the laws of copyright and defamation, able to lay out text and photos in Microsoft Word to produce a professional-looking lay-out, and enjoy communicating with writers and photographers. However, most material now arrives ready-typed as a Word file. The Editor is responsible for ensuring all necessary tasks are performed properly and on time.
Membership Secretary
The Membership Secretary must maintain an up-to-date and accurate computerised record of details of the membership of the Association. It is therefore beneficial for the post-holder to be “computer literate”. He/she must also be patient and tolerant, as complaints and enquiries are often directed his/her way.
Members can join/renew at events, by post, by Standing Order, and via the Website Paypal facility. Membership records are kept active for 14 months, allowing two months’ grace for renewing membership, after which the record is terminated. A printed copy is then taken for reference purposes only. On application to join the Association a new record is created, allocating a vacant membership number to the applicant.
Publicity Officer
The Publicity Officer is responsible for publicising the BCA and its activities to non-members, and together with the Secretary, announcing details of events to the membership – the Secretary announces General Meetings, the Publicity Officer Convention details, but there is a lot of overlap and the two Officers must work hand in hand. A reasonable degree of literacy is required for writing press releases, and the ability to present a lot of information concisely as free press release space is limited. He/she is also responsible for soliciting advertising (for Cichlidae and the Website) and sponsorship although sometimes another Officer’s personal contact with a potential advertiser/sponsor may mean that they should make the actual approach. The Publicity Officer should be outgoing, confident, and prepared to contact strangers as well as existing contacts.
Technical Editor.
The main duty of the Technical Editor is to create, maintain and update the BCA website and social media pages. The job requires some IT skills and experience in WordPress is beneficial. The role of Technical Editor can perhaps be seen as Website Editor/Social Media Officer, and has many responsibilities in common with the Cichlidae editor, as it includes news, specimen articles, photos, design and a lot more. Nowadays the Website and Social Media pages are the aspect of the BCA most likely to be seen by the public, and on it will depend the impression they gain of the BCA, so attention to detail is important. The website or social media pages must not contain material of a defamatory nature or which is likely to cause offence. Copyright issues must be considered where material can be downloaded.
Non-Committee Positions.
Events Manager.
This new position has relieved many tasks from the Honorary Secretary. The Events Manager primarily has sole responsibility for the organisations events such as Conventions and Annual General Meetings, Auctions and Committee Meetings. He/She should liaise with the Treasurer with regards to funding for such events and delegate tasks to other committee members where help is required on the day of any events.
