Author Archives: Rowan

BiCon Continuity Needs You

BiCon Continuity is now critically short of Directors and will not be able to continue unless we get some new people. Without Continuity it would be very difficult to keep BiCon's money in the community and available to run BiCons.

Directors of BiCon Continuity are elected from among our members at annual general meetings, which generally happen during or close to BiCon itself. However we can also “co-opt” Directors in between BiCons when we need to as we do now. Co-opted directors would then need to be elected at the next AGM. Elected Directors serve for three years and can then seek re-election.

We are very low on Directors at the moment so we need to co-opt new Directors now, so we are asking for applications. Applicants will need to be members of Continuity before they can be Directors but if you’re not already a member, there is information below on how to become one.

Directors do a range of jobs but not everybody is expected to do all of them.

Essential (you need to do all of these)

Attending the majority of our online monthly meetings
Attending the AGM online or in person at BiCon
Take an active part in discussion with and about BiCon teams
Helping decide on applications for small grants
Participate in anti-racism and other equalities work

Desirable (you need to do some but not all of these)

Bookkeeping
Filing accounts with Companies House once a year in August
Filing a confirmation statement with Companies House in November
Sending an annual return to the Charities Commission in September
Running our AGM, usually at or near BiCon in August
Reporting to our members and the BiCon community at BiCon
Registering changes of Directors with Companies House and the Charities Commission
Being a bank signatory
Some admin dealing with organisations that process donations

If the basics are covered there may also be scope to do other things you are interested in but these are the essential things Continuity needs to do.

You do not need to have been a BiCon organiser to become a Director of BiCon Continuity.

To apply or find out more please email info@biconcontinuity.org.uk

Continuity Q&A and AGM

If you are interested in knowing more about Continuity (the charity that manages BiCon’s money), Rowan and Elizabeth, two of the Charity’s Trustees will be running a question & answer session from 12 – 12.45pm on Friday 20th August 2021 by video conference as part of Virtual BiCon.

If you have any questions you know you would like us to answer during this session, please do email them to us in advance (info@biconcontinuity.org.uk) so that we have an opportunity to consider them and where needed find the relevant information in advance. If not, please come along and listen / ask questions as they arise. Where we can’t answer something during that 45 minute session, we can arrange to come back to you afterwards.

Earlier this year, some of the trustees worked with Kate to make videos about Continuity and ourselves: links to the videos are available on Discord, the BiCon Dreamwidth Community, in the unofficial Facebook Group and can also be obtained by emailing us.

Our General Meeting will take place at 2pm on Sunday 5th September 2021 by video conference. Please email us to let us know you’d like to attend. As we did last year, we have scheduled our General Meeting away from Virtual BiCon so it doesn’t clash with any other BiCon activity people might want to attend.

If you are interested in joining Continuity as a Member and/or becoming a Trustee, please let us know. Indicating you are potentially interested in finding out more doesn’t commit you to anything.

As part of our succession planning, this year Elizabeth and Ian will be standing down as Trustees having served as Directors/ Trustees since Continuity’s formation in 2011. Next year Karen, the last remaining original Director/Trustee will be standing down. So, we are very much looking to recruit to replace those of us who will be standing down.

BiCon 2022 call for teams

Do you want to help make BiCon 2022 happen?

We’re starting the search now for a team for 2022 so that people have time to think about whether they want to volunteer and to give the future team as long a lead in as possible.

BiCon 2020 was going to be at Leeds Beckett University, site of BiCon 2017. Covid-19 meant that was impossible, and an online BiCon was organised instead. The continuing epidemic and possible further lockdowns means that BiCon 2021 will be online too.

So rather than lose the non-refundable £12,500 deposit paid for 2020, Continuity have arranged with Leeds Beckett that we will transfer the booking again, to 11-14th August 2022.

We don’t yet have a team to run BiCon 2022, but we do have a date and a venue, which puts any team a big step further forward from where teams usually start.

Running BiCon is a big job, but some priorities are more important than others. We expect that any team will continue to prioritise access, particularly around continuing and growing anti-racism work, handling conduct well, and challenging unacceptable behaviour.

Outside of that there is a lot of freedom for a team to create a BiCon that perhaps involves less effort by the team in advance.

For the first BiCon in three years, what do we want?

We’re open to teams who want to suggest running a less “traditional” BiCon as well those who want to organise one in what’s become the usual way. Some ideas have already been suggested about ways to make BiCon a bit less work for volunteers, which we’re happy to share with anyone who’s interested, but we want the shape of BiCon to be led by the community, of which teams are very much a part.

If you’re potentially interested in being on the 2022 team, please email info@biconcontinuity.org.uk You don’t have to commit yourself yet – we’re happy to have a chat about it and share more details of what’s involved, and then with your consent we’ll put interested people in touch with one another so they can get a team together.