A message from BMC president Rehan Siddiqui, outlining the rebranding consultation process which will be conducted over the coming months.

It has been a difficult time since 25 July when the BMC announced an intention to rebrand as Climb Britain. The rebrand idea was collectively agreed by the volunteer groups involved with BMC's management hierarchy (National Council and the board of directors) and had the enthusiastic support of the BMC Hill Walking Working Group and the staff, so we felt we were on solid ground to proceed.

Hindsight is a great thing of course, and following the strong reaction to the announcement we are now undertaking a series of consultation meetings and debates as part of the September round of BMC Area Meetings. This will be a genuine and open-minded consultation process and I give you my personal assurance that we will most definitely be listening, that everything is on the table and that a full rebrand to Climb Britain is not a done deal; if the consensus is that people would prefer to keep ‘BMC’, to adopt some form of compromise solution, or to take the rebrand forward – this is what will happen.

The area meetings will feed into a (minimum) two-phase process of consideration by National Council. On 17 September, National Council will review feedback from the area meetings, a position will be agreed (and published), then there will be further area-level debate leading up to the National Council meeting on 3 December.

Club officials will also have a chance to discuss club-specific issues at a meeting with BMC representatives on 6 September. Depending on ongoing feedback and the proposal to be taken forward, the BMC accepts it may be necessary for this to go to the 2017 AGM; and in order to let the consultation process run its course Climb Britain will no longer be launched (as was previously stated) on 19 November in Kendal and 2 December in Sheffield.

I understand that not everyone can make it to area meetings. In this case, please email your views to office@thebmc.co.uk; include your name, membership number and your BMC area. We will make sure your email is forwarded to your area chair.

Rehan Siddiqui
BMC president

Read more about Climb Britain

BMC to change its name to Climb Britain
After more than 70 years as the British Mountaineering Council, we’ve decided to move with the times and unite all our members under one 'Climb' banner.

Climb Britain: the facts
We take a look at the facts behind the change to Climb Britain.

What does Climb Britain mean for walkers?
Changing to Climb Britain won't affect our work for walkers – find out more.

Climb Britain: a personal message from BMC CEO Dave Turnbull
Dave Turnbull gives a behind-the-scenes look at the process.

Climb Britain: Update from the BMC
It's been a rocky ride this last few days, and it's probably fair to say we didn’t quite anticipate the level of interest there would be in our Climb Britain announcement.

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