Request Submissions for the Annual UK Mega Event Account

The request period for the 2020 Annual UK Mega Account is now closed.

It is with some sadness and considerable disappointment (and speaking personally, anger) that the Geolympix team and I withdraw formally from the 2020 UK Mega request process for the following reasons:

To quote the Stakeholder Committee's 'How and Why the UK Mega Event Account Stakeholder Committee' page, "If only one Request is submitted, that Requesting Committee is Automatically Awarded the Account." - Except when the Stakeholder Committee unilaterally decide to exceed their stated remit and reject the only requesting committee's tender on dubious and disputed grounds.

On Dec 2nd the Geolympix core committee were told the final rejection of our plans was due to fear about the future status of the UK Mega account. Discussions were still ongoing when the Stakeholder committee publically called for further applications (during a January window) the same day. It wasn't until Dec 13th that our offer to contact Groundspeak to confirm the safety of the UK Mega account was rejected by the Stakeholders as irrelevant. If it wasn't relevant, why give it as the reason to reject the Geolympix team's pitch? Given we had explained we intended to use the UK Mega profile to host the UK Mega, just what 'risk' did the Stakeholder committee think it was at? We don't know.

You'll see here ukmegastakeholder.boards.net/thread/11/mega-event-account-stakeholder-committee that on Dec 12th 2017 the Stakeholder guidelines were extended/changed, but this was well after the November 2017 request window, after time and effort went into negotiations with the National Trust at Ashridge, after considerable work went into the Geolympix/UK Mega Hybrid tender document and after some discussion with the Stakeholders. Unwritten rules are bad rules and retrospective changes are usually bad changes.

Also reflecting badly on the supposedly independent Stakeholder Committee, not only have they moved the goalposts and rejected a perfectly viable, funded UK Mega plan combining all the usual UK Mega tropes - including on-site camping, which has never been a Geolympix feature - with a 'mega mega' concept, Stakeholders also contacted the 2019 proposed Sussex Mega committee to ask them to reform and request the 2020 slot. So much for being impartial. When challenged on this clear misuse of their position the Stakeholders denied the contact. Contact which has been independently confirmed by several members of the Sussex committee. I don't like liars. I definitely don't trust liars.

During the tender process, a parallel given was the 'East Anglia situation' where, having been unopposed and awarded the 2015 UK Mega slot, the 'chairman' was revealed to be a schoolboy and the plan collapsed - I say the Geolympix core committee (combined age 190+ and with well over 70k finds between the four of us) is hardly similar. Despite having the potential to be the first UK Mega to be operated by a highly experienced previous-successful-Megas-running committee with significant funding and a great venue, Stakeholders ultimately rejected it on no more substantial grounds than 'it's not how it's been done before'. The 2020 UK Mega will be the 13th. We felt it could use some innovation by then. Apparently not. Nor is a 'mega mega' with the stated ambition of international promotion and the potential to go Giga of interest to the Stakeholders. Greatness rarely flourishes where there's a stifling lack of ambition.

The original Geolympix/UK Mega Hybrid pitch was made in good faith. Clearly faith in the award process and those operating it has been severely eroded by the above. There is no appeal process. There has also been insufficient time over the Christmas period to generate the required groundswell of caching community support and form an alternative, cohesive UK Mega Committee needed to proceed with revised branding (Bucks, Beds & Herts UK Mega? London Mega?) with confidence. Operating a Mega is a huge commitment, requiring complex planning, hard work and financial risks. I wouldn't wish to be involved in one I didn't feel was going to deliver on its potential. So I'm out.

No doubt some will reject this post as the whining of a sore loser. There may be some truth in that (if by sore you mean disgusted), but the facts remain. The UK Caching Community deserves a great UK Mega in 2020 and on those grounds I and the rest of the Geolympix team wish the winner of this tainted process well. But where were you in November?