I have refrained from chiming in too much on this thread simply because I have very little first hand experience with GUE or DIR divers and therefore had little to contribute. However, that has changed somewhat, and now I think I do have enough to at least offer some observations. Some background...
Recently, a call was put out to start a new dive club in a specific region fairly close to my location. I thought it a splendid idea, so I was one of the first to respond. The idea was fairly common to most dive clubs...get together once in a while to exhange stories, pictures, and info and then dive together as a group periodically. I'm all for that and so were quite a few others. Preliminary organizational meetings were held, and a dive shop in the locale offered their affiliation. An email explained (for those of us who could not attend the meetings), that although the dive shop was GUE oriented, the club would be open to everyone regardless of training agency or skill level.
Over the weekend (in which there was another meeting), things seem to have changed somewhat. The latest message explained that it was too early to just throw the doors open and let anyone in. Now, it seems, a prospective member of the "society" (doesn't appear to be a "club" anymore) would have to be sponsored by a member and evaluated by one of the two instructors (one might be a divemaster...don't know for sure) before membership is granted or the person is permitted to dive with the group. Yup, the instructor is also a GUE instructor. The message also explained that "for now", we would be keeping things quiet (not announcing the activities to the diving world at large) in order that the society would be "kept a small, tight group". A dive day at a freshwater site fairly close is planned for the near future.
Now, I'm in a quandary: since I was one of the first to respond to this club/society in the early stages, I appear to still be "invited" for the dive day. However, I'm really pretty sure (considering that I am not GUE), that I may very well get the once over to check my "safety" in the water. No problem...I've done the same thing at a few dive sites and with charters that required a skills check. No biggie.
However, I have to say that I'm having second thoughts about joining this affiliation. TS&M has done a great job of depicting her diving acquaintances as friendly, welcoming folk who just happen to subscribe to a particular way of doing things. In my opinion, she's been a great ambassador for the GUE venue. But I'd be untruthful if I said I wasn't at least a little bit concerned about attending the upcoming event, and I CERTAINLY have second thoughts about a group that is decidedly NOT open to divers of varying skill levels and training. I must vent my feelings that what it sounds like is a group that promotes a particular modality and is less than receptive to divers outside that mode. To me, it smacks of a rather closed group, and that does nothing to make me want to be a participant.
However, I'm not basing my decision on what it APPEARS to be. I do, indeed, plan to attend the event, meet the folks involved, and make a decision based upon that experience. Trust me, I think I'm mature enough (should be at my age, anyways lol) to go into it with an open mind. But just as they say they will evaluate me, you can bet that I will be evaluating them as well, perhaps just on a different set of parameters. Where they might be critiquing my diving skills/style (yes, the email said that), I will be critiquing their attitudes and receptiveness toward others.
This thread was started with TS&M's statement describing her sadness that someone would be turned away from considering the GUE system simply by comments here on Scubaboard. I was willing to accept her very eloquent and compelling descriptions of what GUE was really all about, and I still am. IF her observations and descriptions are accurate, I'll be delighted to meet some new divers that will start a truly engaging and welcoming new dive club. If that should prove not to be the case, however, it might indicate that at least some of the comments less favorable to GUE might have some merit.