Club affilation

[WetDane]

I have been hanging out with a dive club - not the one most of my buddies are members of - but another one - I recently offered to lead a couple of dives since I am very active and have a lot of ideas.
So I plan a couple of dives and post them.
Next I get a message from the president to become a member OR desease and desist...
Now - I am not a member becasue I really don't care for the shop where the associated benefits come from, I am not much for bylaws and rules and regulations in the first place and I was offering my services for free for the benefit of the club.

This has all made me think, maybe I should just drop this club and go be active in the club where I am a member. It does become a principal thing - I don't want to be bullied into becoming a member and it was made pretty clear that I should not be leading dives if I was not a member...

I have friends in this club, but I dive with them in non-club arrangements, I dive 6 - 12 dives a week, maybe once every couple of weeks with the club...

Oh - I was offered a club membership running until 2003 for free since I am active and that in itself would benefit the club...

I am intersted in opinions on this - I wonder what you all would do, how hard is the tie in with the club?

Thanks,
Big T

 

[daylight]

Hey Dane,

No biggie.

IMHO, the club is nOT being unreasonable to ask you to become a membeer. Since you are obiviously taking an active leadership role. That's why they call it a club.

Why not join, it for free. Take advantage of the offer since so few things in live are free.

FWIW, I try to save my righteous indignation for really important stuff.

DSAO

Larry

 

[SpyderTek]

Well, I am making a bunch of assumptions here but this is what I think the real issue is about; Money.

Since you aren't a member of their club you are (in their eyes) potentialy taking customers from them for their own scheduled events. That is to say they comeup with a $1100 a person dive event to Paradise on Date XX/XX/02 but they only get half the people signed up for it than they expected because the other half have chosen to go on a dive with you the same date to Xanadu.

Also, you are being looked at (at least to a degree) as a leader figure / role model. Since you are associated with another dive store when the people that go with you ask, "Hey that's a nice Reg.? How much you pay for it and where you get it?" and you innocently (read: No salesmanship) reply with information that it was purchased at your normal dive store the potential exists for those people to spend their dollars with your other store instead of them.

Then of course there is the implied insurance issues (and anyone who knows me knows I hate this one!). It COULD be misconstrude by someone going with you that you ARE actually associated with their normal dive club and thus by association transfer insurance responcibilities to that dive club. Grant it they would be mistaken but it still could cause trouble for that club they'd rather not have.

Lastly, the dive club stands to make money's FROM you if you DO join them for all the same reasons in revearse I mention above. However, I would seriously doubt that they would offer you any sort of commission or kickback on any sales generated due to your leading a dive on behalf of their club.

To sum up, I think it probably best to become more active in your own club and only arrange dives there. Alternatively, arrange dives HERE or other independant forum. This makes you happy, the offending club happy, and the club you DO belong to happy. I wouldn't be bullied into joining a club. Who'd want to be in a club that acted like that towards you to start with?

My 2 Rubels.

SpyderTek

 

[syruss32]

Having seen quite a few dive clubs while setting up my site with links to many of them, it seems many are more business like while others are merely a collection of friends that call themselves a dive club.

I am not officially a member of any dive club, but the Texas Muck Divers....er I mean swamp... is the closest for me.

I have met quite a few people through my site, and some of the swamp divers too and think that my not being official has not made me any less welcome by the members.

But on the other hand some of these clubs really go to the limit, they have scraped up money to buy gear, one has even bought a boat. Another has their own tank filling machine.

In cases like that where the club puts out money then I think a membership would be beneficial and it be run more like a business.

So I think after all of this I just have to say, each club is different but if you like the members and feel like part of the club, you may as well join officially.

(I wonder if the Texas Swamp Rats....er I mean divers has a charge?) I am sure TexasMike will let me know.

 

[WetDane]

Hmm - those are good points - I have been wondering if I really wanted to take a hardline approach and walk away from the club.

This is btw a club as in a collection of friends - there are no sales and the people who setup dives are independent from the club, but members... This club is not affiliated with one particular store.
The other club I belong to is affiliated with the store I frequent and holds a lot of people I dive with frequently.

Although I don't want to be bullied, I think I may take them up on the offer - can't hurt. I'm not sure what kind of insurance they have going on, but I'll check that out.

Big T