Does your LDS dive club charge for membership?

[ianr33]

Scuba Diving needs to grow and we have so few active divers in the US last number I saw in Alert Diver (DAN) was so low our growth potential would be over 250 million people.

Shawn O.

Just to play Devils Advocate:

Why does it need to grow?

I would actually prefer it if there were fewer divers around. I like solitude.

Fewer divers equals less damage to reefs and caves (although their impact is small in the big picture)

Seems to me that "growing diving" is more important to those that make money from it than to those that just do it for fun.

 

[TroyW]

Well here it goes I usually just lurk on here but this cord just strikes home. As when we ,that’s DebraW and I, fell in love with diving years ago before she started the "Dive Store" but that’s a whole other thread that we won't go into. We visited every dive store in the metroplex and went to dive clubs. We found that no one really dove as much as we wanted too. Which lead to us going to local dive sites by ourselves every weekend just to get wet. If you get your training away on vacation and not at your LDS you don't get the warm fuzzies there. So then you head to the local dive club that has 1 event every other month or dive only blue water, so then that rules them out. All new divers want to do is dive and learn more. That’s how the dive industry grows new divers that have a passion for diving and willingness to learn, and pass that passion on to others. That’s what dive clubs need to bring is excitement, education, and travel with friends that share the same passion. But diving being our #1 priority. Look at other industries IE motorcylces for one. They have rides at least every other weekend. Just because the people that have been riding for 10 years only shows up twice a year give the new rider what he/she wants. As they say built it they will come. Even if its just 2 or 3 divers show up we have lit a fire and it will grow.

 

[RonFrank]

Our LDS does not charge for a club membership, because they have no CLUB! We have discussed this with them, and they have no interest in starting a club!

Granted the Local diving here is short, and abysmal.

The reason they have no club is because there is nothing in it for them. Or at least that is how they feel.

So much for the LDS giving back, but then again it IS a business. They promote diving in the community by selling training, travel, and gear. Anything else is charity, and they are not a non-profit! :11doh:

 

[Debraw]

Just to play Devils Advocate:Why does it need to grow?
I would actually prefer it if there were fewer divers around. I like solitude.
Fewer divers equals less damage to reefs and caves (although there impact is small in the big picture)
Seems to me that "growing diving" is more important to those that make money from it than to those that just do it for fun.

You are assuming the term "growth" as being more divers than there are right now, as if that is to many. I think there are less divers being certified right now than in years past. As I have often use the term "you grow or you go". You are not the diver that we are talking about because you don't give a ****. Without new divers you have less scuba equipment being manufactured, less innovation, higher prices, and on and on and on. I care about getting new stuff, going new places, meeting new people, helping the environment, and bringing people into a sport I love. I have nothing to gain financially anymore from bringing new people into the sport, unless you count competitive pricing on gear, competition on dive packages to exotic locales, building new artificial reefs that I can dive and countless jobs that could be lost from a continuously shrinking sport. The dive industry has two sides.

 

[scubashawn123]

Just to play Devils Advocate:

Why does it need to grow?

I would actually prefer it if there were fewer divers around. I like solitude.

Fewer divers equals less damage to reefs and caves (although there impact is small in the big picture)

Seems to me that "growing diving" is more important to those that make money from it than to those that just do it for fun.

Well, I respect your feelings and thoughts on the subject. Very valid from your point of view.

I think there are enough puddles, lakes, streams, rivers, oceans and seas available that we probably don't have to bump into each other underwater. Your solitude preserved.

I personally like scuba diving and feel strongly that people just learning how to dive like I did would like help to sort it out. I am committed to help, assist or contribute to introducing people to the skills they need to be comfortable underwater and is really what I am all about.

I do promote the sport of scuba diving. My reward is always that common look of smiles and happiness on the faces of the divers achieving the same great underwater experience that I have. You know it when you look into someones eyes after a dive where you saw the things most people don't experience.

If we could succeed in this ambition the recreational dive community would grow. Like a family. This sport is open to anyone with the health, will, money and desire to do it.

This is just my opinion and I am glad we all differ.

____________________________________________________________________

Speaking of damaging coral, well all the divers in the world doing damage does not compare to one tropical storm or hurricane damage underwater, just a thought about how mother nature renews the seas. Damage? or renewing its own resources. Interesting debate for another post.

Thanks for the intellectually challenging points.


Shawn

 

[mike_s]

We have two clubs in our area.

One club does charge a membership fee. They charge $18/year for single membership and $25/year for family membership. However, that does come with some benefits. It covers the cost of the website hosting for info and newsletters (without a bunch of pop up or banner ads), it pays for club bar-b-ques, the Christmas Party main dishes and door prizes. They also have a speaker at most of their meeting it pays for the speakers meal. One other thing is that is paid for that's not cheap is when a club member has a family member pass, often flowers are sent from the club. (flowers delivered from a florist aren't cheap). This club tries to equally treat all the shops in the area. Finances in the club are pretty organzied with keeping track of expenses, a budget for the year, and financial reports.

Our other club started not as a shop club, but basically a bunch of shop customers who wanted a club in their area and to do trips, etc. It started meeting at the shop, but wasn't run as a shop club. It however now meets outside the shop and sometimes even has other shops come speak or present, so it's not just a "one shop club". The club started out under the basis of "no expensive membership fees", but after operating about 6 or 8 months and having some expenses such as flowers at a member's family funeral, etc, they discussed having fees/dues or passing the hat to help offset expenses. suggested "donation" was $20/member/year. No organized finances/budget/reporting with this club, but so far it doesn't seem to be a problem.

So... Since independent clubs do have expenses in some way, I think that some sort of dues or fees are easily justified. Those who complain about them most of the time haven't bothered to check to see where the money was going.


We have yet another club but not what I'd consider a club. It's soley a shop club, or really not even that. One of the other shops in town has one night per month they hold a social for their customers to talk about new gear and upcoming events and classes. Its sole purpose is to promote shop activities and they are only a club in name as the faces change about everytime I've gone. Still while it is clearly for shop promotion, it's fun to go to because it gets you together with other divers who enjoy what you enjoy, etc.... so it's not a bad thing. (just clearly not a club or independent). The only cost is the stuff they are selling, their trips, and their classes they are promoting.

 

[TroyW]

Well I have been an Instructor since 2000 8 years later still no profit only rewards from new divers excitement. Yes we get paid to dive but profit is not in the vocabulary with all the dues and insurance that we pay.

 

[scubashawn123]

if its just 2 or 3 divers show up we have lit a fire and it will grow.

Boy you got that right


Shawn O.

 

[mike_s]

for a LDS Dive Club to charge a membership fee (to the shop), they'd have to have some agressive pricing program that is already better than what we can get now.

Most that charge a fee and give 10% or 20% off, are giving that off "list price". We can already get 10% or 20% off MAP prices from most competitive shops without paying a club fee to a shop, so why bother?

 

[Wookie]

I have seen shops "lose control" of their shop-sponsored club, and the results are not pretty. The leader of the club gets in a pissing contest with the shop owner, or the shop changes hands and the new owner doesn't support the club the way they had been supported in the past, and half the shops' clientele walks with the club to a new shop. I would be very wary of sponsoring a club if I were a shop owner. A shop can provide all of the benefits that a club can without sponsoring a club. On the other hand, an independant club can make a deal with many shops to provide the services that the club is looking for.