tedtim:
I suggest that the card only means that they demonstrated the required skills to be awarded the card by the end of the course.
Unfortunately, I am no longer convinced that all Instructors have the same integrity when it comes to determining if "the required skills" are demonstrated.
I believe that *some* instructors:
like in any profession, are simply not good/not smart/not truly qualified/not whatever... and simply do not pay enough attention or know that an individual is not meeting the necessarty skills.
Don't particularly care to say "no", or "you need more work before I can pass you." Especially if in a resort type course environment
Are naive enough to believe that mnay students, though not really competent, will take the time to practice and grow competent in careful, "similar to OW dive environment" dives.
All of this to come back to the point that even though minimum standards may be established - it comes back to how these standards get actually implemented in reality. Even if we were to build the perfect set of requirements for the perfectly segmented set of dive profiles/examples, I'm not sure it will help - and I don't particularly think more regulation/rules will help.
The one thing that I think may be able to have the strongest impact, it is that when we, while diving with others, perceive that another diver isn't meeting the set of minimum requirements we think they should have for the dive they are doing (or are about to do), we find a tactful way to discuss it, or a subtle way to help them, and find a way to demonstrate by our diving what they are missing.
On a resort trip a few weeks ago, I met a lady who admitted that she only dove once each year on vacation, but she also admitted to re-reading her text the week before she travelled each year. So, while I thought she may have the knowledge... and our conversation showed she did, she may lack comfort, and certainly may have issues if a problem develops. My dive buddy and I stayed relatively close to her since it was a smaller group and we were anchoring the group (her instabuddy was all over the place). I casually looked over to see her air gage every once and a while since she didn't seem to be looking (she was preoccupied with a leaking mask) and we were sure to be reasonably close at the surface where she clearly seemed to have the most struggles. At the end of our trip she thanked me for "keeping an eye out for her" - she noticed even without making anything obvious. She just recognized that a couple of very comfortable divers were nearby when she seemd to be looking around for reassurance. (no, we are not the best in the world, and can get much better, but... we're clearly comfortable and in control of our dives.) I hope it helped her to recognize what she can do differently next time... (as opposed to reinforcing her once a year dive plan and expect help next time....:shakehead ) People connect with people and we can play a big part.