You really don't have to have a specific head,but they have people who take responsibility for maintaining relations. Eagles Nest was on chopping block, and the CDS has a long standing credibility with state organizations, and kept it off the closed list. Remember when Little River was closed for stabilization work, they negotiated continued access with the county. Telford was closed, even for river access,but negotiations by the CDS allowed this. Madison, when it was sold to the state, and contractedout by a vendor, got access. Everytime the state discusses a management plan for a park, the CDS is invited as part of this process. CDS was imperative from preventing damage from commercial construction. Many years ago the owners of Ginnie were putting some rules in place that would hurt cave diving, and they were there to help negotiate access. Gaining access to Emerald wouldn't have happened without the CDS. If the CDS didn't purchase Cow, it would be an RV park. That is just a few1-access, they are part of a larger group that is doing that and there is currently no head of land owner relations so I'm not entirely sure that that would be missed
2- yeah, except that's not actually true and I don't really want to get into that, but they are trying to become relevant again which is nice to see
One of the few organizations that have their instructor candidates intern with other instructors, and pass an institute with several instructors. Not one course director singly who gives a blessing
Safe to say with your current criticism you don't look at the CDS web site etc. You can't expect them to come to each forum to spoon feed you, because they don't spend time on all the different forums. When was the last time you dialed into one of their board meeting?3-it would be nice if we actually heard from the CDS which we never really do
The process is getting done through many other mechanisms4-The position of Educational Outreach Committee Coordinator is also vacant, though the conferences are admittedly nice to have.
What has happened to the NACD is unfortunate,but they had a long history of positive impacts. But an NACD comparison is really a whataboutismEither way, we saw the NACD fade away with no negative impact to the community and I am sad to think that if the same happened to the CDS that there would be no change in the community either which means that they have faded into irrelevance
I get it you don't like the CDS and don't see a value. Having the CDS as a prominent non-profit organization, it is something that entities can relate to, especially if you factor in their relationship with the NSS, which has massive prominence. What would cave diving look like without the CDS. More likely we would have fewer sites, and probably greater access limits, because do you see the for- profit agencies taking an active role. The only way the for-profit agencies were able to develop cave programs is because of the foundation the CDS and NACD laid out,but thus far they take,but don't return anything to the community- except t-shirts at the workshop. Have you seen the for profit agencies install new line and warning signs? I have yet to see a TDI or IANTD grim reaper sign in a cave. When Eagles Nest was under threat, and all the agencies use it for training, who responded? Crickets from the for profit agencies. Vote with you dollars by not being a member, and continue a critical stance,but anybody who enjoys cave diving has the CDS to thank for it.