Wanting to start a dive club

[tlawler]

I've been reading through the all the previous posts dealing with dive clubs. The general consensus is that they have gone the way of the dodo because of the proliferation of online clubs and the fact that with all of the task loading of our everyday lives, there just isn't time for it. One thread postulated that LDS's have become "the new dive club" and that dive shops actually frown upon clubs with the thinking that clubs would cut into their sanctioned dive travel business.

I think the idea of a local dive club, where you can meet and dive with real people is a great idea and would complement an online dive club, where you can talk dive with a lot of people from diverse backgrounds and experience.

Anyway, I'm wanting to start a club through my church. I've approached the pastor and he thinks it is a great idea also and wants me to start it up and lead it. Given the size of our congregation and our location on the SW coast of Florida there are probably quite a few divers and I'm planning an announcement in the weekly program and in the announcements portion at the beginning of both services on Sunday.

I would like to get some input on how to start up a club and how to structure it since I've never tried to do something like this before. Any ideas you guys have would be appreciated.

 

[spectrum]

My suggestion and this is based on what is working for me is to start networking. There's no need to form a club. You want to meet divers and cultivate a pool of buddies to dive with so keep it that simple.

I printed up some "buddy cards" like business cards with contact info for my wife and me. When you share these with new dive acquaintances they almost always reciprocate with their info either right there or in a follow-up email. I pass them to divers in other groups that we get to talk too. Very often they lament they can't find anyone to dive with. Hand them a card with a smile and you will probably hear from them soon. Start a divers folder in your address book and when you want to plan a dive let folks know and ask who's interested. Some folks are sensitive about their email addresses so using the BCC function is a good idea.

If it gets to the stage where it becomes a club with meetings, dues and t-shirts then so be it but let that come latter. Most folks are too busy to dive as much as they want let alone go to meetings.

Good Luck,
Pete

I've been reading through the all the previous posts dealing with dive clubs. The general consensus is that they have gone the way of the dodo because of the proliferation of online clubs and the fact that with all of the task loading of our everyday lives, there just isn't time for it. One thread postulated that LDS's have become "the new dive club" and that dive shops actually frown upon clubs with the thinking that clubs would cut into their sanctioned dive travel business.

I think the idea of a local dive club, where you can meet and dive with real people is a great idea and would complement an online dive club, where you can talk dive with a lot of people from diverse backgrounds and experience.

Anyway, I'm wanting to start a club through my church. I've approached the pastor and he thinks it is a great idea also and wants me to start it up and lead it. Given the size of our congregation and our location on the SW coast of Florida there are probably quite a few divers and I'm planning an announcement in the weekly program and in the announcements portion at the beginning of both services on Sunday.

I would like to get some input on how to start up a club and how to structure it since I've never tried to do something like this before. Any ideas you guys have would be appreciated.

 

[Cold_Under_Here]

Well a club is a great way to start networking. People join the club, certain dive days/times are setup that work for members and people rock up. You will always find a buddy, and eventually you get to know many buddies over the time in the club. Dive clubs are THE way to go.

 

[CBulla]

My experience with the local dive club is that there are a lot of divers who talk about diving and only a few of us who went diving regularly.

Personally I'm not interested in being in a social dinner club, I like action! Thus, The Florida Conch Divers has been my adopted 'club'!!

 

[JohnL]

Not much experience with dive clubs, but I did help start a kayaking club and served on the board for a few years a while back.

My one piece of advice would be to take it slow and keep it manageable. Things worked great with the club I was involved in until we started to do outreach to get new members. We got big, we got nervous...then we had to get insurance, incorporate to protect the members and the board... it got complicated, friendships were lost, members become demanding when we started charging higher fees to cover the insurance, most of the leaders started to fear liability and stopped leading.

I would say keep it to a small group...you said you were doing it through a church. I would keep it to that and people they know. Having "official" dives is a big controversy as you put the leader, the board (if you have one) and potentially the church that hosts it at risk liability wise. Potentially even the "members" of the club can be at risk. Have you considered using a yahoo group or other email list so that anyone can post a dive? Pretty easy way to go and there are no "official" leaders on a trip. Sure, the organizer can suggest where to head and cover safety protocols (buddy check stuff) without having to be "leading" a dive.

I know I make it sound kinda bad, but really I hope you pull it off and it works well for you. There is a need for these kind of clubs out there.

John

 

[BabyDuck]

i second the bit about having an online presence somewhere. maybe the church has a webpage & would let you have some space. but ncdivers.com means a lot to me - no dues, nothing official (though we do have tshirts!), no pressure, but boy we plan lots & lots of trips from weeks in florida to 'hey, wanna go to the quarry tomorrow afternoon?' online. or, get everyone a scubaboard screenname and start a thread in your regional area for the 'south street church divers'. i hope you make it work out!

 

[Li'l38]

diversolo, I think it depends on the goals of your club, as a whole. Do ya'll want to have regular meetings, or just dive together? Find out what your group wants to do, give them some of the options and go from there.

Personally I'm not interested in being in a social dinner club, I like action! Thus, The Florida Conch Divers has been my adopted 'club'!!

Colin, what a trooper. You're taking this whole 'adoption' thing quite well!

 

[diversteve]

We have a club in the Phoenix area. Here's a link to our Yahoo group page. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/azscuba/
On paper we have 145 members, but actively it's a lot less. You might find the disclaimer of some interest. The liability issues keep our leader from formalizing anything further. Might want to discuss that at length with your church as they have the deep pockets when there's an "incident"

We have both the social part - monthly local meetings, usually at a bar, and the dive trip part - some of our members are more involved in diving through several LDS's and run local trips. Members of the group dive together locally and regionally.

Although one of the reasons I joined the group was to find like-minded divers to split the cost of a group trip or liveaboard and realize the savings associated with having a larger number of divers on a trip, so far that hasn't happened.

my .02

 

[Walter]

My dive club is very active and growing. It's been around since 1970 and has changed in various ways since it started. It was once a spearfishing club where everyone dived off their own boat. In the 90s it evolved into a club in which a minority of members spearfish. It still has a large social aspect, but in recent years has been adding more and more dives to the calendar. For the last couple of years it's been a true dive club.

While most members are not gung ho divers, lots of them are pretty active. We have club dives on a monthly basis. It's a good way for folks to stay active.

 

[BrianS]

My suggestions for the club:

Have a website with event info.
Have a mailing list that anyone can opt in/out of where divers can ask for Buddies etc.
Have a monthly meeting and arrange dive trips for the club.
Have MFG reps come to a meeting and show off their wares, you can usually get free door prizes from them.
Have a monthly newsletter either before or after the meeting to allow those that can't attend be able to see what's going on.
Contact some Dive Publishers, you can sometimes get free magazines for your club members.

Just my .02 cents.