What dive club are you a paid member of?

[Debraw]

I guess what I really mean to say out loud (typed), if you are going to charge a membership fee, show them explicitly what they are getting for their money. As a consumer I want something back when I pay money into it. I know some local clubs here have struggled in the memberships recently, maybe it's time to step back and see what they offer to their divers. Could they be doing more? Do they have enough avid divers who are willing to help with outings, projects, leadership. I see all to often the same people running dive clubs year in and year out, I feel bad for them. I always wonder why they keep doing it when no one else seems to want to take the reins. It must be hard to always be the cheerleader when the team keeps changing.

 

[ReefHound]

Actually, the poll may be messed up now. I'm not sure once you've voted, you can go back and vote again for another one that would have been added later.

That's OK, the mods were done early enough that the few who had already voted isn't going to dramatically distort the results.

 

[parrotheaddiver]

I'm just a Swamper. You might want to mention BAD, Bay Area Divers. I know that is a pretty sizable group in the Houston area.

this is a great club I have been on a few trips with them...but I am not a member since they are in Baytwon and I am here....

 

[PvilleStang]

University SCUBA Club... Definitely paid my dues

 

[Wookie]

Dive clubs are certainly an interesting group. I am an active member of CHUM, cause I like the folks there, and, like me, they are drinkers with a diving problem. Besides, they meet in a pub that has great food. My experience with clubs is that they get stale. The old entrenched leadership doesn't want to see any new blood take the reins and do new things. this leads to a split in leadership and the club ends up a shadow of its former self.

HUC did a great job running Seaspace for many years, and, from the outside looking in, it seems that there were lots of folks willing to be indians, no-one wanted to be chief. How sad to lose a great show (longest continuious running dive show in the US?) because no-one wanted to take it over.

I really like CHUM because each new person is welcomed by the membership as if they have been there forever. I see it in the meetings, where a new person is over in the corner by themselves and it seems that everyone goes out of their way to greet them. I don't understand clubs that treat new members as pariahs. CHUM also does a tremendous amount of local diving, including the Flower Gardens, Balmoreh (sp?), the missle silo, Florida caves, Oriskany, rig trips, wherever you can drive to dive, CHUM has been there, or has a trip planned.

I also support Zendiving as well as Singledivers, although they are not clubs in the traditional sense.

 

[ZzzKing]

I'm guessing that the poll may be ever so slightly skewed toward the TSD for obvious reasons. It's a great group of folks though!

 

[ReefHound]

Dive clubs are certainly an interesting group. I am an active member of CHUM, cause I like the folks there, and, like me, they are drinkers with a diving problem. Besides, they meet in a pub that has great food. My experience with clubs is that they get stale. The old entrenched leadership doesn't want to see any new blood take the reins and do new things. this leads to a split in leadership and the club ends up a shadow of its former self.

The club founders were very concerned about this which is why we have strict term limits for board officers. This March we will be welcoming a brand new vice-president and treasurer. We don't know who it will be because we actually have competitive elections and multiple candidates, but none of the candidates have been board officers before.

Yes, we are very active local divers. If Mammoth Lake opens this Saturday as scheduled, we already have a group planning to be there.

 

[Debraw]

I think a changing of board members is essential to the health of a dive club. That being said, it seems like it is next to impossible for the Diving Rebels ( and I point them out because I know more about them than any other local DFW club) to find people who are willing to take over any of those responsibilities. SO people like the aspects of clubs but no one is willing to take over the duties to keep the club healthy and growing.
It just seems funny sometimes how much we talk about what dive shops should be doing for us, or even dive clubs, or how much we love our sport yet a lot of times we are unwilling to take the simplest step like participating in diving events when we have them. This is a very general statement and I am going off of what I used to hear in the dive shop for so many years even before I owned one and off of the current dive events I see in our area.
Maybe the TSD could be a leader and we could just host our own "All Day Dive In" one day this summer. Each area of the state could host there own get together and we all take pictures and post them on the board. Now that my wheels are turning what about a theme that would incorporate a "green" attitude. You know green to save the environment, green as swamp water, we have recycling bins at the event, recycled paper products, do a cleanup of the area we choose, bring dive gear to trade, or recycle, maybe have a poster board up and write down ideas to share on how to save energy at home, save water, etc.

June 21 seems like a good day......

Any thoughts people???

 

[ReefHound]

Sounds like a good idea and a good day for it, count me in. I could probably bring a group up to Dallas or Austin for it.

I've listed a lot of features that I think make our club successful but in the end I think it boils down to having a critical mass of divers that are enthusiastic and energetic enough to get actively involved. It helps to be in a large metro area but there are lots of large metros that don't have such clubs. Maybe it's just a fluke?

 

[parrotheaddiver]

It helps to be in a large metro area but there are lots of large metros that don't have such clubs. Maybe it's just a fluke?

Yeah like Austin.... we tried one club out in Austin but they were more interested in getting together to drink instead of dive.....cannot remember the name of it but it has been 5 years ago....and all there drinking locations were up in north Austin and during the week...too far for me to travel.....