In attendance: Pat, Teresa, Ken, Lee, Clive, Victor
Apologies: Chris, Colin, Ross
Minutes of 19th February meeting
- There were no corrections.
- Matters arising:
- Brighton (x2) and Shoreham
dives have been added to the dive list.
- Pat is looking into 2016
tides.
- Teresa is waiting to hear
from Dulwich branch regarding the snorkelling instructor course.
- The club has bought Dave’s
lead. Ross has received the box of fins from Kim.
- Teresa will be at Seven
Islands next week, and needs to see documents from instructors to be able
to sign off DBS forms.
Membership and promotion
- Victor provided an update on the recall of
members. Chris emailed around 10 people (who hadn’t been to the pool for a
while) regarding training, and has received replies from half – most are
not diving at the moment due to family and other life commitments, and
some of these people intend to resume diving in the future. Colin is due
to send follow-up emails to a few people who didn’t reply to Chris. Pat to
speak with Colin re: progress.
- Clive to update the club info/joining
leaflet. Ken to update fees information. Pat has photos to add to it.
- As regards social events, Pat is looking
into a wine tasting event in Greenwich, Teresa is organising a walk in the
City of London on 26th April (Victor to mention in weekly email
to members) [post-meeting note – this will now be a walk around Hampstead],
Clive and Sally are doing a docklands walk on Good Friday, Clive will book
a white water rafting trip for a Sunday morning later this year on a
weekend when the club isn’t diving. The dry dive has happened and was
successful. The club barbecue has been moved to Saturday 18th
July. Teresa suggested a trip to the Peckham pizza bus later this year.
- Chris has suggested a try-dive event.
Could involve booking the pool on a weekend evening, prominent
announcement on club website, and flyering around the area and at
Decathlon. Event could piggyback BSAC’s next try-dive campaign.
- Lee to order a pull-up indoor banner for
use on Wednesday evenings.
Club website
- Daniel, Lee, Ken and Victor met on 3rd
March to agree what the club website needs. The current website has useful
information, but some of it is hard to get to. The main page needs to be very
simple and must get 2 messages across: 1) we offer training (and
try-dives), and 2) we are an active dive club. Draft new website layouts
have been drawn up. Good ideas can be borrowed from other club websites.
- It will be simpler for Daniel to create a
new website, rather than amend the existing one.
- Ken intends to create an online booking
system for dives.
- New website will have a feed from the
club’s Facebook page. This will be a good indicator that the club is
active. The club’s Facebook page will need to be made open to the public
(administrators can do this), controls over posting can be put in place,
and inappropriate posts can be edited out.
Training
- Chris is well on top of things, and has
drawn up a training plan and updated the club’s training records.
- Training plan is to be added to the club’s
website.
- An entire Ocean Diver course is set out in
the training plan. Later arrivals to the club can join the cohort that
will start in April, and can catch up.
- Agreed to hold exams at a quieter place than
the lobby of Seven Islands. Other rooms at Seven Islands could be used for
exams, as could instructors’ homes at the weekend. Canada Water library
was suggested, but it closes at 8pm on Wednesday evenings.
- The possibility of the club buying
wet/drysuits for students (to enable them to get in the water sooner) was
discussed. Agreed, however, that the varied sizes of people means a large
range of sizes would be needed, and this would be costly. If money were to
be spent on suits, it would be better put towards suit hire.
- It was suggested that, on 2-dive trips,
students should only pay half the cost of a space, if they have to sit out
a dive because it is outside their limits.
- Monthly lake trips (3rd weekend
of every month) to be added to the dive list.
Grant funding
- Noted that Sally has been working on this,
and has suggested the committee think about ideas and particular needs for
funding.
- Ideas/projects requiring funding: kit
replacement, kit for AED course (including O2 kit), a new Resusci Anne,
and a try-dive event.
- A project involving a local (Bermondsey or
Rotherhithe) community group could be beneficial to all involved.
- Grant funding may need to be matched by
the club.
- Ken noted that Clubmark accreditation
could assist the club’s bids for funding. This would require a lot of
work, however. Ken to look into what’s involved.
- Pat to speak with Sally re: the above
ideas.
2015 dives
- Agreed certain newer members can now join
sea dives, subject to check dive in the pool and progress in Ocean Diver
training. 9th May Brighton trip could be suitable for students.
- Dives haven’t been offered to divers
outside the club yet. UK Dive Spaces website could be used. BSAC London and
SE regions could be contacted. Distributing dive list PDF may not be very
effective in drumming up interest for dives – some members don’t read it.
Lee to send email regarding the next 3 sea dives (excluding
Pembrokeshire), especially regarding 9th May (Brighton) dive – if there
are no more takers, spaces will be offered to divers outside the club.
Victor to put up notice at Amphibian [post-meeting note – Amphibian no
longer has a noticeboard for customer use].
2016 dives
- Agreed to defer discussion to next
meeting.
Bermondsey BSAC 60th birthday
- Agreed a function and a dive trip would be
organised.
- Ideas to be brought to next meeting.
Next meeting
- 30th April. Venue to be
confirmed.
