Bermondsey BSAC committee meeting – 26th March 2015

In attendance: Pat, Teresa, Ken, Lee, Clive, Victor

Apologies: Chris, Colin, Ross

Minutes of 19^th 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 26^th 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 18^th 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 3^rd 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 (3^rd 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. 9^th 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 60^th birthday

• Agreed a function and a dive trip would be organised.
• Ideas to be brought to next meeting.

Next meeting

• 30^th April. Venue to be confirmed.