NEW MEMBERS

[Bill Bird]

I have just returned from a trip to the Maldives (great diving - Whale Sharks, Mantas, Grey Reef and White tips, Turtles - in fact I thought I was diving in Fish Soup).

However, I got talking to some English couples about diving, and was surprised to hear what some of them had to say about their local BSAC branches when they looked to learn how to dive. They were not flatering and in one case said that they were put off by the "Commando" mentality of the branch in question. Taking to them further it seemed that the "Old Guard" of that branch just totally put them off by their whole attitude. I'm not naming branches - that's counter productive and up to the couple in question regarding a complaint. However it highlights that some branches are not being as welcoming as they should be, and are certainly not creating the right impression. So this is more of a plea to branches to be more welcoming to new people, and to ask how others manage this aspect?

Regards.


Bill

[Paul Oliver]

Hi Bill

Have to agree with you, we as a branch would not exist without new members. Just started training 16 new ones last night, and we trained 26 over the last 10 months.

The core of our regular divers this season were trained by us in the last 2-3 years. We cannot do without new members.

Dive Safe

Paul

[DeepDigit]

Hi Bill

Have to agree with you, we as a branch would not exist without new members. Just started training 16 new ones last night, and we trained 26 over the last 10 months.

The core of our regular divers this season were trained by us in the last 2-3 years. We cannot do without new members.

Dive Safe

Paul

--------------------------------------------------------
Why is that - don't you keep your trained divers?

How many can your brnach grow to - or is that a silly question!

Dive Safe :-)

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

How many can your brnach grow to - or is that a silly question!

Well, if you want a silly answer our largest ordinary branch has had membership figures approaching 200 :-)

Keith L

[Paul Oliver]

We keep our trained divers a lot of the time, however some move on. However we need minimum numbers to dive, and a spread of skills, our newer members provide a lot of that.

They are the bulk of the AI's taking lessons tonight in the pool, many of the more experienced instructors do not want to comit themselves to training every week, so we need these enthusiastic new instructors.

We do lots of diving, the very enthusiastic newer members are often the ones making up the numbers so we can get out. We dive every Sat and Sun from April - Oct weather permiting, quite a few of those i would not have had enough on the boat to do it without them.

Our old seadogs are the backbone of the club but they need to be able to sit back a bit after a while. Same as i will as DO at some stage.

Regards

Paul

[katy nicholson]

I'm probably a bit late with this reply. I've been off the forums (and out of diving) for about 18months. This is because I have relocated due to work and have had great difficutly finding a branch that suits me. I'm fairly experienced and was looking for an active branch with a similar approach to myself to diving, safety and nitrox - no point ending up with the twin 10 brigade if you struggle to find time to plop in once a month with a stumpy twelve.
I must say I learnt a great deal about BSAC and its diversity from my phone calls and branch visits. While all branches have their own atmosphere (healthy) some practice a brand of BSAC that I had hoped would have died with the ark! If they managed to put me off how many 'beginner's or PADI crossovers are they putting off!
Anyway you don't all need to flood me with branch offers - I've found one that I like although I've yet to get in the water with them - December not being peak diving season in the South - but back home in Scotland it's all different. BAh humbug!