University clubs under threat, due to funding difficulties

[stephen cowley]

Hi all,
I'm from the University of Manchester Sub-Aqua Club.
To try and trim a long story short:

Last year our Athletic Union (who fund us) 'trimmed' all non-competing sports from its books to save money, so that as of next year we have no source of funding for the club to pay for servicing of regulators, tanks etc.

Without this money the club can't survive, because (as impoverished students) we can't charge our members fees of the magnitude to pay for servicing of the kit ourselves, or expect our members to buy all the kit themselves (regs, stabs, tanks etc), and we certainly coudn't afford the pool time to do entry-level training (the university don't pay for this)

I am interested to hear from other clubs, especially university or college clubs, that are facing the same problems.
Some of you may remember Hertfordshire University BSAC (380) mentioned in Dive Magazine which decided to devolve itself from the university for various reasons (correct me if I have the wrong club!). This is looking likely to happen to our branch at the end of this academic year if we cannot secure money from elsewhere - either from inside the university or via sponsorship.

We are fighting hard to keep our club going. By December we will have to report and justify our existence to a strategic review panel who will then decide on behalf of the university whether a university-funded sub-aqua club is a valid use of university funds. In the meantime we are facing ever-increasing beurocracy and paperwork everytime we want to run a training trip, expedition, or even buy spare parts. Hopefully I don't need to mention how justified and worthwhile student diving clubs are on this site.

Please get in touch if you have, or are facing similar difficulties, as it would be great to mention other club's funding arrangements in our report, and possibly share ideas and approaches to solving common difficulties.

Regards
Steve Cowley
Diving Officer
Manchester University Sub-Aqua Club
BSAC branch 9197

[terryh]

Regards
Steve Cowley
Diving Officer
Manchester University Sub-Aqua Club
BSAC branch 9197


Hi Steve,

Like to help (also a Uni club), but can you awnser some basic
questions. Very rougly will do.

What are your basic fees minus BSAC?
What sort of subsidy do you get and is it per student or a set
ammount?
How many actual fully paid up members do you have?
How many NQI's/ACI's are there? How many are active?
How many sets of kit do you run (including cylinders)?
Is your boat owned soley by the club and how many times a year
does it go out?
Is the boat subsidised in any way by say other clubs?

If you feel that any of this is priviledged then email me and
we can talk off fora.

Rgds
TerryH

[David Walker]

Hi
I'm (amongst other things) the treasurer for the University of Warwick Sub Aqua Club. We don't have any problems of funding, and don't have any reason anticipate any in the future (especially as the Union just today allowed us extra spending amounting to probably ?500-?700 a year). From what you say though there may be a few ideas I can give you to look into.

If you could give some idea about the scale of the club that would help. Usually we end up with around 100 members, but only 30-40 people who actually dive with the club. Of those, by the end of the courses we don't usually have more than around 25 active members. Dropout rates are high, but its to be expected in a University club, where people join in their first weeks before they really know what they're going to do.

Anyway, for that we get an annual budget of very roughly ?4000 - we have around 8 sets of full open water kit, more pool stuff, a RIB (which we won a few years ago at the Dive Show), and compressor.
Working on the maximum, we survive on a budget which amounts to around ?100 per person per year. That isn't actually all that much compared to the cost of diving, and you may want to look into how much you'd realistically have to charge members to survive as a club - may be less than you think, depending on size of the club, etc.
Something to consider!


Last year our Athletic Union (who fund us) 'trimmed' all non-competing sports from its books to save money, so that as of next year we have no source of funding for the club to pay for servicing of regulators, tanks etc.

I think if they've done that, the chances of the Sub Aqua Club getting funding is probably quite unlikely i'd have thought. However, there are a few points which you can make to them - firstly, the equipment is expensive to maintain, but they are building up valuable assets in Sub Aqua Clubs, much more than any other club.
Another thing to consider is what they would do with equipment if they close the club - i'd assume they technically own the equipment, and so may want to sell it. If they do that, you'll be in trouble. If they let you keep it as a club, you could manage, and possibly even sell some of the kit to reduce maintenance costs and get some instant cash. Of course you don't want to rely on that money otherwise you'll have less and less equipment each year. Things like a RIB though could maybe be sold, since that will bring in a lot of money, and if you're like our club, it only gets used a few times per year.


Without this money the club can't survive, because (as impoverished students) we can't charge our members fees of the magnitude to pay for servicing of the kit ourselves, or expect our members to buy all the kit themselves (regs, stabs, tanks etc), and we certainly coudn't afford the pool time to do entry-level training (the university don't pay for this)

The university don't let you use their pool for free? Thats a bit harsh! Maybe you could negotiate with a local sports centre though, see if they'll let you use half of the pool for a couple of hours a week - do it when its quiet will imporve your chances, but you'd really have to come up with a good proposal for that I imagine.

One thing about member fees - to join our club, join BSAC, and get the training for the Ocean Diver course, a newcomer to the club would have to shell out ?47 to BSAC for membership and the pack, and we charge them ?30, so it'll be ?77 upfront. However, the average person joining a club won't have any idea about the costs, so that could be much higher and a lot wouldn't be put off by it. I'm sure membership would drop, but then if you can't maintain as much kit as before then that may be necessary anyway.


I am interested to hear from other clubs, especially university or college clubs, that are facing the same problems.

Not the same problems as i've said, but I think it is doable, but with a lot more work. If you can get instructors to maybe pay their own expenses that would help significantly, the university may still let you use their minibuses (if they have them) for transport, which still keeps transport costs down.
You could do fundraising activities - one of the other sports teams at Warwick did a calendar this year, which got them quite a lot of money for not all that much initial outlay.
Sponsorship may be another idea - contact the manufacturers and local dive shops, tory to get sponsorship - if you can get a whole club wearing one manufacturers kit, that is going to look good for them when you're all wandering around the dive sites. They may be willing to contribute to maintenance and servicing, because they don't want their kit to be seen as poor quality and unreliable when you can't afford to service it. Local dive shops may be willing to give the club some free kit, on the agreement that you take your trainees there when they're buying the basic kit like mask, fins and snorkel. A good bit of advertising for them, and some free stuff for you.

Of course, these are all just suggestions, but a combination should raise money for you quite quickly. We could i'm sure manage without our budget - it would be more difficult no doubt, but I worked out that last year we had around ?22,000 pass through our accounts, and less than ?3000 allocated budget. That isn't a huge amount to make up, and through that we do pay for a lot of unnecessary things like extra instructor trips when they aren't really needed, instructor training, a lot of bits of kit which are just nice to have but not necessary, and we've subsidised the trips in the UK last year, when in practice they could easily have been self-funding. Even raising ?1000 should be enough to keep the club going. Remember that try-dives are a very good source of income too - we had 50 last year, contributing ?500 alone, and i'm fairly sure we've already had more this year. Its activities like that which can very very quickly build up budgets and make a big difference. Try octopush - won't cost the club very much at all, and you could try to get 20-30 people in a pool at a time, charge them a couple of pound each, and have a good game. Good regular income, although if you have to pay for the pool then that might not be so viable, depending on costs.


In the meantime we are facing ever-increasing beurocracy and paperwork everytime we want to run a training trip, expedition, or even buy spare parts. Hopefully I don't need to mention how justified and worthwhile student diving clubs are on this site.

Certainly! Its a prime target for a lot of people starting to dive, since its going to be the cheapest way you're ever going to start, and if you get into it properly you're likely to stay with it for many years. Although that doesn't really add any percieved benefit for the University, it is a great benefit to students at the University, and deserves to be funded over say things like swimming - you can do that at any time in a pool, not equipment needed except one of them funny little rubber hats! Admittedly training and swimming properly will take slightly more organisation, but pools have lanes for use for these sorts of things routinely anyway. Football you only need a bit of grass and a ball, so again something which doesn't really need University funding - diving however, you need to point out is a capital intensive sport, and the only way it can be made available to a majority of the population is through introducing it at University clubs where it can be subsidised. Also point out that you have the people there willing to devote time to run it, you have instructors who don't get paid wanting to take students in, but you need a certain amount of funding to pay for the upkeep of kit which they have paid for over many years in the past anyway.

I have to agree about the bureacracy too - I spent 45 minutes today with our Sports Officer at the Union trying to simplify procedures for the club and get her to put through a lot of our money requests which had previously been rejected. Hopefully she will get something done, but it does seem to be a trend where it is increasing and they do want more control over all of their clubs. Hopefully on our past record of very close control of accounts we'll have the restrictions on our spending lifted a bit, which will make my job easier. If you have a good past record for good money management, that could similarly work in your favour.


Please get in touch if you have, or are facing similar difficulties, as it would be great to mention other club's funding arrangements in our report, and possibly share ideas and approaches to solving common difficulties.

Feel free to mention our club as an example of, well, whatever you like really. We do get a lot of help from the University and Union, and depending on your university they may start to get competitive and think "well if Warwick do it, we should too". How about a list of how many Universities do actually have diving clubs, show the proportion of these which are at the top universities and the proportion at the other universities, and i'd expect to find that more of the top universities have clubs than lower down the league tables - show them numbers like that, and they may want to keep their image in the top of the list, even on something simple like having a sub aqua club.

I really hope you do get something sorted so that your club does survive. I've got so much out of the club i'm at, and i've only been here a year, so I believe as many people as possible should have the chance to at least try diving.

David
Treasurer / Comunications, University of Warwick Sub Aqua Club
BSAC Sports Diver & Assistant Instructor

[Philip Smith]

Hi Stephen,

here are the sorts of things that might help to justify your club's existence to the University. They like to see the University being represented well, hence the emphasis on competitive clubs. The role of the club within the University and the local community should be emphasised. Diving and instructor training provides a wider range of skills than many other sports, so highlighting the development of transferable skills may help your case. Emphasise your responsible attitude to safety and the framework of training and safety guidelines provided by BSAC, the national governing body.
Letters of support from outside bodies you have dealings with and former members (saying what MUSAC has done for them) might help too.

Representation of the University:
- visibility at dive sites around the country and overseas (hopefully with exemplary conduct!)
- assisting other dive clubs and other water users (e.g. with breakdowns or rescues)
- interactions with local ordinary branches
- continuing contact with former members
- attendance of members at regionally- or nationally-run BSAC courses and other events
- members gaining nationally-awarded qualifications (particularly FCD and NI)
- publicity of community and charity events
- contacts with RNLI, MCA, RLSS
- try for the Heinke Award!

Role within University:
- providing safety cover for other water sports clubs
- providing training for expeditions involving diving/snorkelling/boathandling
- support for aquatic student projects (can be a can of worms though)
- existence of diving club can influence students' choice of university
- inclusivity (don't need to be an athlete to get involved)

Community outreach:
- snorkelling or try-dives for disadvantaged groups
- fund-raising for charity
- providing safety cover for other water sports (particularly when engaged in charity or community events)
- taking part in local fun events such as galas and processions

Personal development/Transferrable skills:
- self-discipline, responsibility, duty of care
- teamwork
- confidence building
- communication
- technical ability with equipment
- organisation/logistics
- management of people
- management of health and safety
- lifesaving and first-aid
- course development/implementation
- teaching theory (presentational and communication skills)
- teaching practical skills (in classroom, pool and outdoors)
- designing and implementing assessment
- committee experience (consider diving-specific aspects of this)
- environmental awareness
- interacting with outside authorities

Hope this helps. No doubt I have omitted several things; others may add to the list.

Good luck,
Philip

[Philip Smith]

Remember that try-dives are a very good source of income too

This has been argued about here before, but profiting from try-dives for non-members may bring the branch and instructors within the scope of the "diving at work" legislation, since diving is being done for "gain or reward".

Philip Smith

[peter k]

You could take non-uni people in and charge them a bit more since the chances are they'll be working. You'll also get the benefit of them not leaving after 2/3/4 years, thus upping your instructor numbers and having a steadier number of instuctors each year(more instructors = more trainees = more cash)

Just a thought
Peter

[David Walker]

This has been argued about here before, but profiting from try-dives for non-members may bring the branch and instructors within the scope of the "diving at work" legislation, since diving is being done for "gain or reward".


Haven't seen the previous thread, but I think if it was worked out then ?10 for a try dive would not be seen as a profit if the entire cost was worked out according to full accounting conventions, particularly depreciation and contribution to overheads and maintenance costs.

I'm going to work very roughly on a 25 week year here:
Each tank will be used by 4 people per week - 100 times per year - at ?25 servicing and maintenance cost, thats 25p each try dive.
A couple of new tanks each year, ?250, got around 12 tanks, so 21p each try dive.
Regs used roughly the same amount, ?60 maintenance cost, 60p each try dive.
New reg every year, ~8 regs, ?400, 50p/dive.
BCD used the same, little maintenance but new one every year, ?250, 31p/dive.
Pool fins, only used by try-divers in pool, used 100 times over the year between them all, a couple of new pairs every year, ?75 per year spent, 75p/dive.
Masks, used mostly for try-dives, a new one every year, ?30, maybe used 60 times between them, 50p/dive.
Air fill, maybe 750 fills per year, ~?350 per year maintenance, filters etc, 47p/dive.
Compressor maybe cost ?10000, about 750 fills per year, maybe last 30 years, another 44p/dive
Probably bits i've forgotten, but that adds up to ?4.03. However, instructors need to use kit, usually use club kit but can take two try-divers at a time - thats another ?2.02, making ?6.05.
Administration expenses and general club overheads also need to be accounted for - admin, photocopying, promotion, etc for try-dives is actually quite a lot - we spend maybe ?25 at the beginning of the year, and through that get 50 try-divers - thats another 25p each, making ?6.30 each.
If they aren't members of the club, they have not contributed to the Union funds and Sports Federation, and so would usually have to pay ?2 to use the pool - we make sure they don't have to pay that, but it affects club funding. ?8.30/dive now!
Some of our instructors also have to travel quite far to do things like that, for which we give them half of their transport costs. One may travel 75 miles round trip, and do say 4 people's try-dives and some dives in Stoney on the Saturday. The Union pay 18p/mile, so thats ?13.50. However, the club only pay half (if they are non-members they should really pay the full, but we'll let that go this time), and that instructor does dives with 8 people, so thats another 84p/dive. Now we're up to ?9.14.
Add on the bits i've forgotten, inaccuracy, and making it up to a nice round number, and i think you'll find that ?10 is very reasonable, and assuming I took the times to get the records and prove all these numbers and make them accurrate, that would be an allowable accounting costing method and would certainly satify the HSE that we weren't profiting.

:op

David

[Philip Smith]

Haven't seen the previous thread, but I think if it was worked out then ?10 for a try dive would not be seen as a profit if the entire cost was worked out according to full accounting conventions, particularly depreciation and contribution to overheads and maintenance costs.

But you initially suggested try-dives as a means of fundraising ("a very good source of income"), which implies making a profit. Now you seem to be saying that your branch only covers the direct costs of running try-dives (although some of your costs seem to be for general diving also), in which case it is not a fundraising activity after all.

Philip

[David Walker]

:=Haven't seen the previous thread, but I think if it was worked out then ?10 for a try dive would not be seen as a profit if the entire cost was worked out according to full accounting conventions, particularly depreciation and contribution to overheads and maintenance costs.

But you initially suggested try-dives as a means of fundraising ("a very good source of income"), which implies making a profit. Now you seem to be saying that your branch only covers the direct costs of running try-dives (although some of your costs seem to be for general diving also), in which case it is not a fundraising activity after all.

Well OK, maybe a little bit, but they do contribute a lot to the running costs of a club, and for a larger club with more of them would contribute more. The ?10 is only an estimate, and if you did more dives then there wouldn't be any greater costs really, and then you are making money. The HSE don't expect you to charge ?9.746319 for every try dive up to how many you plan for, and then give the rest free - thats not the way the world works. I'm fairly sure BSAC recommends ?15 for a try-dive, or maybe I saw that somewhere else...

You spread the maintenance costs of equipment over more people, so the divers doing training dives don't need to pay as much - if the kit's there, use it more, which reduces the per-dive cost and brings prices down to more reasonable levels for trainees and other divers.

David

[Philip Smith]

You spread the maintenance costs of equipment over more people, so the divers doing training dives don't need to pay as much - if the kit's there, use it more, which reduces the per-dive cost and brings prices down to more reasonable levels for trainees and other divers.

That's exactly the point -- in the situation you have described, the members are profiting from non-members (try-divers who don't join), so it can be argued that diving (leading try-dives) is being done for gain or reward, bringing it under the commercial diving legislation.

Philip

[Trevor M]

You could take non-uni people in and charge them a bit more since the chances are they'll be working. You'll also get the benefit of them not leaving after 2/3/4 years, thus upping your instructor numbers and having a steadier number of instuctors each year(more instructors = more trainees = more cash)

Our club (Uni.Bristol) does this. The Union rules state that the club membership ratio of students to non-students should not drop below 2:1. This gives plenty of room for instructors to hang around and providing a little bit of stability.

T

[David Walker]

:=You spread the maintenance costs of equipment over more people, so the divers doing training dives don't need to pay as much - if the kit's there, use it more, which reduces the per-dive cost and brings prices down to more reasonable levels for trainees and other divers.

That's exactly the point -- in the situation you have described, the members are profiting from non-members (try-divers who don't join), so it can be argued that diving (leading try-dives) is being done for gain or reward, bringing it under the commercial diving legislation.


Not really - thats just economies of scale. If they're still just paying the 'at cost' level, you can't be deemed to be making a profit from them, since all the money they pay is paying for an identifiable cost object, or making a fair contribution to overheads.
Yes most clubs would charge a bit more on top, but they could still charge the exact cost to every try-diver, not make a penny profit, but still benefit as a club because of spreading the cost, and thats not what you're saying above.

So, if you think that try-divers paying the at cost rate is wrong, because they improve econmies of scale and so the club benefits in another way, how would you say they should be priced then? One more person using the kit will bring the cost down for everyone else - everyone pays their fair share, just that that share is slightly less for each additional person using the kit. That is perfectly acceptable however you work it out.

David

[stephen cowley]

Hi all, thanks for your input - some useful points coming out.

Some clarification for those that are interested - not included in previous email for clarity. Ive tried to be realistic, not
pessimistic in my responses, but it's tricky!

If you could give some idea about the scale of the club
that would help. Usually we end up with around 100 members,
but only 30-40 people who actually dive with the club

Our club has approx 60-70 paid up members this year, of which 20 are complete beginners, about 25 new members trained elsewhere, and the rest are continuation from last year. Intake is limited to instructor availablility (we can get 5-6 instructors\ACI's down each week)
we take on as many pre-qualified members as possible - much less drain on instructor resources and they can progress further in their 3/4 years at uni because of this headstart; hopefully becoming ACI/OWI before graduating to put effort back into the club.

Anyway, for that we get an annual budget of very roughly
?4000 - we have around 8 sets of full open water kit, more
pool stuff, a RIB (which we won a few years ago at the Dive
Show), and compressor.

well done with the RIB!
Our budget this year is ?2300. This is for spending on equipment servicing and transport(300 max) only - no new purchases.
We have 15 full sets of open-water kit, and some extra tanks. No compressor (it broke down to the extend of a ?1500 repair bill which we can't afford and the Uni won't pay for).
We have a RIB, which keeps itself running by charging "costs" of ?5 per day per diver. It is used regularly and is seen as a great club asset. However, if something expensive broke on it (engine gearbox for example) we couldn't afford to fix it - perhaps we need better insurance.

Some interesting statistics compared with warwick - we get ~?150 per set of open water kit (1 set=regs, BCD, 2 tanks) compared to ?500 per set for warwick - lucky you!
Alternatively, you could say we get ?33 per member as opposed to ?100. We could well charge ?33 extra to our members next year, but, although it is only a small increase and not meaning to be too pessimistic, I think it would decrease the intake as it would raise the cost of training to over the ?100 mark.
The maintenance of kit would be manegable with the ?33 increase, but we have no margin for loss of kit through damage,or other big repair bills, and no way of buying more kit to expand the club or provide more gear (safety related or otherwise) - and no compressor! As has been mentioned in another post, one of the attractions of learning to dive at Uni is the low cost. I would like to keep it as cheap as possible -ideally free, as it is such a beneficial activity for our members.

Currently we charge ?80 per member, which goes on BSAC fees (17), training material(30), pool entry(10) and ?23 quid to club funds (which goes mainly into running kit repairs\replacement bits and bobs)

The university don't let you use their pool for free? Thats a bit harsh!

Indeed! We use the Serco-run Manchester Aquatics Centre. The university pool closed a few years ago to make way for the new facility. Whilst the new pool is great for training in, and the university has some affiliation with it, we are still charged for its use.

If you can get instructors to maybe pay their own
expenses that would help significantly, the university may
still let you use their minibuses (if they have them) for
transport, which still keeps transport costs down.

We don't pay anything to our instructors - not even petrol money to get the pool! We'd rather ,and it is necessary, that the money is spent elsewhere. The instructors understand our financial situation and we are grateful for their voluntary contributions of time and effort. Our instructors are all alumni of the club - recent graduates not necessarily students.

The university minibuses cost ~?45 per day to hire.
Pool training arrangements are convoluted to say the least, but since we don't have a compressor Manchester Metropolitan University kindly fill our tanks for pool training, and we use their minibus to transport them all from their compressor room to the pool and back (~ 10 mile round trip). Without this we would be completeley stuck! The uni know about this problem, and have been struggling to come to some arrangement with Serco to pay for and install a new compressor at the aquatics centre for use by several local clubs. this has been on the cards for 3 years now and is no closer to being given the go-ahead.

You could do fundraising activities - one of the other
sports teams at Warwick did a calendar this year, which got
them quite a lot of money for not all that much initial
outlay.

This is something we are concentrating efforts on. We do a deal with the local dive shop already, and are actively seeking external sponsorship for other things. It's just a shame and a sign of the times that we have to do this, rather than get the money we need from the university.

David, I think your club is in an enviable position of being able to subsidise trips, pay for instructor trips and courses. I hope it stays this way for you. We can only dream of such things, which I think should be possible in all university clubs. It is things like paying instructor petrol and divesite entrance fees that would help us run more training trips, get more members up to instructor level, and improve the general morale in the club.
Lets hope Warwick don't find out about the state of funding other universities are giving their diving clubs and decide to save a few pennies!

One final thorn in our side is the proposed merger of UMIST and Manchester Universities, which means that all our concerns are set on the back burner with the administration staff at the University. Whilst you would imagine this would mean a greater interest and level of funding for sport, the athletic union here has recently informed all its clubs that their futures are not secure in the merger and to prepare to justify their existence and budgets.

Thanks again for your input. Ill let you know how it goes on.

Steve Cowley
Manchester University Sub-Aqua Club

[Philip Smith]

So, if you think that try-divers paying the at cost rate is wrong, because they improve econmies of scale and so the club benefits in another way, how would you say they should be priced then?

Well, it would be safest not to charge at all (as in the annual national try dive campaigns). Try dives should not be seen as a direct fund-raising activity. If a charge is made, it should be set very carefully and with awareness of the risk of being seen to gain from non-members in return for a diving service. It would be helpful if BSAC could check with the HSE which types of cost could be covered in charging for try dives (if we have not already done so).

Philip Smith

[David Walker]

Well, it would be safest not to charge at all (as in the annual national try dive campaigns). Try dives should not be seen as a direct fund-raising activity. If a charge is made, it should be set very carefully and with awareness of the risk of being seen to gain from non-members in return for a diving service. It would be helpful if BSAC could check with the HSE which types of cost could be covered in charging for try dives (if we have not already done so).

Possibly - not really practical for University clubs though - we get so many people at the beginning of every year, and thats with them paying ?10 each. If we offered try-dives for free, it'd take most of the year just doing try-dives, or if we limited the numbers then those who were really interested mightn't be able to get into diving because of those who are only interested because it's free. For us, ?10 is a nice price to give us just about the right number of people - if anything we still get too many, but don't want to raise the price any further.

David

[Philip Smith]

Possibly - not really practical for University clubs though - we get so many people at the beginning of every year, and thats with them paying ?10 each.

I note that you keep shifting your argument for charging for try dives. First it was for fundraising, then it was for covering costs, now it is for deterring time-wasters. Try dives are not a pre-requisite for membership. Keen prospective trainees will apply for membership even if they haven't been able to do a try dive. Unfortunately, eventual dropouts may exclude genuine candidates regardless of try dive policy[1]. If you want to use financial disincentives to deter the less keen, it would be safer to increase your first-time branch subscription. It may be fairer to use non-financial selection procedures for membership, however.

Philip Smith

[1] Vic-style footnote: I was the diving officer for two years of a university branch with an annual initial intake of about 100 trainees.

[ben field]

Hi Steve,

I'm a member of BSAC 380 the Ex-University of Hertfordshire club, yes we mutually "left" the SU's fold to make our way in the world. But you'll recall from the article that we had/have a hard-core of ex-students and external members (about 25 strong) that provide lots of the training and most of the membership money.

As its happened the SU have (under new management) invited us back this year in terms of our showing up at freshers to get new members only. The SU will provide students with alittle help in terms of cash but we as a club are not part of the SU, so can do, charge, spend what and when we like.

FWIW The majority of our problem with the SU was our cost versus number of students, rightly or wrongly the SU added up everything we had in our insured equipment list and budget and came to over 50K (Two RIB's, inflatable, 25 SCUBA sets, compressors, annual pool fees etc.) they didn't think this was worthwhile for the 20-30 students we managed to train annually. Now the fact that the figure and maths involved were flawed that just how it went... :)

regards,
Ben Field
Ex-Chairman, UHSAC

[Mark Weeks]

Steve,

You're not the only club to recieve very little from your AU. Our Club recieved a 'generous' grant of ?400 this year off our AU, the previous year it was ?600 etc. They are slowly moving money into competitive sports clubs and have made it perfectly clear that our grants will continue to get smaller and that we have to be more self reliant.

To help get more money into our bank account we have removed all non-paying members from the club. We had around 150 people on our e-mail lists before and we now have 55 paying members on the list. Of those members 16 are new trainees and the rest are existing members, PADI cross-overs and members who are finishing off their OW training. Although this seemed like a drastic measure it has meant that for the first time in years we have got money off all the club members and this has helped our financial situation greatly.

We charge each member for membership of the club and they also pay for the BSAC membership in addition to the club fees. We charge ?5 club membership, ?15 equipment fees and ?20 compressor fees. This money goes mostly on the compressors annual service (and filters) and on servicing all our reg sets. We're very lucky though as we have managed to buy lots of new kit over the last few years and now have 10 full sets of OW equipment in addition to the compressor.

One way we managed to get something back off the AU was to scrap our old, knackered RIB and use the money to pay for the annual service for the Sailing Club's Safety RIB; which we now share. We don't use the RIB that often (at most 10 times a year) so date-conflicts rarely occur between the two clubs. What's good for us is that the Sailing Club represents the University a lot so the AU is happy to pay for the upkeep of the RIB, all we do is pay for Marine Oil and Petrol when we use it.

We are in the process of getting a ?1000 sponsorship deal with a local building company who are spending ?2M+ on new student accomodation. In return for advertising the company with stickers on cylinders, their logo on our club tops etc, they are buying us new kit to replace old kit (e.g. 5 year old Beaver BCDs that are finally dying). Maybe you could look into sponsorship; any amount helps!

Finally, our annual budget is something like ?2000 so we also run on a very tight budget; I certainly wish we had the budget of other University Clubs I know of!

Hope some of this may prove useful and that things improve for you.

Mark Weeks
Aberystwyth University Sub-Aqua Club Diving Officer

Hi Steve,

I'm a member of BSAC 380 the Ex-University of Hertfordshire club, yes we mutually "left" the SU's fold to make our way in the world. But you'll recall from the article that we had/have a hard-core of ex-students and external members (about 25 strong) that provide lots of the training and most of the membership money.

As its happened the SU have (under new management) invited us back this year in terms of our showing up at freshers to get new members only. The SU will provide students with alittle help in terms of cash but we as a club are not part of the SU, so can do, charge, spend what and when we like.

FWIW The majority of our problem with the SU was our cost versus number of students, rightly or wrongly the SU added up everything we had in our insured equipment list and budget and came to over 50K (Two RIB's, inflatable, 25 SCUBA sets, compressors, annual pool fees etc.) they didn't think this was worthwhile for the 20-30 students we managed to train annually. Now the fact that the figure and maths involved were flawed that just how it went...

regards,
Ben Field
Ex-Chairman, UHSAC

[Edwin James Lomas]

Hi all,
I'm from the University of Manchester Sub-Aqua Club.
To try and trim a long story short:

Last year our Athletic Union (who fund us) 'trimmed' all non-competing sports from its books to save money, so that as of next year we have no source of funding for the club to pay for servicing of regulators, tanks etc.


Greetings from far way, probably in a time warp.

I helped found a college club many years ago, and my daughter, her partner, and their friends were until recently leading lights at a university club. Though now far removed from undergraduate life I do have some suggestions:

Does the problem arise because of (and I'm going to regret this!) immature and self centred individuals playing politics? It sounds as if this decision is unfair, so pick the reasoning apart and protest like hell. Study the constitution of the SU and the AU, and got to the top, which may not only be the current elected officers. Where do the SU and the AU get their funds from? Unite with other non-competitive sports, and challenge any assertions about who 'represents the university' - we (then Liverpool Polytechnic S-A C) certainly attracted plenty of positive publicity through an archaeological project, helping a local school to reopen their pool after it was vandalised, and so on, as well as supporting biological and sports research projects within the institution.

Question your own position closely - your own internal club politics may have done you no good. Make sure that you establish a united position, and always remember to serve the stated aims of your club. Put forward all members who qualify as open water instructors while undergraduates for sports colours - they have after all gained a prestigious and internationally recognised coaching award.

Whether any reduction in funding is meant to be permanent or temporary, treat it as temporary and try to make sure that you do give the student body best possible value, which may mean moving away from a bog standard training programme.

In the meantime, keep going. Given a choice of being in a lifeboat with diving club members or competitive sports players should be a no brain decision for pretty well anyone!

Good luck

Ed Lomas