Marcus Allen - Candidate for Chairman

[Marcus Allen]

Hi All
Thanks to everyone who has called me for a chat recently - if anyone else would like to discuss the issues that face BSAC going forward and my approach to them my number is in the meet the candidates pull out. Several people have asked me to expand on some of my themes so I have:

Delivering the support and providing the services all our Members need whether in Branches or BSAC Direct here in the UK or overseas to go diving:
I dive with a branch and I dive independently in the UK and overseas and have other agency qualifications (see below).
I take feedback to the club and constructive criticism of it seriously and I intend to ensure that the club continues to improve by responding to it.

Maintaining our hard-won stability and keeping the club on track:
I have the business skills and intimate knowledge of the club to build the council teams and guide the club through some challenging times. I have a good knowledge of what has happened in the past to the club and what the future challenges that face the club are.
One of the major challenges is the falling membership: but the membership picture is not simple. Membership retention has been improving from about 75% a few years ago to around 80% today. This shows that the improvements we have started making are taking effect. Also the historical high of 55,000 members is not accurate - the work done recently on our member database has shown a more accurate picture of about 49,000 from where it has fallen. However, membership of BSAC is not falling across the board. Full and abated member numbers are falling but family members are increasing. BSAC Direct member numbers are growing at about 6% , overseas members at about 2%. Snorkel member numbers are growing slowly. Student and Youth numbers are falling. We have to take a wider view of membership and progress a lot of strategies both short and long term to address these facts. Many of these have already been started by the current council and we have plenty of work for the next three years:
Improving branch support with people to assist branches with marketing and membership recruitment issues where requested.
Improving communication still further with all members wherever they are.
Ensuring that the Club is welcoming to all divers.
Ensuing that BSAC becomes even better value for members
supporting local teams like the Regional and Area Coaches
Introducing new ideas that will focus on the fact that we are a diving club, where we respect each other, trust each other and have fun going diving:
I will ensure we continue to develop interesting courses across diving related topics, improve the ones that we have and I will ensure that we continue to emphasise safe diving by giving the NDC and NDO council support in these areas as priorities. I see no need for another wholesale review of the Diver Training Program.
I understand the responsibilities as the Chairman of BSAC to all of our members, in the UK and abroad and also our role as the UK Governing body where the interests of the wider aspects of diving and other organisations have to be considered. It is not as simple as just looking at BSAC as we have very important relationships with many external bodies which are currently very good and must remain so for the health of the club.

Here are specific answers to the questions further down the forum:

Paul B's questions:
1) Are you a current Member of a BSAC branch?
Yes ULSAC (University of London)

2) How active are you within that branch?
Very - still do all levels of training from Ocean Diver through to instructor development and will be on the beach at Porthkerris for 10 days from next Friday doing just that if anyone is around that way and wants a chat.

3) How many dives have you done in the past 12months? 72

4) How many dives with your branch? 28

5) How many dives not in Northern Europe? 30

Steve W's Question:
6) which BSAC qualifications (excluding SALT items) do you hold?
1st Class, National Instructor, Nitrox Instructor, ERD Instructor, Boat Handling Instructor and Diver Coxain Assessor
Also other agencies: EATD Nitrox Diver, IAND Tech Nitrox and an IANTD Rebreather course.

Thanks for your interest and feel free to give me a ring if you like.

Marcus

[Keith L]

Thank you Marcus. At last a candidate for Chair who is willing to answer actual questions and =SAY= not only what he has been doing for the club but real visions as to what he will be actually be doing.

I have had the pleasure of working with Marcus for some years now, he has my full support and total confidence as Chair of the club - simply because I /KNOW/ he can do the job and that the club will be in safe (but visionary) hands.

Keith Lawrence
Council Member
Council Candidate 2005

[Andy Wade]

You're too late Marcus, I already voted.
For you of course.
;-)

[CAS]

Marcus,

I've been following a lot of the discussion around the elections and one of the points that has cropped up a few times is this almost diametric opposition in background between you and Louise.

I think I used the expression that if you were chopped through the middle we would see "BSAC" written like the "Blackpool" in a stick of rock!

What would you say to those who might say that you are *too* BSAC? What are your thoughts and feelings on...

- Working alongside and with other agencies. (I know this happens ATM, but what does the future hold?)
- "Agencyism" within branches.
- Crossovers etc.
- Nicking a few other agencies marketing philosophies.

Cheers

CAS

[andycarroll]

Hi Marcus

I notice that you are yet another rebreather diver in the management of BSAC.

Can you tell me what you think of DIR and how it fits in with your vision of BSAC's future?

Andy

PS All candidates can answer, open question to all.

[Marcus Allen]

Hi Callum
I think you might get a surprise at what you'd find if you chopped me in half! Thanks for your questions:
We currently work alongside the other agencies and co-operate on areas of mutual interest working together on projects such as the Protect our Wrecks campaign, the CDA Boathandling course/ Diving Coxain assessment, safety recommendations and incident reporting. Our relationships with the other agencies are currently good and I would intend to keep it this way and carry on working on projects such as these.
I see agencyism and Crossovers as parts of the same problem - I would love to ban the C word. Crossover to BSAC is not necessary - all someone has to do is join and come diving with us using their existing qualification ( although the first dive is likely to be a shakedown with an instructor and we have to allow for proper intro to UK diving if they are trained in tropical waters). We have quite a bit of work to do in ensuring that this message is understood by everyone and we are seen to be a welcoming club.
As for nicking marketing philosophies - I am completely open to taking useful ideas from wherever they may come from.
Cheers
Marcus

[CAS]

Hi Callum
I think you might get a surprise at what you'd find if you chopped me in half! Thanks for your questions:

Thanks for your reply.

We currently work alongside the other agencies and co-operate on areas of mutual interest working together on projects such as the Protect our Wrecks campaign, the CDA Boathandling course/ Diving Coxain assessment, safety recommendations and incident reporting. Our relationships with the other agencies are currently good and I would intend to keep it this way and carry on working on projects such as these.

Marvelous, the only people that the industry, the politicos or the other involved parties will listen to is "all of us". Just one agency, or even all agencies with subtly different messages can and will be (and have been in the past) dimissed easily with good spin and a decent budget. A single coherent voice is less easy to dismiss.

I see agencyism and Crossovers as parts of the same problem - I would love to ban the C word. Crossover to BSAC is not necessary - all someone has to do is join and come diving with us using their existing qualification ( although the first dive is likely to be a shakedown with an instructor and we have to allow for proper intro to UK diving if they are trained in tropical waters). We have quite a bit of work to do in ensuring that this message is understood by everyone and we are seen to be a welcoming club.

Crossovers are a good thing (I think)! I'm just about to start Dive Leader training and further my diving in the way I wanted to thanks to a crossover from PADI. The SALT system seems to work well on the way into BSAC (or at least it did in my case - I have heard of less proactive clubs) but the current equivalences need promoted within the branches better perhaps.

I take your points about the warmwater trained divers, we need to be able to welcome them easily and get them to want to dive in the UK and learn UK techniques but in a way that builds on the skills they do already have without making them feel like they are somehow inadequate!

Perhaps if there were some centralised thinking around the more common recreational grades from other agencies and how they are likely to drop into club diving and what skill differences are likely to be encountered so that branches can have a clear picture of which of their local sites they can have these divers diving in straight away - you might have guessed that I'm particularly referring to warm water trained PADI Open Water divers.

When I was trained (in Tenerife) I struggled to get diving in the UK but did pretty well just seeking out buddies on the 'net and got myself up to Rescue Diver before joining my current club. I would have joined a club if there was the impetus from the clubs to take someone "not quite totally green" and give them the framework to progress (perhaps not even with SD but just with a Drysuit course, and a few extra tricks like DSMB use etc.)

I'm rambling again...

As for nicking marketing philosophies - I am completely open to taking useful ideas from wherever they may come from.

I'll put my thinking cap on. ;-)

Cheers
Marcus

Well thanks, that answered the questions pretty well I think, I look forward to seeing what happens over the next few years.

Cheers

Calum

[Marcus Allen]

Hi Andy
I am not a RB diver although I have used them on a number of occasions and did the IANTD course in about 1992 just because of interest in this area. I use open circuit for my diving at the moment.
Marcus

[matt]

Marcus

Thanks for taking the time to post. You might like to consider that internet forums provide a way for members to get to know you a little better and I hope you will not be a stranger here.

I don't go in for gratuitous back slapping but I would like to thank you for your work on Council. As a branch officer battling to keep a branch afloat over the last 10 years, the job has become a great deal easier thanks to the turn around at BSAC.

However, membership of BSAC is not falling across the board. Full and abated member numbers are falling but family members are increasing. BSAC Direct member numbers are growing at about 6% , overseas members at about 2%. Snorkel member numbers are growing slowly. Student and Youth numbers are falling.

That makes interesting reading. Do you have a view as to why BSAC are losing full members? Do you think it is inevitable or should BSAC actively take steps to reverse the trend in full memberships?

Improving branch support with people to assist branches with marketing and membership recruitment issues where requested.

I was very impressed with the Marketing Pack. Lots of practical advice in an area which divers would not neccesarily know about. The problem with recruitment drives is that to retain members you need the infrastructure to deliver what they want.

From my own experience ass a branch officer, continual training is one of the main reasons people join a BSAC branch. I note that elsewhere on the thread you mention recruiting divers that are already trained. Because of the lack of instructors in our branch and reticance of our membership to change that position, PADI crossovers have made up the bulk of new joiners for at least the last three years. However they still need training. Initially so that they are singing from the same song sheet (decompression, rescue, DSMBs etc) and later because we are offering progressively more challenging dives. It is quite ironic that by moving the emphasis away from training towards diving, our branch has found the pressure to provide lessons increase.

We currently have instructor shortages in many branches, perhaps as a result of removing DLs and ADs from the pool of those able to provide lessons. There appears to be a mismatch between what members are willing to do in order to help out and what the ITS expects them to do. Personally I do not think we will get on top of the training burden until we have 10% to 20% of the membership able to help out once more. I would like to see BSAC being a bit more creative in thinking how we might solve the problem. Can we expect any movement on this issue if you are successful in the election?

Very best of luck.

[allan j bretherton]

Just a thought, should the chairman be as old as the club? This would rule Marcus out, not sure about the others!

[matt]

Just a thought, should the chairman be as old as the club? This would rule Marcus out, not sure about the others!

Alan, as you have responded under my post could you please explain how that thought occurred?

interestingly or not, I was born a few days before the founders of my branch stood on the deck of the Mary Rose for the very first time!

[Keith L]

Just a thought, should the chairman be as old as the club? This would rule Marcus out, not sure about the others!

Such a rule will lead to grief when we reach our 100th anniversary Allan :-)

My personal view on all of this is that we shouldn't be electing a Chair at all - we should be electing a Council and it is that Council who should choose who is their Chair. As it stands we have two viable candidates, we are guaranteed to loose one of them. We cannot afford to loose Marcus IMHO, he already has the respect of Council (and well beyond) that is essential for a Chair who is to lead the club forward.

Keith L

[Bill Bird]

:=Just a thought, should the chairman be as old as the club? This would rule Marcus out, not sure about the others!

Such a rule will lead to grief when we reach our 100th anniversary Allan :-)

My personal view on all of this is that we shouldn't be electing a Chair at all - we should be electing a Council and it is that Council who should choose who is their Chair. As it stands we have two viable candidates, we are guaranteed to loose one of them. We cannot afford to loose Marcus IMHO, he already has the respect of Council (and well beyond) that is essential for a Chair who is to lead the club forward.

Keith L

That's an interesting thought! But then wouldn't that also apply to Vice-Chair, NDO, etc.?

I agree we don't want to lose somebody who could bring something to the table, and I hope that whoever loses will be persuaded by council to contribute by being on at least one of the sub-committees and help develop BSAC.

Bill

[Andy Wade]

:=
:=Just a thought, should the chairman be as old as the club? This would rule Marcus out, not sure about the others!

Alan, as you have responded under my post could you please explain how that thought occurred?

interestingly or not, I was born a few days before the founders of my branch stood on the deck of the Mary Rose for the very first time!

Oh thanks for that Matt.
Now I feel really old, you young whippersnapper!
;-)

[Marcus Allen]

Hi Matt
Thanks for that, some comments on the issues that you raise:

Do you have a view as to why BSAC are losing full members?
NB This is branch full members in the UK (because Direct and overseas are increasing)
I believe a many reasons have combined historically some of which are:
Lifestyle/society changes, branches getting below critical mass, lack of support for branches due to financial constraints, cost/value, lack of marketing due to financial constraints.

Do you think it is inevitable or should BSAC actively take steps to reverse the trend in full memberships?

No it is not inevitable and council have taken steps to address this already - member survey, Branch Marketing Pack and improvements to branch support materials, e-comms etc.
This is already having an effect - the decline in full member numbers is already slowing. The next council needs to be very member focussed - benefits, communication (2-way)and support to go diving safely. I will ensure that it is if elected.

In terms of instructors I think the problem is in instructor distribution across branches as overall 25% of BSAC members are instructors (ADI+) so work needs to be done in encouraging them to the branches that need them (assuming that they still wish to teach). This is somewhere where we can improve branch support by providing the communication channels that enable branches to publicise and address their specific needs.

Cheers
Marcus

[Keith L]

That's an interesting thought! But then wouldn't that also apply to Vice-Chair, NDO, etc.?

Personally I don't see why not, there are certain requirements (NI for NDO, accountancy qualification for Treasurer) but if two NI's applied for NDO then it would be a shame to loose one!

Phil was appointed by Council, based on his previous experience and knowledge of the club, Marcus was appointed as Vice-Chair. In both cases the club got damn good people doing the job, the club is all the better for it IMHO.

I agree we don't want to lose somebody who could bring something to the table, and I hope that whoever loses will be persuaded by council to contribute by being on at least one of the sub-committees and help develop BSAC.

If people come to us, offer their help, offer their assistance - then we grab them, ask anybody on my IT Team ;-) Take Edward for instance - he's already on two Council teams and his contributions to the club have been very visible.

That is how the club evolves, evolution rather than revolution is the way forward IMHO. Which is why I'm supporting Marcus, he knows the score but if you're expecting a BSAC through and through "that's the way we've always done it" establishment figure then you will probably be a little surprised :-) He's a moderniser with a keen eye very much on the future.

Keith L

[Allan J Bretherton]

:=
:=Just a thought, should the chairman be as old as the club? This would rule Marcus out, not sure about the others!

Alan, as you have responded under my post could you please explain how that thought occurred?

As with all thoughts, electrical impulses within nerve endings in the brain!


interestingly or not, I was born a few days before the founders of my branch stood on the deck of the Mary Rose for the very first time!

Matt, don't take everything so seriously, never heard of tongue in cheek

P.S. Keith, we could role out a couple of the VP?s to be chairman for the 100th

[Allan J Bretherton]

Hi Matt
Thanks for that, some comments on the issues that you raise:

Do you have a view as to why BSAC are losing full members?
NB This is branch full members in the UK (because Direct and overseas are increasing)
I believe a many reasons have combined historically some of which are:
Lifestyle/society changes, branches getting below critical mass, lack of support for branches due to financial constraints, cost/value, lack of marketing due to financial constraints.

Do you think it is inevitable or should BSAC actively take steps to reverse the trend in full memberships?

No it is not inevitable and council have taken steps to address this already - member survey, Branch Marketing Pack and improvements to branch support materials, e-comms etc.
This is already having an effect - the decline in full member numbers is already slowing. The next council needs to be very member focussed - benefits, communication (2-way)and support to go diving safely. I will ensure that it is if elected.

In terms of instructors I think the problem is in instructor distribution across branches as overall 25% of BSAC members are instructors (ADI+) so work needs to be done in encouraging them to the branches that need them (assuming that they still wish to teach). This is somewhere where we can improve branch support by providing the communication channels that enable branches to publicise and address their specific needs.

Cheers
Marcus

And to be serious for just one moment, I fully agree with everything that Marcus has said in this posting

Cheers.....Allan

[matt]

As with all thoughts, electrical impulses within nerve endings in the brain!

THanks for that very informative. Could have been random noise then.

Matt, don't take everything so seriously, never heard of tongue in cheek

Allan, I don't, yes I have, how would I know?
TFIC!

[Steve Walker]

Thanks for that Marcus, as KL said nice to hear some useful factual info.
Cheers