A MANUAL FOR THE SUCCESSFUL OPERATION OF A UNIVERSITY DIVE CLUB

Why was this written? Because I have had a long-time love of the University Scuba Club at the University of Texas at Austin. Having first been a member since maybe 1966, and for certain, 1967 and holding various offices in the club, I've seen the club go through numerous growth cycles, from large to small to zero and struggle back up the growth curve again.

The University Scuba Club will be 40 years old come February 2004. It has as valid a purpose to exist today as it did when it was formed. It serves a common meeting ground for divers to maintain their interest in scuba diving while at The University (We all know that there is only one real University of Texas and it is at Austin! ). The University Scuba Club deserves to continue to exist. I have met many valued friends and acquaintances over the years.

It will take a new officer almost his full term, depending how much or how little help the officer gets, to learn how to effectively run the club's various activities. Consider this manual a summary of various observations made over the years. Officers of any university dive club can use this manual to get a "year ahead running start" when they are elected. This manual was originally written in April 1987 and presented to the club at that time. Since then, it has been revised several times.

One last point, please pass this manual plus your advice on to the next set of officers so that the University Scuba Club will always be a nice place to visit.

Elect only those that really want to be an officer. The best officers are those that have been active in the club the previous year. This would apply in considering one for re-election. If the ones up for re-election have not really contributed, don't re-elect them.

If there is no particular interest in a particular office at election time, do not fill it. Do it later when someone interested in it can be found. Filling offices, just because it's election time, when there is no genuine interest, guarantees a slate of non working officers. The working officers will only be frustrated by this situation.

When this occurs especially in the election of a President, the club will be on a downward spiral in terms of growth, activities, and near-term future potential of the club. When it is apparent that this type of officer is harming the club, the officer should be privately contacted and asked to step down and be replaced by someone really interested in serving. Socially acceptable reasons can be given as to why someone needed to step down. To be socially polite and let someone finish their term under these situations, could lead the club declining to zip as a starting point for the following year.

Assuming a club has reached a zero level, that is about to disappear, or has just gotten back on its feet, elections should be more of an appointment than a toss-up of who wants it. Officers should be "hand picked" for these critical times and/or suggested for nomination for the upcoming years. If a good set of officers are not procured in these situations, the club is dead; it is harder to restart something from scratch than keeping a good thing going.

Good judgment must be exercised if the appointing process is used. Sometimes appointed officers turn out to become non contributing members. Appoint those who have already contributed to the functioning of the club. If the appointee is someone completely new, the the one appointing should have a frank talk with this potential officer saying that if the appointment is accepted, then it is expected that appointee carry out the duties of that office.

It is far better that elections not be held or appointments not be made if there are no good candidates available. A request should be put out to the general membership at meetings and in communications as email and web pages asking for assistance from its members to carry out specific tasks. Given time, new appointees can be made from those volunteers that do a good job.

Alex Hopgood, club President in 2001, upon his upcoming graduation in August 2001 and in the newsletter section of the August club web page, mentions that the club needed a few dedicated volunteers, maybe 3 or 4, for the upcoming year for the club to successfully carry on. He mentions that having formal officer positions were not even necessrary, just a few people willing to share the work. From the Fall of 2000 through August 2001, the interest and support of club officers fell away leaving Alex to carry on as best as possible, which he did!

The positive way to look at no apparent new viable leadership is for the functioning few officers or officer to just run the club in the best possible manner for the given situation and forget about the irritation of the present non working officers. At this point, work at getting those non working officers replaced with better personnel. In the survival mode, normal club rules and procedures are temporarily suspended until qualified leadership can be found.

If the officers will follow time tested methods of club management as shown in this manual, then, the club will operate in the success mode versus the survival mode most of the time.

Probably the best time for elections is sometime early in the Spring semester [March]. In the past, elections have been held anywhere from December to April. Both regular officers and summer officers were elected. When elections were held in December, the new officers were installed in February of the following year. When elections were held in either March or April, the new officers would be installed the following month. The "old" officers would continue to council the new officers until the end of May. By taking office in the early part of the Spring semester, the new officers would have the benefit of learning the "ropes" of operating a dive club with the assistance of the former officers.

A suggestion for the ideal month to hold elections is the second meeting of Spring, around March. By having the elections in March, the new officers will have the benefit of operating the club for the months of April and May before the summer semesters begins. This experience helps them for the all important September meeting. If elections are held in April and the new officers take office in May, the new officers will not have the benefit of learning how to run the club before the Spring semester ends.

Come the first meeting of September or the Fall semester ( the most important meeting of the school year!) , the officers need to know their jobs and how to promote the club (translating ultimately into collecting dues) . Otherwise, if, at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters, the beginning of the club's semester is mishandled by the lack of organization and pre-meeting promotion by the officers, then a whole year of club progress is in serious jeopardy and perhaps the next year. With no money to operate on, where are the newsletters, postage, materials, food, new dive rental equipment, equipment maintenance, web site fees and party supplies to come from?

Lastly, have as few officers as necessary to run the club. A few good cooperating workers are much better than a full slate of non productive officers.

2. Officer must have a strong desire to participate as a team member in the running of the dive club.

3. Officer must become familiar with University rules concerning registered student organizations, reserving meeting rooms, club information tables on the campus malls, placing meeting notices in the student newspaper, creating/updating club web pages, posting to social media, maintaining/operating email lists and the permitted locations of posters on campus .

4. Officer must care for what the University Scuba Club is trying to accomplish and devote time and effort to seeing that it prospers.

5. Officer must be willing to learn from club's past history and implement those activities that have worked well as well as seek out new avenues of club promotion, activity and quality entertainment for monthly meetings.

6. Officer must be willing to promptly step down from office when officer no longer has the time for or the desire to effectively perform the duty of office held. Not doing so, increases the chance that the club may fail, weakens the club's vitality, discourages and frustrates other officers and club members.

This is the most important office. If he or she is well liked, organized, a planner and a team worker, you've got yourself a winner! If the President can have good slate of working officers, then the President can ideally delegate the various responsibilities among the others so that no one person has too much to do.

When the President is the only real worker, there is just too much for one person to do. The President will just barely hang on while the club goes down hill. Finishing the term will be one of relief rather than a satisfying experience. If a President finds this situation, eliminate the non working officers and get someone who will help. Rather than totally frustrating yourself, find a few good workers to get things rolling.

The President should hold monthly officer meetings at mid-month to plan the upcoming month's activities. Then, write the newsletter and get it to the Secretary at least 1 ½ to 2 weeks before the next meeting so that the newsletter can be printed and mailed. [or provide material so that web pages can updated and email notices sent in a timely manner.] In today's age of computers, the web page should be up-dated with activities of the upcoming month before the upcoming next meeting.

Lastly, the President will need to see that the dive club is officially registered as a campus organization and that an appropriate monthly meeting place is secured for each semester. Rules may change as to when and where the previously mentioned activities are done and for how long the organization registration and room reservation are officially outstanding. Whatever the rule requirement may be, it is essential that early club registration and room reservation be done so that the best appropriate meeting rooms may be procured. Other campus organizations and official classes are competing for the same rooms.

These should be planned at the officers meeting at mid-month for the following month. Club members come to the monthly meetings to have fun and to be entertained, not to figure out what they want to do and when. It is a waste of time to do otherwise. Eventually members will stop coming because of this disorganization.

Another point, keep detailed business and political matters to a minimum, preferably to zero. The job of the officers is to work these things out in the officer's meeting so that the general membership can concentrate on having a good time.

A suggestion would be to have at least 2 dives per month with one on Saturday and one on Sunday. When the school schedule permits, hold some dives during the week, like night dives to the various near-by lakes or to the San Marcos or Comal River. Informal parties should be frequent. Club trips during major breaks should be considered. Either go with a trip that is already organized by a commercial concern, or have a trip leader who gets all the benefits (free air pass, free hotel and diving) for being a tour leader. He will earn his way by the services expected of him. Forget about dividing the benefits up among those going because you will end up with no one, responsible person.

Tours of near-by medical facilities, schools, or universities that have programs dealing with related diving research could be visited. "Fireside" seminars can be held at various people's homes. Find a person in the club or diving community that has a particular expertise and get them to give a talk at their home about their interest. A prior limited sign-up list needs to be made in this instance.

Money raising activities as a club have been successful in the past, such as stadium cleanup. Video night during the week is another successful idea where members watch diving related movies. These videos are normally shown at the Texas Union Building. Sometimes the club members have gathered to go to some local theater to view a movie.

In the late '60s, there was an end of school year banquet at a local restaurant. After the meal, humorous awards were given to those that has a funny diving event happen to them during the year. It was fun! On a smaller scale, good food can be provided after the dive. Just before a holiday season like Thanksgiving or Christmas, a club meal can be enjoyed at a member's home. The club may on these occasions want to be the provider of the main dishes and ask fellow members to bring side dishes.

On a daily basis, a group of divers can informally meet on campus or at a near-by campus eating establishment for a meal and fellowship. Generally, the same period of time and same spot in the eatery is selected. This is one way to continue the club's camaraderie between club events.

The club's newsletter is its most important communication vehicle ( in conjunction with a frequently updated web page) . Whether the newsletter is delivered by postal service or email, it should be timely and informative. By timely, it should arrive at least 2-3 days before the next monthly meeting, not on the day of the meeting or later. Informative in the sense that if a person is unable to come to the monthly meeting, all the information of the upcoming month's activities is there so one can easily continue to participate at a later date.

The responsibilities of getting the newsletter out should be divided up among the officers. Otherwise, this task becomes a hated drudgery with some unfortunate sole stuck with the job. When this happens, newsletters are thrown together, as far as to content, and arrive on the day of the meeting or after.

The responsibility of the total content of the newsletter is taken care of by the officers mid-month planning meeting. Then it is the President's responsibility to actually organize and write the newsletter and get it to the Secretary so it can be printed and mailed.

Dues paid members, honorary members, club supporters, and other associate dive clubs should be the ones primarily receiving the newsletter, otherwise postage and materials quickly deplete the club's funds. A list of dues paid members, addresses (email addresses also) and phone numbers should be promptly published by the second meeting of each semester and delivered to the member either by email or postal service. This list is a member's primary source for contacting a dive buddy.

A secure web page membership list requiring an updated password should be incorporated into the club's web page. Only current dues paid members would be notified of the current semester password.

Whether a dive club will have a newsletter or not depends mainly on whether the club officers are organized enough to get one out to its members. However, in today's computer age, a dive club has the option to use electronic mail and/or a web page to substitute for the traditional postal newsletter. If most of its members have access to a computer and an Internet connection as in most of today's university settings, then the dive club may opt to go to a total electronic delivery of all the club's vital information.

The simplest method of delivering timely information about a dive club's activities would be through an email message. All that would be required would be for one officer, possibly the Treasurer when the member's dues are paid, to collect addresses and email information of the club members. This email address list would be passed along to the person responsible for putting out timely email notices of future club activities. A step up from this would be some type of electronic listserv arrangement where any member could send club related messages to all other club members. Emails work well to get out messages about upcoming events. However, much of the background information on a club can be put up on a web page on the Internet in order to attract potential club members.

An up to date web page is an important factor in a vital dive club. A dive club can post its background information plus a variety of other information to make a one stop Internet location where its members may come to get diving related information. The club's web page can range from very simple to a very thorough display of diving information.

A basic web page would have some simple background and purpose statement, time/location and dates of club meetings, membership requirements, advantages of club membership,upcoming dive dates, and club officer contact information.

A more elaborate web page may also have the monthly newsletter, dive articles, archive of past newsletters, local dive spot locations, information on club travel destinations, membership lists and contact information, club equipment rental information, dive course details, photographs of club activities, dive shop and dive training organizations information, club constitution, and finally other links to related diving web pages.

A secure web page membership list requiring an updated password should be incorporated into the club's web page. Only current dues paid members would be notified of the current semester password. Members can contact a specific member to locate a potential new dive buddy.

The Web Page Editor's position is a very important club function. Current, accurate club information should always be available on the club's web page. Inquiries from the readers should be promptly be answered. Outdated web page information and unanswered email piling up in the club's email box are indications of either a poorly performing web page editor or a dive club that is falling into inactivity.

To have a dedicated club web page requires someone familiar with creating web pages. Additionally, there are fees to register your web page domain name and hosting fees for where the web page is to be located. The benefit of having a dedicated web page is that the club has complete control of the look and content of the page.

Free web pages can be created on various social media platforms. The benefit of this approach is no special web page creation skills are necessary; no fees for domain names or hosting fees are required; club members may post comments questions directly on the page. The down side is the look of the page is determined by the social media entity and advertising may be displayed on the page. Also, there is no guarantee that the social media company may go out of business and the historical content of the web page lost.

It is possible to preserve and display historical content of a dedicated web page through organizations like archive.org or Adobe Acrobat software.However, many social media platforms do not allow their pages to be recorded by robot crawlers. To save pages on these social media platforms may have to be manually done by screen captures or some type of specialty software.

Preserving the look and feel of club web pages over the years is fun and informative for future generations of club members!

To cover all bases, a club may want to have a dedicated web page and a social media page(s). The social media page can be used to drive the audience back to the dedicated web page for more details about the club and its activities.

To view a wide variety of university scuba club type web pages, click here for a search engine display.

Web/Social Media Pages - University Scuba Club (University of Texas at Austin):

The club member is there to be entertained! Obtain quality speakers, programs, and visual presentations for your meeting's entertainment. Meetings should be fun and hassle free for the general member. This can be accomplished by the previous planning of the officers. Heavy business should be minimal or non-existent. It should be prompt, well-organized, and have none of the time-wasting annoying procedure of asking the general question who would like to do what and when. Effective officers will present the general member attending a monthly meeting with quality entertainment, a planned schedule of activities, events, and future projects. All of these organized items were pre planned at the previous monthly officers meeting.

A short amount of time (10 minute break) should be set aside before the entertainment and at the end of the meeting to collect the dues. Again - GET THE MONEY! If you don't, the club's existence will be hampered this year and the upcoming one.

The most important meetings of the year are the first meetings of the fall and spring semesters, respectively. This is the time when the student's work load is the least and they have the most free time. Your best knock-out, eye-popping, heart-stopping programs should be procured and promoted for these occasions.

A paid newspaper advertisement should be placed in the campus weekend paper before the meeting and on the day of the meeting, plus getting out the timely newsletter. Campus posters should be put up, web pages/social media updated and listserve announcements emailed * a few days before* the meeting! The whole intention is to pack the meeting room. At the beginning of these all important meetings, a brief synopsis of what the club is all about and benefits of club membership is given. Then a short break is called before the entertainment and after the meeting so the Treasurer and other officers can collect dues and issue membership cards. ( ONE MORE TIME - GET THE MONEY!)

If you do not promote these two most important meetings in a thoughtful, effective, and organized manner, the officers have really hindered the club's progress. The above two paragraphs are the most important ones in this whole manual in regard to successfully operating a university dive club. The officers that succeed at these two times will have a great year with the club. Beware of Beginner's Luck - Fatal Mistakes shown below. On the other hand, at these two most important meeting, if they are not well planned and publicized and do not contain great entertainment, then, the officers will have 3 strikes against them before even beginning the dive season.

***SUCCESSFUL CLUB MANAGEMENT CHARACTERISTICS***

PREPLANNING
PROMOTION
ENTERTAINMENT
DUES COLLECTION
ACTIVITIES

This observation has been made many times over the years with a new group of officers. Officers experiencing "Beginner's Luck" will set the club up for failure for that year. The September/October meetings are at the first meetings of the traditional school year and will sometimes succeed with people showing up just because it is at the first of the year. If the officers have not done some basic planning, entertainment acquisition and promotion to guarantee club attendance, then, this is where the problems begin. Students are always looking for fun things to do at the beginning of semester when the study load is the least. "We are the dive club and we have fun!" with no real entertainment and promotion may work by chance for the first meeting, but is not good for the long run. At the second meeting, "We are the dive club and now let's talk about what you would like to do for the rest of the semester," with no appropriate entertainment starts setting the club up for a disaster. Fewer people attend this meeting because of many reasons, but the turn out may be okay. From this point on, it is down hill from here because the officers have not done the correct things to insure future attendance for the rest of the semester. Come Spring, the officers are lured into doing what they did in September, and the results are even more disastrous.

Preplanning, promotion, quality entertainment, dues collection, and activities will help insure a prosperous dive club. Short change any one of these essential management techniques, the club will not do as well as it could have!

Could the membership dues be drastically cut? How low can you go?

In traditional business, there is the supply/demand curve for a product as a function of price. Could a factor in low club membership be that the club has priced itself out of the market? What are other successful campus organizations charging for membership dues? In the past, the fixed expenses of the club were the newsletter materials, postage and equipment maintenance. The club today may not have these expenses, as far as postal newsletter expenses . In the past, we used the left over money for food and drink for a couple of dives or parties to get people to come to other functions. The idea was to get your dues back by eating the meals provided by the club. By having a large membership, this was possible. In a sense, the large membership body supported the activities of the active member. The dues were not that large to begin with.

Could it be that a potential member looking at the high dues may be thinking that it may be a waste of money, particularly if the functioning of the club looks shaky. What if you charged $5 a semester or $10 for a year or $10/semester and $20/year? Pick a significantly lower dues amount and do a little thinking. By charging less, would this change the attitude of a potential member to one of, "Sure, why not, anything to help the club out!" The potential member now sees the dues as something of value.

One would have to see what the club expenses are to see if what has been suggested makes any sense. Is it better to have a few dues paid members at "X" dollars per year or maybe more members at fewer dollars/year? At this point, does the club need more members more than anything. Would it matter? Is it worth the experiment of significantly lowering the dues amount in order to try to gain as many members as possible?

Some clubs have no dues but use fund raisers as a source of funds. This club has, in the past, used both dues and fund raisers such as football stadium cleanup as means to fund activities. There are no right answers. A low dues amount is one effective method of trying to entice a potential member to join. What the "correct" amount of dues can be determined by a little experimentation. Low dues alone do not guarantee an increased membership count. However, low dues plus using the essential management techniques already listed above, will help guarantee an active dive club participation.

Besides the important promotion of the first meetings of the fall and spring semesters, other promotions should be considered. Generally, campus newspapers have a "What's going on today or this weekend or Around Campus" section that is free to campus organizations. Know what the newpaper's deadline policy is for this free advertisement and use it! Paid advertisements in the student newspaper should also be used promote unique dive entertainment and entertainment for the first meetings of the Fall and Spring semesters. However, the reality of deadlines is for paid advertisement too. Someone should be designated to place these notices to draw larger participation from the student body.

Along the same thought about campus newspapers, let the newspaper know that the officers are willing to be interviewed for a possible article for the paper. Whenever the club participates in a public service event like a beach cleanup or a lake/river cleanup, let the paper know about the event so that the club might be mentioned in the ariticle.

**Historical**

**Schedule of Dues**

**(Data Source: Past Newsletters & Web Pages)**
Dues Rate	As of/Year

$4/Semester $7.50/Year	November 1967
$3.50/Semester $10/Year	1972
$3.50/Semester	February 1976
$4.50/Semester	February 1979
$8/Semester $20/Year	1988
$25/Long or Short Semester $35/Two Semesters $40/Year	June 2000

Posters can be made and placed in prominent areas on campus announcing special events or the monthly meetings. With the advent of computers, "posters" can be quickly generated on heavier paper if necessary. Show case display windows can be reserved in various university buildings to put up a diving display promoting the club. Regular poster placements are a very effective and important method of generating new membership!

An information booth set up near the registration area at registration time or on one of the university malls at any time of the year can help get the word out that there is a university diving club in existence.

A one page information sheet can be prepared and given to the various dive shops to give to their students telling about the dive club. In promoting the dive club, these information sheets or a dive club representative or both can go to the dive classes taught by the university, to the informal dive classes sponsored by the Texas Union or given out at an information booth mentioned above. This information will be a real treat for the new diving students and to the diving instructor's presentation on local diving. Delivery of these information sheets should be accomplished before the first club meeting of each semester.

Lastly, most universities have a student government body. Campus organizations generally can have a representative to such a body. The dive club may want to see if one of its members will serve this function to see its interests are made known to the student body.

When a dive club has slipped into inactivity or low membership participation, it is imperative that promotional activities, as shown above, go outside the club's normal membership contact methods to attract new members.

The area of monthly entertainment for the meeting should be the responsibility of the Vice-President.

1. Present and past members that have a particular interest or talent relating to diving.

2. Dive shops; their personnel or audio-visual presentations they would loan or present to the club.

4. University professors that are knowledgeable in an area of oceanography, marine biology, marine geology, human

5. Medical facilities that have departments set up dealing with diving injuries.

11. Offshore drilling associations that have promotional films dealing with the environment.

13. Representatives from establishments like Sea World and Marine Land talking about operating large public aquariums and training of large sea animals.

15. Military representatives telling how the armed services are involved with the ocean.

17. Past club trips or a club member's dive travels are a potential for future slide shows and talks.

18. Local area divers who have expertise in exploring, cave diving, underwater photography, and travel are a source of entertainment.

20. Professionals that are involved with the space program that have an underwater connection.

Treating your program speakers well is very important. If done properly, it will help insure a future repeat program from that same speaker. Speakers should be lined up at least one month in advance; then about two weeks before the meeting, contact should be made to confirm the details. If screens, projectors, or any special requirements are needed, arrangements should be made and verified.

Assistance should be volunteered to help the speaker unload, set-up, and dismantle equipment necessary for the program. Don't forget to both publicly and privately thank the guest speaker; even a follow-up thank you note does no harm. Always adequately promote the speaker's program. To not promote a program and have a poor turnout is an insult to the speaker who has volunteered his time.

Lastly, always have back-up program in the wings. Unexpected things do happen. It is very disappointing for a club member to come away from a meeting and not being entertained.

Dive shops can be a great asset to club members. They can provide various discounts, merchandise for gifts, and club programs. Be very appreciative of the assistance they can provide. In return, encourage your members to patronize those shops that support you.

A dive shop is in business to make a profit and stay in business. Make your requests for gift donations infrequent. Gift requests are a problem for shops when there are several clubs in an area. Be very appreciative for what they give you. Do not play one shop against another and say shop "x" is giving so and so, why can't you give us this? Rude, yes! But it happened to me from one of our club officers when I was employed by a dive shop.

Gifts or door prizes should be given only to dues paid members present at the meetings. An alternative would be to have an auction for the club and use the merchandise sale to help the club's finances. Let the shops know exactly what you are going to do with their donations. Be sure to give ample credit at the meetings to shops providing merchandise and always give a written thank you afterwards.

All officers should make an effort to say "hello" to everyone that attends the meeting, especially to new members. It is the officer's responsibility to make sure a greeting is given. It is the thing to do that most other clubs don't do. This helps keep up club participation and is a convenient moment to ask for assistance from a member to help in an upcoming club project.

President: Conduct monthly meetings and officer meetings; write newsletter and get it to Secretary in timely manner; promote club outside of meetings; procure meeting place for meetings; look for future officers.

Vice-President: Get material necessary together to provide monthly programs; See that newspaper ads, posters and membership drives are done in a timely manner.

Secretary: Print and mail club newsletter; Print membership list at first of each semester. Safely maintain club historical records. Keep club minutes if called for.

Treasurer: Collect dues; maintain financial records; get dues paid list to Secretary in timely manner.

Other Positions: Officer positions and responsibilities are created and dissolved as needed.

Membership: These people are asked to assist officers in their various tasks. The most active and supportive members are looked upon as future officers.

Web Page Editor: This officer is responsible for timely maintaining of the club web pages and getting the monthly electronic newsletter out from information supplied by other officers. These two duties could be split between Secretary and Editor in order to not burden one person with such a large work load. Possibly manage other social media pages.

Public Relations: This officer is responsible for promoting the club to the student body in order to increase membership participation.

Safety Officer: This person is a diver of sufficient experience to safely conduct a club dive. This responsibility can be divided up among various persons so that the responsibility of having to be at every club dive does not fall onto one person.

Travel Coordinator: Responsible for organizing and professionally conducting official dive club vacations. This office could be an appointed one to reward a person for having been a dedicated club member. Free trip benefits would go to this person running the trip.

Student Body Representative: This person represents the interests of the dive club to various student government bodies, the university administration, and faculty. The main benefit of having this office is to keep the dive club abreast of what events and regulations that may affect the future of the dive club. This officer has to seek out the various student groups to participate in.

Organization of your time is essential for running a successful diving club. Students have plenty of required classes and activities, but a limited amount of time for outside activities, leisure time, and taking care of the duties of a dive club officer.

Here are some suggestions to help you manage your time in order to do a good job as an officer:

2. Under each of these events, make a list of things to be done to successfully accomplish this activity.

3. Place tentative dates on each of the necessary chores as to when they should be accomplished.

7. Contact members to see how the progress is being made on their assignment long before the job is required to be completed.

Sometimes dive club parties are promoted giving the impression, and sometimes accurately so, that fun will be had by all by means of excessive drinking. For the non-drinker, if the above turns out to be the case, there is no reason to attend such a function. Club parties should be carefully promoted with the idea of fun and fellowship for all. If alcohol is promoted, then a point should be made that non-alcoholic refreshments will also be served. In this way, party participation can be increased. In today's society, it is easy to find reports where parents of a deceased college student dying from an overdose of alcohol sue the campus organization and its responsible officers for damages.

Now for the most important point of all, the club should support a designated diver driver program. What does this mean? People coming to the party in groups or by couples should have one person not drink alcohol so they can drive the drinkers home safely. The club officers should realize that some individuals arrive at these parties alone. The officers need to have a few members pledge not to drink at this particular function to either take or make arrangements to get a member who has had too much to drink safely home.

The designated diver driver program should be promoted and publicized to the members so that all know what behavior is expected of them. The idea of the designated diver driver program needs to be heartily endorsed in all aspects of dive club functions, parties and dives.

A dive club may want to have bylaws and a club constitution as a general guideline on how club business is to be conducted. Also, the university of which the dive club is a student group may require that these exist and that copies be on file with the student activities office. The university wants to be sure that the purposes and procedures of a student organization are not in conflict with university goals and regulations.

Just how important these items are to a dive club is a reflection of the psyche of its members. Some clubs strictly adhere to such rules and may go so far as to having an office of Parliamentarian. Other clubs may have a set of rules, but only refer to them if they have to.

3. Types and qualifications of membership (i.e. students only, guests, associates, faculty, and honorary).

One of the fun things that a university dive club can do is to take an out of country dive trip. Generally, these add a spark of diving enthusiasm for the college diver as a welcome break from studies. Most of the time these are conducted during semester breaks, spring or Christmas break, and between summer semesters. The selection of dive vacation destinations is a combination of desirable diving spots and cost of the trip. Generally cost weighs heavily as the determining factor for the college diver.

If the group is very small, for example six or less people, the organization will be very casual. Every person will be responsible for doing what ever it takes to get himself to and from the diving vacation spot. As the group gets larger, then a choice of how to organize the vacation becomes apparent. Unless one has signed up for a professionally organized tour where everything is done for you, then the club will have to decide whether to let one of its members or a couple of members organize the trip or break up the responsibilities among the group.

Generally when there is a large diving group; a free air fare is possible from the airlines; a possible commission is available from the hotel; free diving is available to the group leader. A dive club's choice in these situations is three-fold. One is to divide all the necessary responsibilities up between the travelers and split all the benefits equally among them. Or, have a group leader that takes full responsibility to supply the group all the details to see that the trip runs smoothly. The group leader will receive all the financial benefits for doing this. Another alternative is to run the trip through some agency such as a dive shop that arranges all the details and provides a tour guide that takes care of all details.

The easiest way to go is with a pre-packaged tour from a dive shop or dive travel service. If this trip is where the club wants to go and economically feasible, and the service has a good customer satisfaction track record, go with it. If this is not possible, then the dive club will have to organize its own trip. The question to answer is whether there will be one group leader or have responsibilities be divided among several people.

My preference given a large group is to have one competent leader. Believe me, if they do a good job, they will earn their group leader benefits. To pull off a good dive trip takes lots of work. An avid dive traveler will probably be ambitious enough to set up his own trip and offer it to the club. In this way, it helps defray his costs. The dive club gets the benefit of being led by a seasoned diver that knows the travel ropes. Also, the club in this situation does not have to decide who or how the trip is going to be conducted.

Some dive clubs that have an established history of dive travel, may want to have an elected or appointed officer position of Travel Coordinator. This would be a reward to a person that has served the club well in the past. It would be someone who is willing and capable of setting up a trip or trips for the club in the upcoming year.

If the choice is to divide the responsibilities up, then trying to divide the responsibilities up as equally as possible is the best that can be hoped for. The larger the travel group, the harder this is to do. Inevitable, some individuals will be saddled with more responsibility than others. As long as this is not worrisome to those burdened with the extra work, then everything will work out okay.

As the size of the travel group grows, the individual financial benefits to the individual diminishes. When the dollar discount is divided up among more people, the smaller the individual discount becomes. In fact, on an average trip, this becomes very small. This small amount would not be a determining factor as to whether a person would be financially able to go on a trip or not. Those that are saddled with more responsibilities than others will wonder why they are going to so much trouble for such little reward. When things on a dive trip do not go as planned as they sometimes do, people start to complain to those who have done the most work. This can make an otherwise fun dive trip not so much fun.

The most inexcusable sin in the running of a dive trip is when an individual takes total responsibility for making all of the arrangements and does a half-baked job either through incompetence or laziness. I am not saying that some things go wrong due to no fault of the leader. This happens sometimes, but to take all the benefits and not take care of the paying customer is a big "no-no!"

Here are the things that must be done in order to run a professionally organized dive trip:

C. Review diving details of the destination and how the diving service runs its dive operation ( If you do not know, find out before you go! ) .

D. Inform travelers what potential problems and consequences may be encountered like: sunburn, mosquitoes, bad drinking water, diarrhea, passports, proof of citizenship, currency exchange rates, tipping, departure taxes, political instability, seasickness, legal medications, possession of illegal drugs, confirmation of return reservations, local customs, luggage limits, overweight luggage charges, emergency phone numbers, conditions for loss of travel deposits.

9. Obtain final payment balances and submit them to airlines, travel agents, hotel, and diving services.

13. Let your travelers know that any serious problems they are having with the hotels or diving services are to be reported to you and you will try to see that there is a reconciliation of the problems.

15. Have an after trip party and let each person show a certain number of their best slides.

Once the officers are practicing the management techniques outlined in this manual, what level of membership participation can be realistically expected? Based on past membership data, a broad membership count of both dues paid members and non dues paid members associated with the club, shows in the Fall of 1967, the club had 169 members. In the mid to late 60's, there were approximately 27,000 students on the Austin, University of Texas campus. About 40 new members per year were recruited from the beginning dive courses taught by the club. Dive students were required to be dues paid members of the club.

In the Fall of 1990, there were 196 dues paid and non dues paid members associated with the club. During the 90's, there were approximately 50,000 student at the Austin, University of Texas campus.

At a properly planned and promoted meeting for the first two meetings of the Fall and Spring semesters, anywhere from 50 to 200 people will show up. This is not an unreasonable expectation. The last two meeting of the Fall and Spring semester will have significantly fewer people attend because of an increasing study load and upcoming exams. As far as promoting membership for the Fall and Spring semesters, the maximum audience available will show up at the first two meetings for Fall and Spring semesters, with the Fall semester having a larger turnout than the Spring or Summer semesters. For all practical purposes, club's membership count is determined by the completion of the second meeting of the Fall and Spring Semesters.

The number of people attending local dives will be fewer than the number attending monthly meetings. Anywhere from 2 to 20 people may attend local dives. Around 3 to 10 divers per local dive would be an average. By having free food at some of the local dives, diver participation is increased. Participation at dive parties may be slightly greater than for a local dive.

On dive trips to out of state/country locations 5 to 24 people may be expected to participate in a well promoted trip. Trips off the Gulf coast, 5 to 10 divers may be expected to go.

The summer semester will always have less participation just because there is a smaller population of students on campus. However, the club should still be well run during this period of time thus insuring the member diver an entertaining summer time.

Tim Kennedy ( past club President, University SCUBA Club Advisor with a long history of close association with the University Scuba Club) created a PROPOSED FALL 2003 CALENDAR FOR UNIVERSITY SCUBA CLUB to assist new club officers in planning activities. Drawing on years of experience in dive club participation, Tim went to much effort to compile activities for the fall semester that have proven to keep the club a vibrant and exciting society in which the diving college student could participate. Such excellent workmanship has gone into this document that current dive club officers can use this activity outline as a guide to plan their current semester activities. All of the activities suggested below have been time tested and very successful for the club in attracting new members and keeping current members excited about the sport of scuba diving. Use Tim's diving wisdom as shown below to get and keep the club prospering all year long!

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Tim Kennedy in creating the PROPOSED FALL 2003 CALENDAR FOR UNIVERSITY SCUBA CLUB, completes the dive club activity planning process by providing LINKS FOR PLANNING UNIVERSITY SCUBA CLUB ACTIVITIES . These URL links will quickly supply a dive club officer the necessary background information to plan club activities for the upcoming year. These links provide information on: rules on promoting the dive club on campus, local area dive sites, local dive boats and the rental of boats, area diving events, diving in the Gulf of Mexico, Texas diving locations, other university dive and sailing clubs, suggested video and DVD movies with a strong diving theme for club entertainment, Texas public aquariums and parks, travel information for campus holidays and semester breaks, suggested guest speakers for monthly meetings. Armed with Tim's Proposed Fall Calendar and Links for Planning University Scuba Club Activities, the dive club officer has a very handy resource in planning the current semester's dive club activities!

LINKS FOR PLANNING

UNIVERSITY SCUBA CLUB ACTIVITIES

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Manatee Road Trip

by

Tim Kennedy

September 2003

This a sample itinerary for a week-long road trip to Florida to dive with the manatees. Included is a Panhandle Gulf dive and numerous spring dives. There's camping info to keep costs down.

Manatees are most common in winter. Leaving on Friday, December 26 and spending New Year's in Florida might be a good time to do this trip. It could also be done over Spring Break, but you would want to make reservations at places like Henderson Beach State Park, because the Florida Panhandle is very popular with spring-breakers.

I have actually been diving at every dive site listed, although it's been a few years since I've hit some of them. This trip could be modified as a 2 week trip where you could make a dive every day as you work your way to West Palm Beach and the Florida Keys.

I've also got a "Poor Man's Spring Break" trip to West Texas that I've been working on. It includes diving at San Solomon Springs in Balmorhea State Park, Lake Amistad and Chalk Bluff, as well as camping at Big Bend, Davis Mountains, and other places. That trip can also be done over Christmas Break.

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Poorman's Spring Break Dive Trip

by

Tim Kennedy

September 2003

POORMAN'S SPRING BREAK DIVE TRIP

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And finally, what else? Club files should be passed from one set of officers to the next. Lots of historical and necessary materials are contained in these files. Don't lose track of it!

If the club has equipment to rent, a systematic record of inventory and commercial maintenance should be kept. If not, the club's equipment will slowly be lost or stolen. Worst of all, if there is ever an accident with this equipment, lots of legal finger pointing will go on.

Finally, we get to go diving. The main point is to have fun, but keep in mind the serious side of an accident on a club dive. The officers must formulate a policy that can be carried out on how to conduct a safe club dive. In the past safety officers were appointed to run dives or if the safety officer could not attend a club dive, another officer was to conduct the dive. It is a very serious responsibility in an attempt to have fun. In short, don't get caught wanting in the area of diver safety. The club has had a good tradition of safe, fun diving.

Well, my friend, I wish you well in your endeavors to run a successful University Scuba Club. It has been a good friend to me for a long time. I have really cherished my association with it. Many friends and good times were had. If all those events and memories were able to be plucked from my life, it would not be the same. Good luck and good diving!

Yes, just who is this guy that wrote this manual. Well, he grew up in Longview, Texas and became interested in scuba diving in the mid-fifties after seeing The Silent World with a group of cub scouts at a local movie theater. Also, Sea Hunt starring Lloyd Bridges really turned him on. In 1964, his parents finally allowed him to become certified. In 1968, he earned his first instructor rating. Around 1966 or the first part of 1967, he joined the University of Texas Underwater Society. He became Assistant Equipment Officer for the club and then Equipment Officer. He was one of the club's diving instructors when it taught its own certification courses.

After graduation in 1969 and serving in the Combat Engineers in the U.S. Army, he returned to the University of Texas at Austin from 1971-73 as a special student. He became President of the club in 1972-73. Since that time, he was employed either full or part-time in the diving industry in Austin, Texas. His interests range from underwater photography, hiking, caving, and amateur radio. Since 1986, he has worked as a stock investor for his own account.