THE STORY OF THE SOUTHWEST COUNCIL

INSTRUCTOR PROGRAM⁽¹⁾

Information compiled by Paul Johnston

The Southwest Council Instructor Program (SCIP) was a Texas chartered non-profit educational corporation. It was conceived in the late 1950's when a group of far-sighted sport scuba enthusiasts,the Southwest Council of Diving Clubs [formed on Saturday, June 7, 1958, at Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas] recognized the potential growth of the then infant sport; and the consequent need for proper instruction of those who would join the growing ranks of sport SCUBA divers.

The Southwest Council Instructor Program was a big step forward for the Southwest Council. Some members of the Southwest Council who were already diving instructors, generally NAUI and YMCA, felt that the reason for forming a new instructor branch within the Southwest Council would provide instructors within the Southwest's geographical area better instructor support and staff services for its instructors.

Past Southwest Council President Sonny Logan started the idea with a proposal that the Executive Committee establish such a program and oversee its accomplishments. Several committee meetings were held to organize. Mr. Don Beer was elected Director of a nucleus of prominent divers of the area to undertake the program. The organization was named, SCIP, for short. Other members of the new SCIP Board were: Sonny Logan, Dick Wilgus, Bill Flagg. Joe Cody, Luther Swift, Dan Milner, Jack Rudder, Bob Hollingsworth, Jim Copeland, and Ray Villandry.

Along with instructional needs was a requirement for standards for this institution, qualification of instructors, and certification of those who met these standards. For the next several years, Texans and members of the Southwest Council of Diving Clubs, Don Beer, Sonny Logan, Bill Flagg and Dick Wilgus laid the groundwork for an organization to fulfill this purpose, defined a set of training standards, and prepared the first edition of the SCIP manual.

Every effort was made to engage the best teachers for the first tentative SCIP instructor seminar to be held in March at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The Board of Advisors chosen were: Captain George Bond U. S. N.; Dr. Bruce Halstead; Mr. Al Tillman; Captain Dwain Colby, U. S. M. C.; and Mr. Bill Barada. It all took solid form in November 1963 when the first SCIP instructor certification seminar was held in Dallas, Texas.

A rigorous swimming examination was given, as well as a rough written examination after the seminar. Out of 75 applicants, only 52 qualified as SCIP instructors. An instructor's manual was prepared for them, and each received a stainless steel I.D. card in addition to the regular certificate of merit (diploma). Plans were made to continue this worthy program and conduct an instructor seminar each year.

Since that time, the SCIP Board of Directors and its instructor membership continued to improve diver and diving instructor education through seminars, weekend workshops, and publications. SCIP, from its first instructor seminar in November 1963 to its final year of existence in approximately 1974, certified 280 instructors and registered 6,964 diving students.⁽²⁾ SCIP published 12 editions of its high quality SCIP Divers and Instructors Manual. Over the years, the SCIP manual was used by numerous insturctors who were associated with other certifying agencies such as NAUI, PADI, YMCA, NASDS, and SSI. As SCIP, all of these organizations had the same common goal, to turn out the finest and safest dive students with safety being the foremost watchword.

Since the YMCA's founding of the first national diver certification program in 1959, other fledgling diver certification agencies looked to achieve national and international recognition of its diver training program during the 1960s and 1970s. SCIP too was achieving a quality status in its instruction program and was wanting to have its diver certifications recognized nationally. As with NAUI in its earliest years, SCIP was operated entirely by volunteers. To achieve a national presence, SCIP realized that it was going to have to incur the expense of hiring a full time operational staff and really expand nationally, or it was going to have to team up with an already existing national certifying agency with high instructional standards. Joining forces with NAUI was to be the direction SCIP chose to go.

At the August 1968 SCIP Board of Directors Meeting in Longview, Texas, initial discussions with NAUI were started. On Sunday, August 18, "the discussion opened with the question of what it would take for SCIP to get national recognition. Dr. Glen Egstrom replied that we will have to have a common thing under a national umbrella. There is no one organization completely recognized. Each group has its own specifications, yet they all would like the popular regard and respect. Naturally, if we don't have this umbrella, there will be forty or fifty independent groups. Dr. Egstrom said to join NAUI you will have to upgrade your qualifications or pay a price....Sonny Logan of SCIP said he would work with Art Ulrich and Dr. Egstrom [both associated with NAUI] on a plan of some kind of joint recognition." ⁽³⁾

Over approximately the next three years, discussions between SCIP and NAUI continued. In 1971 SCIP hosted the NAUI sponsored International Conference on Underwater Education, IQ3, during which it was announced that SCIP and the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) had reached an agreement whereby SCIP would join NAUI. In 1972, one of NAUI's earliest instructor cross-over opportunities was given existing SCIP instructors. The first of two offered crossovers was held at Tarrant County Junior College near Ft. Worth, Texas on March 18 & 19, 1972. On December 8-10, 1972 the second and final instructor crossover was held in Houston. By December 1972, forty SCIP instructors had successfully earned the title of NAUI diving instructor.⁽⁴⁾

This merger of SCIP and NAUI took effect slowly over 1972 and 1973. SCIP instructors who elected not to cross-over were allowed to continue certifying SCIP until SCIP certification materials ran out. The SCIP Divers and Instructors Manual continued to be printed and used after the merger. The last notice that the SCIP manual was still for sale occurred in the February 1975 Southwest Slate.

The SCIP/NAUI merger resulted in strengthening the field of sport diving by a combination of philosophies and talents and perhaps a bellwether step in the formation of a unified American diving organization.

The story of SCIP as an active dive certification entity ended in approximately 1974, but the history and accomplishments of SCIP as a pioneering regional dive instructional organizational lives on today through its past merger with NAUI.

⁽¹⁾The early years of SCIP were compiled from the 1972 SCIP Divers and Instructors Manual, page 2. This was the first appearance of the Story of the Southwest Council and of the announcement of the SCIP/NAUI merger in any addition of the SCIP Divers and Instructors Manual. Additional details of the early Southwest Council of Diving Clubs Council History and SCIP were provided by the Southwest Council of Diving Clubs - 1965 Yearbook.

⁽²⁾SCIP had assigned instructor numbers from #1 through #322 up to the time SCIP ceased to exists. Of these 322 assigned instructor numbers, 42 of all these instructor numbers were actually not issued to any instructor. Dick Wilgus states, "I think these were numbers assigned to seminar applicants as their applications came in for various seminars who did not show up or failed the course. These numbers were never re-used. We just continued up the number chain. If you subtract 42 from 322, we have a net of 280 SCIP certified instructors."

The following are the actual 42 out of 322 instructor numbers that were not issued for various reasons to a particular instructor: 35, 57, 67, 68, 69, 71, 105. 107, 109, 112, 116, 117, 120, 121, 122, 126, 130, 132, 133, 135, 141, 148, 149, 150, 151, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165 166, 167, 168 , 169, 174, 180, 188, 190, 207, 251, 255 and 280.

The "registered 6,964 diving students" statistic comes from SCIP certification data compiled by Dick Wilgus from the last known computer records dated 8-8-1973 of the late Bud Columbia. Bud Columbia held the officer positions in SCIP as Secretary and Executive Director for many years. He was also a SCIP instructor. Dick Wilgus, past SCIP Executive Director, now maintains possession of a large part of these files donated to Dick from Bud Columbia.

⁽³⁾Minutes of the SCIP Board of Directors Meeting on August 17 & 18, 1968 taken at the Contessa Inn in Longview, Texas by Bud Columbia, board member.

⁽⁴⁾From SCIP Board Meeting announcement notice dated December 29, 1972.

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