An important date for your diaries for October is the 30th as that is the date for this year’s AGM. It would be nice to see the whole membership attending and giving constructive views on the past and forthcoming year. I do not yet know who is standing for what positions, but I hope those holding posts continue with their good work. We have achieved a lot this year and need to keep the momentum going. Another important event is the Annual Dinner Dance that will take place on the 21st December at Jury’s Hotel. I know the cost has risen steeply, but can say if it turns out anything like last year it will be worth every penny.
Last months’ report had an error in it, no trips to the club wreck took place, but one to West Wales happened without getting any recognition, so I must apologise to Carol Sheppard for this, as she was the organiser of that trip. I know it was a great success and everyone had a Wales of a time (sorry for the bad humour). August did see the club wreck being dived; another trip organised by Tim Clouter, who sadly as reported last month, could not make it due to an eye infection. The reports back were of an excellent day, I am still forward to someone putting pen to paper and writing a short report for the web. Late in the month saw us returning to Maenporth, a site we have not visited for about five years. We had done a quick recey of the area and were very glad to find that some of the facilities that were lost have returned. The is now a café on the beach, and a bar – restaurant has return where the Seahorse pub used to be. Sadly air was another problem. We contacted ‘Haven Scuba School. Swanpool Beach. 01326 210 296.’ And asked them about air, they assured us that we would be accommodated, but when we tried to uses these facilities they were sadly lacking. Some of those who attended this expedition were lucky enough to find ‘someone at home’ a few times, but the majority used ‘Cornish Divers’ in Falmouth. They only charged £1.50 per fill as well, and were open from 8.00am each morning. One of the downsides to our trip was that we were unable to find any volunteers to tow either of the club boats when our original tower had to drop out due to illness and could not guarantee to attend the venue. We had to rely on two private boats for any exciting diving and so I must thank Pete Davies and Mark Stinchcombe for the use of their boats. The other was I was unable to stay for the whole week and had to return to Bristol on the Tuesday, so I must also thank all those who took up the reigns and organised the rest of the diving.
Finally the boat-handling course will start on September 2nd and will run throughout the month. Dates are 2nd & 9th – Boat Shed for theory / practical hands on. 7th Bristol Docks for Slow manoeuvring work, A date is to be set for the fast work, which will take place at Plymouth. The course will cost £12 registration plus any expense incurred running the course. PLEASE NOTE REGISTRATION FEES ARE NON-RETURNABLE.
Training
Training is ongoing. I am organising any catch-up lecture that people require, so let me know as soon as possible what you are missing. We will try and run these on one night for each grade. Other than that thing are progressing well. We have some new members doing pool work; some crossover’s from other organisation gaining their BSAC grades and some others just having fun. There are some waiting to do open water assessments that have now completed their pool work, so we are quite active.
Practical skills for all grades are being done when conditions allow.
General
Other than the activities already mentioned, there has been very little happening. There has, as far as I am aware been no working parties, I know there are things that need to be done up the boat shed, so as the main diving season is drawing to an end we can start thinking about getting these sorted out.
What has happened to our fund raising? We need to raise that £1000 per year to meet our targets we have set ourselves. I am happy to report that something did happen this month, a Bar-B-Q was held to raise fund towards the next boat and it raised in excess of £200. I would like to thank Julie Ryalls for organising the event, Cyril Hucker and Pete Davies for giving me a hand in erecting the pavilion, which thankfully turned out to unnecessary due to the excellent evening, and light display which was admired by everyone who attended. I must also thank ‘The Balloon Festival’ for laying on the evening / nights entertainment at no cost to us, everyone were enthralled by the low level display put on by the balloonist and the fireworks at the end. I must also thank Mike Watt for taking over the cooking and allowing me to meet our guests.
!! WE NEED TO KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING !!
We need new ideas for events.
Forthcoming fundraisers still to happen
- A Treasure Hunt around Bristol City centre (Me), Another ‘Guess Who’ competitions (Pete Davies)
- A Pub Hunt around the outskirts of Bristol (Julie and myself investigating).
Are there any more ideas out there on how to raise funds? Come on you must have some.
Lecture Program for 2001/2002
LECTURES WILL BE ON A MONDAY EVENING Starting around 7.30 – 8.00pm
Club Diver – Lectures on going every two weeks.
Sports Diver – Knowledge review still outstanding. Some missed lectures to be redone.
Dive Leader –
