By the time you get to read this, the AGM will have happened and this might be my last DO’s report. (That’s a joke) This has been quite a successful year and I have enjoyed the involvement of the club members who have taken time to help me throughout it. October has come and gone and there have been additional dives happening to add to those already logged. This has seen every month of this year with something happening and this is a new experience for me.
As the nights are drawing in let’s turn our thoughts to some of the jobs that need doing before Christmas is upon us. The boats will need servicing and cleaning before being stored over the winter, but in a condition that will allow them to be used if required. Barrow tanks will, hopefully, soon be open for all those eager to venture below it’s water line and get those much needed disciplines out of the way. I am as keen to get them done as I expect you are, so get up there and complete them when the opportunity is presented.
As this could be my last report I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me through out my term in office. Andy Wilson, my staunch Training Officer, for all the help with pool training and Open Water drills. Tim Clouter and Cyril Hucker likewise, without their support things just would not have happened. Bob Abbott for his care of the club boats, these are a much-needed item for club activities and would be sadly missed if not for his silent work. I would also like to thank Mary Hartigan and Carol Sheppard for their attempts at getting the membership together for other things that are away from diving events; I know this is a hard task as I was once that Entertainments Officer. Others that have helped are the rest of the committee, I do not think you, the membership, know how hard we have all worked this year, putting together the Lottery Grant and discussing way’s to fund our projects if it fails again, this being just a few instances. ‘The Wife’ has very nearly divorced me for all the late nights that we have kept doing this. Hopefully it will have not been in vain and our dreams will come true. (Fingers Crossed as well as everything else)
THANK YOU ONE AND ALL
October started with the end of the Marine Identification Course, mid-month saw a member, fed up with our lovely weather, taking a short visit to Rhodes in Greece and seeing if the underwater vista there has changed at all, Sadly it has not. The month finished with a Trip to Horsea Island for some training, a Bar-B-Que and a short look around some of the facilities there. These events took the total number of dives being logged with the club to the magic number of 802.
Training
As soon as the AGM is over, I plan to start the new Club Diver Lecture program on the 22nd November 2000. There are at least seven members that require this course and this number may grow in the coming weeks from some of the enquires that I have had. I have drawn up a lecture plan that should be available soon on the web. My thanks go to all club NQI’s (Nationally Qualified Instructors) that have helped, both Andy and myself with pool training and lectures this year. I am sure that I echo the thanks of all those that have been on the receiving end.
Please look at the program to see what you are penciled in for.
General
The diving this month has added 31 dives to the total number of 802 for the year-end. Carol Sheppard headed the field with a total of 58 dives and I will be presenting her with a bottle of hair shampoo, so that she can stay in on weekends and wash her hair in future. Tim Clouter came a very close third in the running finishing with a total of 47 dives and Mary Hartigan taking joint fourth place with her husband Tony, both logging 39 dives. It was nice to see three ladies in the top ten again this year.
Lecture Program for 2000/2001
Club Diver review – New program to start November 22nd 2000 @ 7.15pm at the boat shed
Sports Diver lectures – New program to be planned when asked for.
Dive Leader lectures – Theory Review still ongoing, Catch-up lectures being arranged
Dates for your diary
November 18th – Skittles Night at St Teresa’s hall, Filton
November 25th or 26th – First Aid for Divers course – Contact Harry Ryalls (DO) for info.
December 16th – Annual Dinner Dance, Ship Inn, Alveston
DO’s thought for the month
SOME ONE HAS GOT TO DO IT.
It might as well be me.
Harry Ryalls
