Starting a SCUBA club at work - any advice

[Sasha_K]

Hey guys

I'll be starting a scuba club at work. It turned out quite a few people at work are occasional divers and we wouldn't mind getting together to dive. We'll also negotiate a group rate for new / refresh divers at the local LDS.

I'm not en experienced diver, so this will not be an 'expedition'. Think of me as an 'admin' - a guy who will put in the grunt work to get the trips organized, find a LDS/DM who will take us etc.

That being said, what are the things I should think of when starting up a club?

I have experience running other kinds of clubs, but would love to hear from you who either run one or participate at one.

Thanks

sasha

[Foo2]

The dive club at my husband's work is great! The company sponsors it and it helps keep yearly dues low. A couple of perks is that they reimburse us for club dives and they have gear and tanks you can rent for a very reasonable price. I realize that those are things that aren't easy for a new club, but they are just a couple of things to think about.

[Rileybri]

First and foremost, you have to have a good name for the club!

[JillianAnnO]

We are not allowed to "advertise" for clubs so anything w/ my company is by word of mouth but... I've found a few good dive buddies just from chit chat!

[MSilvia]

I had an informal club for quite a while that had no dues, no organized meetings, no officers, and no affiliations. No LDS was involved, we never hired any DMs, and there wasn't any organization that could be held responsible for anything... essentially, it was a group of about 20 dive buddies. It was fantastic, and we all did tons of diving. Basicly, when someone wanted to dive, they just let everyone else know where and when. Usually, you could count on at least four people showing up for any dive... sometimes twice that if it was something particularly interesting.

[SlvrDragon50]

Look for locations that can offer cheap group rates

Maybe a club photo contest/ hunting contest

[USF_Diver]

Originally Posted by MSilvia

I had an informal club for quite a while that had no dues, no organized meetings, no officers, and no affiliations. No LDS was involved, we never hired any DMs, and there wasn't any organization that could be held responsible for anything... essentially, it was a group of about 20 dive buddies. It was fantastic, and we all did tons of diving. Basicly, when someone wanted to dive, they just let everyone else know where and when. Usually, you could count on at least four people showing up for any dive... sometimes twice that if it was something particularly interesting.

I like this setup.

[unclepooty]

Agree with MSilvia. Informal and fun!

[CompuDude]

If you make it formal you can inadvertently take on liability. Something to consider. Matt's approach works well, however.

[DOWNDEEP73]

The club I belong to has a cheap website with Meetup.com. We have a cup that everyone throws in a couple bucks at the meetings to pay for the website.We meet once a month at a local restaurant. We watch scuba related videos and movies. Talk about upcoming and past dives. We have T-Shirts printed up with our club logo. We are not affilated with any LDS. No liability to the club at all. As of right now we have 78 members and can always find people to dive with thru the club website and meetings.
Check it out......The link is in my Signature.
Good Luck!