I'm currently looking at starting a club for the store that I'm employed by. In the past, there was a dive club in the store, but it disappeared. I would like to bring back the club, but since I have no experience in creating or even running a club, I was wondering on what you would expect from a dive club?
I happen to have the good fortune of being associated with a shop that spoinsors a very active, long-running, dive club. We are in a fairly sizeable metropolitan area, where two other shops have had dive clubs over the years, which regularly die, are are resurrected, then die again. Ours has been continuously active for the 11 years I have been involved (and was active before that).
The primary reason - the shop owner and shop manager also run the Club, not in a sense of dominating it, but they a) plan for the monthly meetings (venue and speakers) and 'emcee' them, b) plan for the summer cookouts, c) provide a continuing presence at each meeting, and d) promote the Club through the shop to all new OW trainees, custoners, etc..
There are no 'officers' per se, but there are plenty of people that volunteer to help out during the monthly cook-outs. We happen to have two DMs that are professional chefs and cook from time to time. We also have a shop customer / club member who cooks a hog once or twice a season.
I can't say what I would 'expect' from a club, because this club is is my only basis for knowing much about a dive club, and I like what we do.
Rather, I can say what our Club offers members:
Social acitivity:
a) a dinner meeting each and every month (usual attendance 50-60)
b) dive site-based monthly cookouts from May through October, integrated with training (Specialty of the Month offerings), gear demos, and simply diving (usual attendance 40-50)
Education:
a) at each monthly dinner meeting there is a speaker (someone besides the owner) - we have had speakers from DAN (Divers Alert Network), NC Aquarium, Rubicon Foundation, several staff instructors have made presentations, etc.
b) We have a Course Director on staff who gives monthly updates on PADI developments, etc.
c) Every year the December meeting is a Holiday Party, for which the speakers have included (as two examples) Ned and Anna Deloach and Gary Gentile. IOW, it is more than dinner and drinks.
Dive experience
a) a Pool Party each April (usual attendance ~60 divers), where divers can:
i) get wet, many for the first time each year, try out new gear they may have purchased since last season (or been given as Christmas presents), before taking it into open water,
ii) try out dive gear such as DPVs (supplied by the shop owner and various staff / club members who happen to own a DPV),
ii) try out double tank rigs (we have a number of staff who dive doubles, and we bring them to the pool for others to try,
iv) try vintage diving rigs (we have a DM on staff who is an avid and very experienced vintage diver)
v) play water games
vi) get together afterward for pizza and beer
b) monthly dive gatherings - the cook-uts - at one of the two (or 3) local quarries
c) dive travel to the NC coast, and other more remote locations (e.g. Bonaire, Turks and Caicos, Gallapagos). In reality trips organized through the shop are in many cases nominally Club travel, but the distinction is not very relevant.
What makes all of this work is the infrastructure provided by the shop staff. Some might say that is a bad thing, that a Club should be independent of a shop. Fine, if you can make it work (some can, most can't). This works for us. Someone has to take responsibility to keep things running. For us, the club is an important part of our business.
Post diving beers and sometimes a bbq are a great incentive, as are equipment nights, gear discounts etc. Best part though really is the weekend shore and boat dives. Makes it just a whole lot easier not having to organise everything. Remember also that newer divers won't understand what sites are diveable (if weather affects your dive choice) on a given weekend so would love to have someone help choose, and explain the dive site to them each week. Each diver then makes money for the store through fills and my LDS also makes sure that the dive master has a box of 'spares' to sell to people who might need an unexpected consumeable.
