I live in the middle of nowhere, and see a niche to be filled for SSI to certify more divers. The only people instructing in the area are PADI and (maybe?) NAUI. These instructors are old and likely to dip out of the industry soon. The nearest SSI DC is further than anyone wants to travel for anything scuba related, much less lessons alone. As such, I am part of a dive club. According to the Training Center Standards, a Scuba School status can be given to a club (amongst other things, like universities, and such). The provision doesn't specify what a "club" is, so it leaves things up for interpretation. The club I am with takes NO money for membership, and isn't a 501-C3 organization. I DOES offer dive trips to different places, but never at or for a profit (I've seen the numbers... It's break even). But otherwise, we're a group of highly like-minded divers who just like to meet up and dive individually and as a group when we can.
Sooo... With the above said, a sales rep has defined a "club" as a multi-million dollar non-profit (how is that even possible?) organization (like the boy or girl scouts) with the required facilities to conduct scuba training... They also mentioned that the club can't use the scuba school "club" provision to skirt the anti-freelancer culture within SSI because it undercuts SSI LDCs who have business overhead which would be unfair that another teaching location has a lower overhead... Which is a ridiculous notion, because the DC is losing money to freelancers ANYWAYS from the freelancer of other agencies...
Does anyone else find this definition as not only wrong, but ridiculous? I have done some digging around, and found that there are small clubs that are SSI schools... So, it doesn't seem correct, the definition of the sales rep. Part of me thinks that the rep is trying to protect the closest DC from other SSI competition which is honestly stupid, because SSI COULD be making money off this niche market, but they're losing it to the PADI freelancers...
Sooo... With the above said, a sales rep has defined a "club" as a multi-million dollar non-profit (how is that even possible?) organization (like the boy or girl scouts) with the required facilities to conduct scuba training... They also mentioned that the club can't use the scuba school "club" provision to skirt the anti-freelancer culture within SSI because it undercuts SSI LDCs who have business overhead which would be unfair that another teaching location has a lower overhead... Which is a ridiculous notion, because the DC is losing money to freelancers ANYWAYS from the freelancer of other agencies...
Does anyone else find this definition as not only wrong, but ridiculous? I have done some digging around, and found that there are small clubs that are SSI schools... So, it doesn't seem correct, the definition of the sales rep. Part of me thinks that the rep is trying to protect the closest DC from other SSI competition which is honestly stupid, because SSI COULD be making money off this niche market, but they're losing it to the PADI freelancers...
